Shock & Horror!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4282141.ece
Richard Lloyd Parry in Sapporo.
Certain traditions are part and parcel of the G8 summit –the lavish banquets, the photo-opportunities, the souvenirs and the protests. In Japan, the occasion is being celebrated in a unique way – a Japanese monster movie in which Gordon Brown, George Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy make unflattering appearances.
The Revenge of Girarais the latest in a long line of sci-fi B movies dating back to Godzilla, complete with wooden acting, dreadful script and a deeply unconvincing monster played by a man in a rubber suit. Its originality is in its contemporary setting, during this week’s summit in the resort of Lake Toya, on the island of Hokkaido.
Girara, a warty space dinosaur with ping-pong ball antennae and a rhombus-shaped head, comes to Earth as the summit is taking place and immediately rampages through the nearest city. Trapped in their conference venue, the leaders of the free world resolve to send him to his doom and earn the gratitude of their people. Apart from the familiar low-tech special effects, the film becomes an opportunity for the display of racial stereotypes of the G8 nations from a Japanese point of view. Thus, the US President is blustering and overbearing, the British Prime Minister is obsessed with his country’s honour and reputation, and the French President spends much of the film naked in bed with his Japanese interpreter.
Shochiku, a studio wholly unaffiliated with the Japanese Government, premiered the film at the weekend in the city of Sapporo, in a cinema that is seen being trampled by Girara early on in the story. It features several distinguished Japanese actors and a supporting cast of foreigners whose resemblance to the actual G8 leaders is almost as slight as their talent.
The actor playing the US President sounds Canadian, the British leader is played by an American, and the Canadian Prime Minister is Italian. A pretence of discretion is maintained by changing some of the leaders’ names: the French President is “Escargot Sorkozy”, the Russian is “Stroganoff Putin”, and Gordon Brown is renamed “Meat Pie Brightman”.
The satire, as well as the casual treatment of the facts, extends to the local characters as well. Instead of Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister, the host leader in the film is his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who resigned from the job last year after suffering from a bowel condition. Throughout the movie he is shown breaking wind and excusing himself to go to the lavatory.
Mr Sorkozy seduces his ladyfriend with the words: “You are my Arc de Triomphe, I am your Eiffel Tower.”
As our Meat Pie Brightman says: “Truly, Japan is the land of the gods.”
