by lhb412 » Mon Sep 03, 2012 1:27 pm
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.