Noriaki Yuasa and Shusuke Kaneko...

[Benjamin Haines]

Gamera 3 is really like a live-action anime, in a good way.

[king_ghidorah]

[lhb412]

My two bits on this old, old thread:

I think Kaneko is a very good director. His 'godlike glow,' among some fans (which made him insufferable among other fans) has faded somewhat and it seems we can look on his films with a more critical eye. Nevertheless, the reason he got such a reputation in the first place was because of the fact that his talent set him apart of the largely insipid quality of kaiju films in the '90s and '00s. He produced Gamera 2, which I think is one of the few nearly flawless kaiju films (along with Gojira, Mothra, Mothra vs. Godzilla), and that alone is a great accomplishment.

The next Ishiro Honda he is not. Honda stands head and shoulders above any other director in the genre, but Kaneko is certainly in the second tier with Fukuda and Kimiyoshi Ysauda in my book.

Yuasa, while an important and deservedly beloved figure in the genre, just doesn't strike me as a very good director. Of his Gamera films I think Gamera vs. Gyaos is the strongest, which doesn't have the large feeling of tedium that pervades other films. It strikes me that Yuasa, in making films for small children, decided to make his films extremely slow and simplistic in order for the smallest tikes to be able to easily follow along. I think my enjoyment of the old Gamera films would increase dramatically if the post-Gyaos films were all edited down to the length of 45 minute short films ala Isao Takahata's Panda! Go Panda!

I don't think Yuasa's direction is in any way inspired, and the only human character in his films I have much affinity for is Cornjob! The child characters are too simply rendered to be very likeable, with only vs. Gyaos' Ichi coming of as a real kid we can sympathize with. They're blank slates for the kids watching. Despite the outlandish monsters and fighting moves I don't think the monster battles in the Showa Gamera films are particularly good. I think the ones done on a weekly basis in Ultraman are more exciting and well staged.

In my opinion, Yuasa was a man who tapped into a zeitgeist amongst kids and was able to make all these films because of that. His desire to create a gentle monster hero for kids is certainly enduring, but I don't think he was a very good filmmaker.

[MouthForWar]

I adore the Showa Gamera films, but I agree with every word lhb said about Yuasa... It was the enthusiasm that infected his films that made them so much fun... not his talent as a director.

And yeah, the monster battles aren't always staged very well. So much of the monster battles are empty suits just being flung around really slowly.

[MekaGojira3k]

Even so, with all of those empty suits being tossed around so often it just sort of became Showa Gamera's style. It's not preferable but in my mind I can't imagine them moving around any other way.

[king_ghidorah]

[lhb412]

[MouthForWar]

[MekaGojira3k]

[kiryugoji04]

[MekaGojira3k]

[king_ghidorah]

[kiryugoji04]

Despite a few bright spots here and there (the latter two-thirds of Gyaos, the first third of Viras, and most of Jiger), I would say Yuasa is a pretty poor director.

[MekaGojira3k]

Yeah, I mean...I like his films more than Jared does (or so I gather)...but I wouldn't say he's a good director.

[kiryugoji04]

[MouthForWar]

[king_ghidorah]

My favorite Kaneko quote that shows he "gets" Gamera, from G-Fan 40: "In one way, Gamera reveals the real man. On the other hand, it also shows a boy who was bullied by all those other kids, having such a hard shell. I hope that those children who are usually beaten up or bullied, it helps them feel better after seeing the film[refering to Gamera 2].

So basically the shell is the adult in us all that protects our inner child. I like that description

[MekaGojira3k]

[eabaker]

I know I'm very late in coming to this thread, but the showing of G3 that both Kaneko and Yuasa attended at G-Fest some years back came up pages back, and I'm only seeing it now. I was at that screening, and, when asked for his thoughts on the movie, Yuasa stated that he felt like there was a bit of a return to his style of Gamera movie, because of Gamera saving a child's life during the first battle with Gyaos.

Was he being ironic? Was he naive enough to miss the irony of the scene he was describing? Or was he just trying to think of something polite to say because he was a gentleman? My guess is the third option, but who can say for sure?

[MouthForWar]

[eabaker]

[king_ghidorah]

[jellydonut25]

[king_ghidorah]

[kiryugoji04]