Category: Monsters, Materials + Skyscrapers

Cat Links Monsters, Materials + Skyscrapers, Uncategorized

Reading Response 2: Hopelessly Devoted to Desolation

Posted on Mei Ting

Sentiments are bombs in a film, sparking off infinite interpretation and complexity. Architecture is after-wave of a film, uncovering “denied vulnerability” of the post-trauma nation. “Oh no, there goes Tokyo… but it will be back, and it may be even better than before”, a line filled with uncertainty echoes with my understanding over Japanese post-traumatic emotion. In fact, Godzilla, one of the most famous post-war monster movies has been popular long after the war, no matter if Japan was thriving or drowning economically. At first, it was a cry for the millions of innocent deaths caused by the bombs in

Continue readingReading Response 2: Hopelessly Devoted to Desolation

Cat Links Monsters, Materials + Skyscrapers

Reading Response 2: ‘Destruction’ in Japanese Pop Culture

Posted on Yuqi

While commonly understood by general audiences as a straightforward derivative of humiliation and lingering traumas from the second world war, Japanese apocalyptic imagination comprises sub-genres more than the cliched detonations of fission bombs by ill-natured men: which span across natural disasters and extraterrestrial invasions. The fictional narratives have tapped into more than the nuclear anxiety of shuddered ground and radioactive remnants. This archipelago nation in Sinking Japan (1954) was entirely submerged by the eruption of the dormant Fuji, while in Akira (1988) it unveiled a vision of a “neo” Tokyo, where supernatural power Akira restored the order in the post-apocalypse

Continue readingReading Response 2: ‘Destruction’ in Japanese Pop Culture

Cat Links Monsters, Materials + Skyscrapers

Reading response – Wonderland behind the disasters

Posted on Dongni

the Hitachi City Hall, Hitachi   In <Oh No, There goes Tokyo> Tsutsui W.M mentioned that the “doom-laden dreams” of Japanese popular culture, Tokyo suffered various disasters. From real ones such as earthquakes, tidal waves, fires and so on to the creative ones such as giant monsters, robots.  The destructions of Tokyo showed on daily media reveals public’s insecurity awareness. After the lingering trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this kind of imagination is generally understood the earthquakes, tidal which may happen at an uncertain time and inability to deal with these horrors. Though the apocalyptic imagination is a negative reflection

Continue readingReading response – Wonderland behind the disasters

Cat Links Monsters, Materials + Skyscrapers

Reading Response 2 : The Effect of Movies on People

Posted on Yong Hyun

In the reading “Oh No There Goes Tokyo”, it talks about Gojira (1954), a dark film that portrayed the memories of the nuclear bomb of Hiroshima. The original aim of the movie was to deliver a situation similar to the end of nuclear testing. However, Godzilla was defeated at the end, which conveyed a message that despite radioactive impacts overseas, Japan is a nation that is able to overcome such difficulties. This message had a strong impact on Japanese society. Despite the tragedy that Japan faced after the nuclear bomb, Japan’s economy grew rapidly from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Continue readingReading Response 2 : The Effect of Movies on People

Cat Links Monsters, Materials + Skyscrapers

Reading response 2: The aftermath of the A-bomb on anime

Posted on Chun Hei

In William M. Tsutsui’s writing “Oh No, There Goes Tokyo”, he explained why a lot of anime handled the post-war Japan situation. For instance, in Rodan which giant pteranodons obliterated Fukuoka, is a product of the nuclear trauma that exists in post-war Japan. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – along with the firebombings of Tokyo – were traumatic experiences for the Japanese people. From Akira to Neon Genesis Evangelion, from Grave of the Fireflies to Patlabor, the symbols of the nuclear war are expressed in various ways. Orphaned kids, radiation sickness, a loss of national independence, the destruction

Continue readingReading response 2: The aftermath of the A-bomb on anime