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lifestyle THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2014 Music & Movies Still relevant and raging Godzilla: after 60 years in Japan hile a digitalized Hollywood reboot stomps its way to box office success Waround the world, the original Godzilla-a man in a rubber suit-has hit screens in Japan again, as relevant as ever. The 1954 classic, which spawned more than two dozen follow-ups, has been cleaned up for a two-week run in Tokyo to mark the 60th anniversary of the monster from the deep. Despite the shaky sets and the all-too-obvi- ous latex costumes, a new generation of movie- goers declared themselves impressed. “I was really surprised to see a Tokyo that isn’t the current, neat Tokyo, but was just some 10 years after war, trampled again,” said Kenichi Takagi, 44, who took along his 10-year-old son. Visuals and audio have been given a scrub to remove some of the speckles and pops that cinema-goers are now unused to experiencing, although there is no hid- ing the fact that the creature is really a heavily- sweating actor in a suit. But the movie’s enduring popularity six decades on is testament to the con- tinuing resonance of its themes of human helpless- ness in the face of forces that cannot be controlled. Hydrogen bomb test Film studio Toho released “Gojira”-a Japanese portmanteau of “gorilla” and “kujira” (whale) — directed by Ishiro Honda, in November 1954, a few months after Akira Kurosawa’s classic “Seven Samurai”. The monster movie was a mega-hit, Tokyo exhibition of his paintings on Godzilla. The at Fukushima in 2011. drawing 9.6 million viewers in the days before tele- This picture taken on May 4, vision sets were commonplace in Japanese house- point of the monster-and perhaps the reason why Warner Bros’ $160 million incarnation sees the there are so many sequels-is that it can never really “King of Monsters” pitted against two giant and 2014 shows a one-meter (39 holds. In the fictional world, the creature was awak- inch) tall statue of Godzilla at ened by a hydrogen bomb test, rising out of a roil- be defeated. Like other destructive forces of nature, long-dormant creatures that feed off radioactivity, people just have to watch it come and go, hoping as “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston battles on a Godzilla art exhibition in ing sea and swimming to Japan where it crushes Tokyo. — AFP photos Tokyo, a walking, radiation-breathing analogy for to survive. Sadamitsu Noji, 34, said he had been a behalf of humanity. Director Gareth Edwards said nuclear disaster. The reference was clear: that same fan of the creation for two decades, and sees it as a Fukushima had been impossible to ignore. “There year the United States had carried out its hydrogen blank canvas onto which cinema-goers can proj- is a strong tradition in science fiction where it’s not bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, expos- ect.”Besides its underlying anger, Godzilla really about the future but it’s often about the pres- ing a Japanese fishing boat to nuclear fallout, sick- embraces various feelings... Each viewer can see his ent, the time in which the films are made,” he said. ening the 23 crew and eventually killing the cap- own emotions in Godzilla,” he told AFP. “We didn’t want to literally make a film about the tain. events that happened in Japan but it’s nearly It was also less than a decade after Japan sur- Impossible to ignore impossible to make Godzilla, which is a symbol of a rendered in World War II following the US atomic Actor Akira Takarada, who starred in the original cautionary tale about using nuclear power, set in bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But film, said he had seen the new version twice, and Japan, and not raise the question.” — AFP while the creature stands emblematic of the way agreed that Godzilla is a complex creation, worthy that humans have courted death by their tinkering, of its place in history. “I realized anew that Godzilla it is also the product of a country prone to natural isn’t simply a destroyer but that he himself is a vic- disasters. tim of an atomic bomb... I cannot help feeling sym- “We grow up thinking since our childhood that pathy for him,” the 80-year-old told reporters. That there are typhoons, earthquakes and other things status of victim resonates even louder in contem- that humans cannot control. It’s the same with porary Japan, where tens of thousands of people Gojira,” said artist Yuji Kaida on the sidelines of a remain displaced by the tsunami-sparked disaster This picture shows a 10-metre-tall (33 ft) giant statue of Godzilla at a park in This picture shows Japanese artist Yuji Kaida speaking to AFP at his exhibition in A large wall painting of Godzilla is displayed at Toho Yokosuka, suburban Tokyo. Tokyo showing drawings of Godzilla. Studios in Tokyo as part of the Godzilla 60th anniver- sary project. ‘True Blood’ headed for Jane Lynch pulls off her tracksuit to go cabaret ane Lynch has zipped off the tracksuit and left the Cheerios behind. The “Glee” star is going cabaret. The Emmy- and AP: For you personally, what did ‘Glee’ do for your career? a musical afterlife JGolden Globe Award-winner makes her nightclub debut Lynch: It was a total game-changer. They would not have this week with a four-night stand in front of a three-piece band asked me to do ‘Annie’ if I weren’t on ‘Glee.’ At the time I was kind ike the vampires it portrays, “True Paquin. But, Barr added, after seven seasons at 54 Below, a club in the cellar of what was a notorious, coke- of known for the Christopher Guest movies. I was enjoying my Blood” won’t seem to die. Even if it of twists, turns and characters for Sookie, it’s fueled disco in the 1970s. The show gets to show off another career. I was happy doing guest spots here and there. But this Lmeans breaking out in song. After the proven a challenge to trim the saga down. “I part of Lynch, who has been roaring to take a stage again since really upped it. final scene of the upcoming last season of think we’re really going to try to return to the she made her Broadway debut last summer as Miss Hannigan in “True Blood,” fans may be able to take anoth- roots of the show,” Barr commented. “True “Annie.” AP: Who do you look up to in this industry? er fresh bite out of the HBO vampire drama. Blood” co-star Stephen Moyer, who showed Audiences can expect a few of Lynch’s favorite songs, includ- Lynch: Neil Patrick Harris. He’s all over the place, but in a In the works: “‘True Blood’: The Musical.” off his vocal chops last year on NBC’s highly ing Irving Berlin “Mister Monotony” and “Slappin’ the Cakes On good way. There’s a method in what seems to be the madness of Seriously. “This was something that I pitched rated live telecast of “The Sound of Music,” Me” by Dave Frishberg, a song she did for an episode of “Glee” him doing this and then doing that, hosting this and then doing to HBO and (show creator) Alan Ball,” said revealed he helped Barr put together some but was cut. One thing that will definitely not happen is dancing. that. I’m always watching Neil from the corner of my eye. composer Nathan Barr, speaking on the samples of the “True Blood” musical present- “I’m unteachable,” she says. arrivals line at the “True Blood” season pre- ed to HBO and Ball. Lynch recently sat down with The Associated Press to chat miere Tuesday night in Hollywood. Barr has Barr said he hopes to present a workshop about her set, “Glee,” “Hollywood Game Night,” Broadway and written the instrumental scores for the series’ version about a year from now, but he’s not who she most admires in the business. entire seven seasons, the last of which looking beyond that. To say this is “Broadway debuts Sunday. bound” is premature. “There’s no guarantees,” AP: What can we expect of your show? Barr said the musical will revolve around the composer warned. “But I think the direc- Lynch: It’s just a bunch of songs that I like to sing, hopefully protagonist, telepath and waitress Sookie tion we’re heading in is really exciting.”— AP some engaging patter, and I hope everybody has a good time Stackhouse, portrayed in the series by Anna and I’m not holding people hostage. AP: Is there a theme for the evening? Lynch: Everybody told me as you pick songs that a theme will emerge all by itself. Nothing emerged. There’s very little tying these songs together. I say, ‘Come with me on a musical journey through a world of songs that actually have very little to do with each other.’ AP: Why did it take so long for you to do cabaret? Lynch: I didn’t have any conscious plans to do Broadway but I always wanted to. So when I got the ‘Annie’ gig, everything in me screamed ‘No!’ but of course I said, ‘Yes.’ I was so happy I did it and I got the bug back. I saw (“Glee” co-star) Matt Morrison per- form here and I said to myself, ‘Self, this would be fun for you, Jane.’ And then I got the call: Would you like four days? Everything inside of me screamed ‘No!’ but I said, ‘Yes.’ Jane Lynch AP: What the latest with ‘Glee’? AP: Your improve skills are on show on “Hollywood Game Lynch: We’re going into a sixth season.