Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, November 8, 2024…
- This week marks the 70th anniversary of the release of the original Godzilla film across Japan. But the movie that American audiences first saw was actually an altered version with added scenes shot at a small Los Angeles studio.
- The Mountain Fire burning in Ventura County has destroyed 132 structures, most of which were homes.
The Little-Known Connection Between LA And ‘Godzilla’
On Nov. 3, 1954, the first Godzilla film was released in Japan. The monster flick, which many people saw as an allegory for the Atomic bomb, was a box office hit in the country, and would go on to become a global sensation.
But, “unbeknownst to many people, Godzilla’s international stardom actually began right here in Los Angeles,” said Steve Ryfle, who co-authored the book, Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa.
That’s because for five decades, according to Ryfle, pretty much the only way audiences in the U.S. and other parts of the Western world could see the film was through a highly altered version of the 1954 Japanese original. And that re-edited version, titled Godzilla King of the Monsters! contained added scenes that were all shot in Los Angeles. “It was a Japanese production, produced for Japanese audiences. It was made for an audience that had only nine years prior experienced the end of the war and the surrender,” Ryfle said, referring to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings that brought an end to World War II. “Even though it was entertainment film, a monster film, it was very much about the Japanese experience during and after the war.”
Mountain Fire Destroys More Than A Hundred Structures In Ventura County
The Mountain Fire in Ventura County has destroyed 132 structures, mostly homes, in less than two days, fire officials said Thursday as raging winds were forecast to ease.