All Kaiju Attack! Movie Season at London's Barbican Centre

Date: 2024 July 11 17:49

Posted by Joe

The good folks from the Barbican Centre and the Japan Foundation have teamed up to bring the people of London a season of Japanese monster movies. All Kaiju Attack! : 70 years of Japanese monster movies is set to run from Wednesday 7th to Wednesday August 2024 at the Barbican Centre in London.

They've got many a good monster movie from classic Godzilla flicks to the more recent Shin Godzilla (which is introduced by anime expert Helen McCarthy).

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Details as follows:



Dates: 7 - 28 August 2024
Venue: Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Tickets start at £13 (£11 concessions)

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first ever Godzilla film, the Barbican Centre in collaboration with the Japan Foundation , is screening the wildest Japanese monster movies from across seven decades with introductions from historians and experts.

In 1954, the first ever Godzilla, a dark, thrilling movie masterpiece, was released in Japan. It was a box office phenomenon, and launched a franchise that has continued to this day. While these films featuring kaiju (literally "strange beasts") have long been beloved in Japan, until relatively recently the reception in the west has been inconsistent, where releases with crude dubbing and savage edits to running times, making the stories incoherent, have led to mockery.

Featuring Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah and even a toxic smog monster, this summer kaiju season is full of the same inventiveness and sheer joy that led Godzilla Minus One to win its Oscar.


Lineup

Mothra Vs. Godzilla (12A)
with introduction by Jasper Sharp

Wed 7 Aug, 18:30
Cinema 1

When construction on a housing development rouses a dormant Godzilla, leading to the destruction of the cities of Yokkaichi and Nagoya, humankind must call on the aid of benevolent monster-deity Mothra, the first female kaiju. Mothra is ageing and may not be up to the task, but she is humanity's only hope against the mighty foe.

Directed by HONDA Ishiro, 1964, 89 min, English subtitles


Destroy All Monsters (12A)
with introduction by HOKI Kazuko

Wed 14 Aug, 18:30
Cinema 1

It's the end of the 20th century and all of the world's kaiju have been confined and monitored on Monster Island. Peace is short-lived, however, when evil aliens invade and take control of the monsters and send them to attack the world's cities. Worse still, the aliens have a secret kaiju weapon up their sleeves. Is Earth doomed?

Directed by HONDA Ishiro, 1968, 89 min, English subtitles


Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (PG)
with introduction by Steven Sloss

Sun 18 Aug, 17:45
Cinema 1

Gamera, previously nicknamed "the friend of all children," was usually seen as playing second fiddle to some of the more famous kaiju, until this mighty reboot roared into cinemas. The titular gigantic turtle is compelled to rouse from his hibernation when Gyaos, a rival monster resembling a grotesque pterodactyl, threatens the future of humanity.

Directed by KANEKO Shusuke, 1995, 95 min, English subtitles


Shin Godzilla (12)
with introduction by Helen McCarthy

Tue 20 Aug, 18:15
Cinema 1

When a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and tears through Tokyo, the government scrambles to save its citizens. A rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster's weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side-the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes.

Directed by ANNO Hideaki, 2016, 120 min, English subtitles


Godzilla Vs. Hedorah (PG)
Outdoor Cinema x All Kaiju Attack!

Sun 25 Aug, 20:30
Sculpture Court

Everyone's favourite monster battles Hedorah, an alien life form that arrives on Earth and steadily grows by feeding on industrial waste. The film was intended to address the crisis levels of pollution in post-war Japan but despite its serious message, the film is never preachy, instead delivering an hour and a half of monster mayhem, ecological horror and psychedelia.

Directed by BANNO Yoshimitsu, 1971, 85 min, English subtitles


Mothra (PG)
with live performance from Frank Chickens

Wed 28 Aug, 18:15
Cinema 1

The divine Mothra is an unusual beast, a rare female kaiju, who appears in three different forms over the course of her debut film - first as an egg, then a larva, before emerging from a chrysalis, built against the then new Tokyo Tower, as a giant moth. Her city rampages are provoked not by malevolence, but in her desperate search for the Shobijin, her two kidnapped guardians - the mini-priestesses, or "Small Beauties."

Directed by HONDA Ishiro, 1961, 101 min, English subtitles