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    Leave Your Plot Concerns at the Door Author: Matt Frank Official Site: godzillamovie.com (US), godzilla-movie.jp (Japan) Official Twitter: #GodzillaMovie If there is any universally accepted analysis for GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS that cannot be argued, it is that this film is never boring. The same could not be said for the previous 5 Godzilla features, depending on your mileage as an audience member. While there are aspects of each film that I personally enjoyed, and even loved, there was a restraint and deliberate approach to pacing that has characterized the last 5 years of movies featuring the King of all Kaiju. GODZILLA (2014) is a dramatic and borderline minimalist monster movie that is so desperate to be taken seriously that it ultimately shoots itself in the foot, despite a killer final act. SHIN GODZILLA (2016) is basically a “what if Godzilla really

    Author: Richard Pusateri Official Site: godzillamovie.com (US), godzilla-movie.jp (Japan) Official Twitter: #GodzillaMovie GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, the third installment in the Legendary Pictures MonsterVerse series, has been able to connect fondness for the classic 1960s Godzilla movies with the form of modern blockbuster action movie extravaganzas. GKOTM remembers where it came from. This movie is not your father’s Godzilla but it remembers your grandfather’s Godzilla as it has many references, large and small, to the classic Japanese giant monster movies of the 1950s and ‘60s. GKOTM begins with an aural and visual tribute to Toho’s original 1954 monster movie and continues symbolic references to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima first seen in GODZILLA (2014). The allusions to older versions of Godzilla begin immediately. The opening of GKOTM reprises scenes from GODZILLA (2014), first film in the MonsterVerse series, mirroring the opening scene

    Author: Edward L. Holland Official Site: sufes1 Special Thanks to X-Plus Company Ltd., Star Ace Japan Company Ltd., Jeremy Soles and Summit Kaiju International On April 28, 2019, the 80th spring edition of Super Festival was held at the Tokyo Science Museum near the Imperial Palace area. Vendors, toy makers, shop owners, production company reps, artists, actors, personalities and the hottest lines of tokusatsu, anime and independent toys were represented in full effect during the extremely popular one-day event.

    Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Official Site: godzillamovie.com (US), godzilla-movie.jp (Japan) Official Twitter: #GodzillaMovie Special Thanks to Melanie Klein Warner Bros. Pictures has provided SciFi Japan with another poster for GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS. This design is now being displayed at bus shelters. Following the global success of GODZILLA and KONG: SKULL ISLAND comes the next chapter in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse: GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS. Directed by Michael Dougherty (KRAMPUS) from a script he wrote with Zach Shields, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO CO., LTD. The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species -- thought to be mere myths

    Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Official Site: godzillamovie.com (US), godzilla-movie.jp (Japan) Official Twitter: #GodzillaMovie Warner Bros. Pictures has provided the complete final credits for GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, opening worldwide on May 31, 2019. For much, much more on this film, please see the links at the end of this article. A WARNER BROS. PICTURES and LEGENDARY PICTURES PRESENTATION A LEGENDARY PICTURES PRODUCTION In Association with Toho Co., Ltd. In Association with Huahua Media A FILM BY MICHAEL DOUGHERTY GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS CAST Dr. Mark Russell: KYLE CHANDLER Dr. Emma Russell: VERA FARMIGA Madison Russell: MILLIE BOBBY BROWN Dr. Ishiro Serizawa: KEN WATANABE Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling: ZIYI ZHANG Dr. Rick Stanton: BRADLEY WHITFORD Dr. Vivienne Graham: SALLY HAWKINS Alan Jonah: CHARLES DANCE Sam Coleman: THOMAS MIDDLEDITCH Colonel Diane Foster: AISHA HINDS Chief Warrant Officer Barnes: O’SHEA JACKSON, JR. Admiral

    Source: Toho Co., Ltd. Official Site: godzillamovie.com (US), godzilla-movie.jp (Japan) Official Twitter: #GodzillaMovie A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE Toho Co., Ltd. has provided press materials for the Japanese release of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (?????????????????, Gojira Kingu Obu Monsut?zu). They will open the film in Japan on Friday, May 31; the same day as the international release from Warner Bros. Pictures, and the Chinese launch from Legendary East. INTRODUCTION The King awakens. The end of the world begins. 2014: "Resurrection" -- Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ GODZILLA 2016: “Resurgence” -- Toho`s SHIN GODZILLA 2019: Godzilla "Awakens"... A national icon that was "born" in Japan in 1954, Godzilla has continuously evolved over more than 30 feature films that have been viewed by an audience of over 100 million people in Japan alone. Godzilla, one of

    Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Official Site: godzillamovie.com Official Twitter: #GodzillaMovie Special Thanks to Melanie Klein Warner Bros. Pictures has provided SciFi Japan with the latest poster for GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS. Following the global success of GODZILLA and KONG: SKULL ISLAND comes the next chapter in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse: GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS. Directed by Michael Dougherty (KRAMPUS) from a script he wrote with Zach Shields, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO CO., LTD. The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species -- thought to be mere myths -- rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very

    Source: Toho Co., Ltd. Official Site: doraeiga.com/2019 (Japan) A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE Toho Co., Ltd. has provided information and high-res images from their new anime film, DDORAEMON THE MOVIE: NOBITA`S CHRONICLE OF THE MOON EXPLORATION (?????????????????, Eiga Doraemon Nobita no Getsumen Tansa-ki). The 39th movie in the franchise opened in Japan on March 1, 2019 and topped the domestic box office in its first two weeks of release. The success of NOBITA`S CHRONICLE OF THE MOON EXPLORATION continues a trend for the series. The popularity of the Doaemon films have exploded in recent years with DORAEMON THE MOVIE: NOBITA AND THE BIRTH OF JAPAN 2016 (??????? ??????????, Eiga Doraemon Shin • Nobita no Nihon Tanjo), 2017`s DORAEMON THE MOVIE: GREAT ADVENTURE IN THE ANTARCTIC KACHI KOCHI (??????? ?????????????, Eiga Doraemon Nobita no Nankyoku Kachikochi Daib?ken) and last year`s DORAEMON THE MOVIE: NOBITA’S TREASURE ISLAND (???????

    Source: ELEVEN ARTS press release Official Site: penguin-highway.com (Japan), elevenarts.net/titles/penguin-highway (US) The anime movie PENGUIN HIGHWAY (??????????, Pengin Haiuei, 2018) comes to U.S. and Canadian cinemas beginning April 12, courtesy of ELEVEN ARTS. Based on the novel of the same name by Tomihiko Morimi (The Night is Short, Walk on Girl), PENGUIN HIGHWAY is the first feature film from the up-and-coming animation house, Studio Colorido. The creative team includes director Hiroyasu Ishida, screenwriter Makoto Ueda (THE NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL), and character designer Yojiro Arai (THE WIND RISES, TYPHOON NORUDA), with music by Umitaro Abe. The theme song is by Hikaru Utada (KINGDOM HEARTS, EVANGELION: 3.0 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO). Budding genius Aoyama is only in the 4th grade, but already lives his life like a scientist. When penguins start appearing in his sleepy suburb hundreds of miles from the sea,

    Source: Toho Co., Ltd. Official Movie Site: detectivepikachumovie.com (US), meitantei-pikachu.jp (Japan) Official Movie Twitter: #DetectivePikachuMovie A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE Toho Co., Ltd. has provided press materials for the Japanese release of POKÉMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU (名探偵ピカチュウ, Meitantei Pikachū). They will open the film in Japan on Friday, May 3; one week ahead of the international release from Warner Bros. Pictures, and the Chinese launch from Legendary East.

    It All Ends This Thursday Official Site: kaijuphile.com/american-godzilla94 Special Thanks to Todd Tennant In 1994, Sony Pictures hired Jan De Bont (SPEED, TWISTER) to direct an American Godzilla movie written by screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (SHREK, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN series). The project was canceled later that year. Working with Rossio, artist Todd Tennant has completed a graphic novel adaptation of the unmade GODZILLA (1994), which they began releasing in chapters online for free. This coming Thursday, March 28th, the final 14 pages will be posted, so that fans will finally be able to read the complete graphic novel from start to finish.

    GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS is set to rampage onto movie theater screens in May 31, 2019, with the next installment in Legendary’s MonsterVerse giving fans their second look at this incarnation of Godzilla following the 2014 reboot. KING OF THE MONSTERS brings a stellar cast of actors, including Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown, face to face with a stunning collection of monsters, although fans of Kong will have to wait a bit longer to see Godzilla taking on its most famous foe once again. KING OF THE MONSTERS will see Godzilla joined by an array of monsters acquired from Japanese film company Toho. The gigantic moth-like kaiju Mothra, the titanic dinosaur-esque flying beast Rodan and the three-headed King Ghidorah will no doubt cause some monumental damage in King of the Monsters, and it will be fascinating to see how Godzilla interacts with these

    First Title in GKIDS and Fathom Events’ STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2019 Series Source: GKIDS Inc., Fathom Events, Scoop Marketing press release Official Site: ghiblifest.com Special Thanks to Jessica Nelson, Katherine Schwappach, Erik Stein and Lucy Rubin GKIDS, the acclaimed distributor of multiple Academy Award-nominated animated features, and Fathom Events are proud to continue their collaboration and deliver celebrated animated films to U.S. movie theaters throughout the year with STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2019. Featuring nine of Studio Ghibli’s masterpieces, the series kicks off with the 15th anniversary of acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award- nominated fantasy adventure HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (???????, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro, 2004). Sophie, a quiet girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. The vain and vengeful Witch of the

    Audiences Will Also Experience SHAZAM! and THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA In The Immersive Format; More Titles To Be Announced Source: CJ 4DPLEX press release Official Movie Site: godzillamovie.com Official Movie Twitter: #GodzillaMovie CJ 4DPLEX, the world`s leading cinema technology company, together with Warner Bros. Pictures, have announced a multi-picture deal that will see up to six new films released globally in 2019 in the immersive 270-degree ScreenX format. The agreement extends the relationship between the two companies that previously included five films in 2018. Under the agreement, the Studio`s slate of ScreenX releases will include New Line Cinema`s SHAZAM! on April 5th and THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA on April 19th, followed by Warner Bros.` and Legendary Pictures` GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS on May 31st, with three additional titles to be announced in the coming months. This will build on the success of the globally

    Nine of Studio Ghibli’s Most Cherished Films, Including Multiple Anniversary and Star-Studded Titles, Hit the Big Screen Beginning This Spring Source: GKIDS Inc., Fathom Events press release Official Site: ghiblifest.com After kicking off in 2017 and returning for an even more successful 2018, STUDIO GHIBLI FEST is back for 2019. GKIDS, the acclaimed distributor of multiple Academy Award-nominated animated features, and Fathom Events are proud to continue their collaboration and deliver a new and expanded selection of celebrated animated films to U.S. cinemas throughout the year with STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2019. Featuring nine of Studio Ghibli’s masterpieces, the series kicks off with the 15th anniversary of the Academy Award-nominated fantasy adventure HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (???????, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro, 2004), and continues with the 35th anniversary of NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (????????, Kaze no Tani no Naushika, 1984), WHISPER OF THE HEART (??????,

    Author: Edward L. Holland Special Thanks to Takao Sasai A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE The DNA Tokusatsu Exhibition held December 19, 2018 to January 27, 2019 in Kamata, Tokyo has come and gone, but plans are already in motion to bring another fantastic showcase of Toho Studios’ prized artifacts from Godzilla films and hero television series to tokusatsu enthusiasts in the not so distant future. The 8 Zone exhibition, which covered 64 years of special effects filmmaking, showcased one of the largest collection of props, models, art and displays in honor of the treasured past and current masters in the genre like directors and designers Eiji Tsuburaya, Teruyoshi Nakano, Koichi Kawakita, and Shinichi Wakasa, with highlights on SHIN GODZILLA (??????, Shin Gojira, 2016), directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi. Lesser known characters like Varan by designer Keizo Murase also basked in the

    Source: GKIDS Inc. press release Official Site: mirai-no-mirai.jp (Japan), MiraiMovie.com (US) Watch the Academy Award-nominated MIRAI (??????, Mirai no Mirai, 2018) in select theaters nationwide during a last chance screening on February 18. The Japanese animated film from Mamoru Hosoda, the celebrated director behind THE BOY AND THE BEAST, WOLF CHILDREN, SUMMER WARS, and THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, and Japan’s Studio Chizu, is an Academy Awards Nominee for Best Animated Feature. It was also a Golden Globe Awards Nominee for Best Animated Feature, the Annie Awards Winner for Best Animated Independent Feature, and a Cannes 2018 Official Selection, Director`s Fortnight. MIRAI is a daringly original story of love passed down through generations. When four-year-old Kun meets his new baby sister, his world is turned upside down. Named Mirai (meaning “future”), the baby quickly wins the hearts of Kun’s entire family. As his mother returns

    Source: Post Haste Digital Official Site: godzilla-anime.com (Japan), netflix.com/godzilla-anime-3 (US) Twitter: @GODZILLA_ANIME Special Thanks to Kristine de los Santos and Mary Kay De Guzman A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE On January 9th, Toho and Polygon Pictures` anime film GODZILLA: THE PLANET EATER (GODZILLA ?????, Gojira Hoshi wo Kuu Mono, 2018) debuted worldwide on Netflix. THE PLANET EATER concluded the three-part, 3DCG movie series, GODZILLA (aka “Anigoji,” a portmanteau of “anime” and “gojira”), and followed GODZILLA: PLANET OF THE MONSTERS (GODZILLA ????, Gojira Kaij? Wakusei, 2017) and GODZILLA: CITY ON THE EDGE OF BATTLE (GODZILLA ????????, Gojira Kessen Kid? Z?shoku Toshi, 2018), which were both released on Netflix in 2018. Netflix offered all three films in multiple languages, including English. The English dubbed versions were created by Post Haste Digital, a Los Angeles-based audio and video post production facility. Post Haste Digital has provided SciFi Japan with

    Author: Edward L. Holland Godzilla, together with his friends and enemies, continues to entertain in theaters and on television screens around the world. The latest film, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, will debut in the U.S. in May 2019. But, back in Japan, a committee of artisans, producers, and archivists have brought their collection of film props, models, art, and displays to the DNA Exhibition at the Japan Kogakuin University College in Kamata, Tokyo. At the exhibition, 64 years of Godzilla special effects illustrate the rich sense of Japan’s tokusatsu (special effects) filmmaking history in eight different zones, which include 200 artifacts in tribute to an industry that has slowly given way to CGI laden effects driven entertainment. After previous engagements, the Tokyo edition is located near where scenes were filmed in the blockbuster SHIN GODZILLA (2016). Tickets for the exhibit, which runs

    12 Months of Exclusive Content Direct From Studios and Distributors! Author: Keith Aiken SciFi Japan is proud to remain the one and ONLY English language website devoted to Japanese fantasy films and TV that is officially press registered with all five major Japanese studios (Toho, Toei, Shochiku, Nikkatsu and Kadokawa), several Japanese production companies, plus their distributors and licensees. While other sites will run information and images taken from Japanese news sources and publications, SciFi Japan regularly posts content provided directly to us by the companies and people making and releasing Japanese movies, programs and merchandise. This allows us to present our readers with accurate, verified information rather than rumors and speculation, and also run larger and higher quality photos and artwork than can be found elsewhere. Thanks to all our writers, contributors, sources and readers for your support! Be sure to check

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