ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
June 15, 2015
New Godzilla video game steers
clear of nuclear references
By Yuri Kageyama
AP Business Writer
OKYO — Godzillas galore,
including
last
year’s
Hollywood version, stomp on
buildings, thrashing about and
breathing fire, in a video game going
on sale globally in mid-July. But
don’t expect any references to
radiation, the mutant reptile’s
trademark affliction.
Simply named “Godzilla,” it’s the
first video game devoted to the
irradiated creature in a decade. It’s
also the first such game for the Sony
Corp. PlayStation 4 home machine,
ensuring dazzling digital graphics.
Shunsuke Fujita, the game’s
producer, is flush with excitement
when he speaks about how he and his
team are true Godzilla believers,
having grown up on the movies. They
were very careful to render what he
calls its “totally cool” ferocity.
In the original 1954 movie, Toho
Co. studios concocted the giant
animal that arose as a mutation from
nuclear testing in the Pacific. That
had special resonance in Japan as the
only nation to have been attacked
with nuclear weapons.
Gareth Edwards, the director of the
2014 Hollywood Godzilla, also made
a point to include backdrop
references to atomic weapons and
radiation.
But the game steers clear of the
horror of both topics and Fujita is
reluctant to explain why. What
substitutes for radiation in the game
is a reference to “energy,” which
Godzilla sucks up to gain strength.
“We realize radiation is something
that can never be disassociated with
Godzilla,” is all Fujita would say on
the topic.
Nuclear issues have become
particularly contentious in Japan
after the March 2011 tsunami set off
three reactor meltdowns at the
Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant and
irradiated the surrounding area,
T
CARRIAGE CUTS. A family enjoys a ride on a horse-drawn carriage
popularly known as a “Victoria carriage” in Mumbai, India. The single-
horse carriages — festooned with bright, flashy lights, plastic hibiscus
blooms, and tinsel ornaments — have long been a draw for visitors to
India’s cramped and cobblestoned financial capital, but in June 2016,
they will be banned in Mumbai. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Mumbai court bans
joyriding in iconic
horse-drawn carriages
MUMBAI, India (AP) — The blingy joyrides will soon
end in Mumbai.
Tourists hoping to roll down the city’s cacophonous
streets in one of its famed horse-drawn carriages will have
to do so before June 2016, when a court has ordered the
carriages be banned, saying it’s a form of animal
cruelty.
The single-horse carriages — festooned with bright,
flashy lights, plastic hibiscus blooms, and tinsel
ornaments — have long been a draw for visitors to India’s
cramped and cobblestoned financial capital. Known as
Victoria carriages, they were once popular with wealthy
families in 19th-century England. They are recognizable
for their large wheels and for allowing passengers to sit
face-to face.
But “the activity of using horse-driven carriages only for
joyrides solely for human pleasure is an avoidable
activity” and “illegal,” the Mumbai High Court said in a
ruling issued after a charity alleged cruelty to the
blinkered beasts of burden, according to the Press Trust of
India news agency.
The court also demanded all stables within the city be
closed and ordered Maharashtra’s state government to
come up with a plan for rehabilitating both the horses and
the 700 or so families who depend on carriage driving for
their livelihoods. That plan is due in December.
The court stopped short of banning carriages outside of
Mumbai, however, noting that horses, as well as oxen and
camels, are still used to pull work carts and carriages
nationwide.
“But if it is noticed that carriages are used for joyrides,
then that should be stopped by the concerned authority,”
the court ruling said.
To learn about relief efforts to help
victims of the earthquakes in Nepal, visit:
Medical Teams International: www.medicalteams.org
Mercy Corps: www.mercycorps.org
RADIATION REDACT. Shunsuke Fujita, the producer of the Godzilla video game for Bandai
Namco Entertainment, speaks about the new Godzilla game for the Sony Corp. PlayStation 4 home
machine in Tokyo. Godzillas galore, including last year’s Hollywood version, stomp on buildings,
thrashing about and breathing fire, in a video game going on sale globally in mid-July. But don’t
expect any references to radiation, the mutant reptile’s trademark affliction. (AP Photo/Eugene
Hoshiko)
forcing thousands of residents to Mothra — which resembles a moth —
evacuate.
and the obscure Jet Jaguar,
Fukushima people face latent according to Fujita.
“Godzilla is not just a villain, it’s
prejudice in Japan because of fears,
some unfounded, about radiation. also a hero everyone adores, and so
Nuclear experts say the levels of this game allows the player to be
exposure were not high or sustained Godzilla and control Godzilla,” he
enough to cause widespread health said.
Toho Co. made 28 films in the
problems, but there are some risks,
Godzilla
series, starting from the
such as thyroid cancer in young-
1954
classic,
until it pulled the plug in
sters, which is being monitored.
2004.
The
new
game allows players to
Japan’s 48 nuclear power reactors
manipulate
the
various kinds of
are now offline for a new regime of
Godzillas,
including
the robotic
safety checks. The government wants
Mechagodzilla,
first
featured
in the
to restart them but faces opposition
1974
film.
from communities and others worried
Meanwhile, a resurgence of
about radiation.
Godzilla
worship
has
been
“We aimed for something that was
increasingly visible in Japan, thanks
as close to the original interpreta-
to the Hollywood film. A new hotel in
tions as possible,” said Fujita, 29,
downtown Tokyo with a Godzilla
proudly showing how the 1980s
head perched on it, for instance, is
Godzilla can be pitted against the
growing into a tourist attraction.
Hollywood Godzilla in a demon-
Man Izawa, 56, a sales clerk and
stration version of the game.
Godzilla fan who believes Godzilla is
The fascination for the game “the biggest star to come out of
developers lay in an arty duplication Japan,” wonders how the sensitive
of the shapes and movements of the themes will get addressed when Toho
various Godzillas, and in re-creating releases a new Godzilla film next
the rival monsters in the films, such year.
as the dragon-like King Ghidora,
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