Interview: Director Ryuhei Kitamura on Godzilla: Final Wars’ 20th Anniversary

Godzilla Final Wars, what else is there to say? The kaiju community was once extremely divisive on this film, but through the years, a good majority of fans are now loud and proud about how much they love this movie. Full of bold, engaging shots, pulsating action, and kaiju brawling TRULY ripped from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, this Godzilla film took the iconic creature into new heights from guerilla filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura, best known now for his films Versus (2000) and The Midnight Meat Train (2008).

Providing a fresh, new blood take on history’s greatest monster, he assembled as many kaiju as possible into one movie for one “FINAL” epic showdown to celebrate Godzilla’s 50th anniversary, all the way back in 2004. Here now, twenty years later, Mr. Kitamura sat down with Kaiju United to discuss the film, his mantras as a filmmaker, and the unwavering love we all share for the big G.

Interview

Jacob Lyngle 
Greetings, Kaiju United readers listeners, however you’re tuning in today… I’m joined by Nick Crispino, our Senior Editor. We’re here to interview Ryuhei Kitamura, director of many Japanese and American genre films, and especially, the beloved Godzilla: Final Wars. Mr. Kitamura, did you want to go ahead and introduce yourself?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Hi. My name is Ryuhei Kitamura, I’m a movie director, and 20 years ago, I made this movie you might know — Godzilla Final Wars.

Jacob Lyngle 
Final Wars turns 20 this year! How do you feel 20 years later?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I’m getting old. (laughs)

Jacob Lyngle 
I’m glad that we could be here to celebrate. I know that a lot of people are going to be celebrating this year because it’s just a beloved movie in our community.

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Thank you.

Jacob Lyngle 
I think we’ll start out early on in your life and career. I want to know what film or event in your life led you to say, okay, I want to make movies. This is what I want to do with my life.

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I grew up watching glorious 80’s movies. I was born in 1969. When I was around like eight, nine, ten, that’s when I started to get hooked on all kinds of movies, especially action and horror. The early 1980’s was a golden age of Slasher, splatter, zombie horror movies,, Sam Raimi, George Romero, all those glorious movies. I loved Nightmare on Elm Street. I grew up watching all of those films. And of course, I mentioned action movies. Mad Max was huge influence on me. I didn’t even go to school and would just prefer to stay in the movie theater all day. Back in those days, once you entered and you could stay as long as you want, I just kept on watching the same movie four times in the movie theater. That’s what I was doing. And when I was 17, I started to think about, you know, what I want to do with my life, and it was very natural that I want to be a filmmaker. So, I quit high school and chased filmmaking. I owe that to the Mad Max Movies and my favorite director, Russell Mulcahy, who did Highlander, which is all my all-time favorite film. I’m also a huge rock fan; there’s a great Australian rock band called INXS that I really enjoy, too. I was 17; I was very simple.

Jacob Lyngle 
When you got to Australia, was there anything that surprised you that differed from living in Japan?

Ryuhei Kitamura 

I actually lived there when I was eight years old for just like one year, so I consider it my second hometown. I went back and entered film school hoping that everybody was going to be like me who love Mad Max movies, but no, I was the only one wanted to do crazy action, zombie, chopping the head off kinds of films. Everybody was more into comedy or drama. I was like, what’s wrong with you guys? This is the land of Mad Max! 

Nick Crispino
Did that make it easier or more difficult to create? I work in production, and I find it best when you’re able to bounce off the creativity of others. How was that like, being the only person who wanted to make action movies when everybody else wanted to make dramas?

Ryuhei Kitamura 

I mean, luckily, I had a very good friends who were always willing to help me out. Movie making is always like that, you know, it all start from my vision, the writer’s vision, etc. Director is the center of the circle where vision spreads. Sometimes you have big circles with hundreds of crews or even 1000s. But back then, I only needed two more best friends who would do anything for me. That’s how I made my first little graduation short movie in this film school in Australia. It’s about the soldier who comes back from war, having PTSD, having a nightmare. And one day, he walks out the door, he steps out, and he’s back in the jungle. He is haunted by the ghost of his best friend who he had to leave in a war zone; he comes back as a zombie soldier, and they just fight in the woods. I shot that on Super 8 film.

Jacob Lyngle 
I want to see that.

Nick Crispino 
Can we get a link to like the video? Is it on YouTube?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I don’t have the full link anymore.

Jacob Lyngle 
Your favorite Godzilla film is Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Yes, I love that movie. Yes.

Jacob Lyngle 
What do you love about it?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I mean, the beauty of Godzilla is that every generation or era, you have a completely different style. But 1974 came out when I was like, very little, about five, right? So, for kids, it was like watching a wrestling match or something. You have this cool ass villain mecha monster and everybody fights. I mean, I really love that. That carnival feeling of it all. I love a lot of Godzilla movies, but that’s definitely the one I treasure the most.

Jacob Lyngle 
Since you’re more of an action heavy director and fan of cinema, how do you feel about the modern Hollywood Godzilla films?  They tend to be more of the wrestling type of Godzilla as compared to something like the original Godzilla film, or recently, Godzilla: Minus One, for instance.

Ryuhei Kitamura 

Like I said, I enjoy every single Godzilla movie. So of course, I’m gonna go tonight [March 29] to see the new one.  Godzilla is a way bigger IP franchise character now compared to 70 years ago when it was born. Every generation, every filmmaker do different style.  It really depends on the producer, the director and the writer which direction they decide to go. I enjoy all different era different style Godzilla movies, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Nick Crispino 
Did you always know you wanted to make a Godzilla movie? Like you said, you saw Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla when you were five years old. Growing up and going through the journey of becoming a filmmaker, was it always on your mind? Like, I want to make a Godzilla movie when I’m older. Or did the opportunity just come to you?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
The opportunity just came to me.  I’m a longtime fan, of course, but I never thought that I would be the one making that movie. The year  before I made this [Final Wars], I did my first big studio movie in Japan called Azumi, which is a samurai action movie. I did that for Toho. On the opening day of Azumi, this executive from Toho came up to me and said hey, I really liked what you did in this film, so I want you to do two things. One is Ken Takakura movie, and the other is Godzilla. I was like, wow. So of course, first thing I said was why don’t we do “Ken Takakura in Godzilla” movie? He laughed and loved the idea, but he said that’s a little bit hard to do. But let’s do Godzilla first because 50th anniversary is coming next year.

Nick Crispino 
It was the 50th anniversary of Godzilla. So obviously, Toho was gonna take it very seriously. Were there standards from Toho for the final product? Did that have any effect on production? Any kind of studio pressure?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
There was no studio pressure at all, because the producer, Mr. Tomiyama, [Shogo Tomiyama] produced Godzilla movie since Godzilla vs. Biollante so he knew more than anybody about the franchise. He was the boss, and he was the guy who understood; it was the law. When I had the initial meeting with Tomiyama san, I was really surprised. I’m a very straightforward guy. I pretty much said it straight — what I like about the Showa era Godzilla movies, and why I’m not that big of a fan of the recent Godzilla movies at that time, because I believe that honesty is the key when it comes to making a movie. It takes hundreds of people, tons of money, time and energy – if the producer, the studio and the director don’t share the same vision, it’s better off not doing it. I’m surprise a lot of people do it, and gets into a fight later. That’s not my style. My style is to just talk about everything straightforward from the very beginning.

Mr. Tomiyama told me, he knew that the Godzilla franchise was hitting the wall. This was 20 years ago in Japan. This was before that successful reboot of Godzilla in Hollywood. I wish I had the technology, but you know, 20 years ago, I could never have made a movie like Godzilla Minus One with amazing VFX. 20 years ago, Japanese VFX was way way behind. There was also the limit of what you can do with old school man in suit style which I love. But with those Hollywood blockbusters with big VFX movies, old school way wasn’t working anymore. So, times were changing, and Godzilla’s box office performance was going down rapidly.

I felt like Godzilla in general was going down too.  That time Godzilla was played as double features, the kids and the parents were coming in to see this tiny, cute hamster animation movie. I have nothing against cute Hamster animations, but Godzilla has to be the king! Come on, you know, you can’t have Godzilla just be the side dish of this tiny hamster animation.

I said everything honest and straightforward. If he hated what I was saying, he wouldn’t have hired me. And that was fine. It’s better than doing something for two years of your life under the strong pressure, and something that you don’t really want to do, even though it’s a big movie. So, I was very straightforward. And he agreed. He told me, that’s why I really want to do this one final Godzilla with you. Because I really think that we need some new blood. So, it wasn’t really me who was the courageous one, it was Tomiyama-san! At the end of the meeting he asked me if I’m willing to enter this one and only unique ring – Godzilla, and fight with me? And I said, Yeah, I mean, anything! Street Fighting, MMA, boxing, you tell me, I’m ready to fight any style.

Nick Crispino 
It’s interesting, you mentioned that Godzilla Final Wars is so different, because that’s the one thing I notice whenever I watch it. Compared to the other films in the Millennium era, it just stands out so much with the tone, style, the action. It’s wonderful. Sadly, it was the last main-line Godzilla feature to use suitmation tokusatsu technique. But, interestingly, from my understanding, it was the first to utilize digital equipment. Did that present any new challenges? Did you film on digital equipment before Final Wars?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Actually, yes! I started making professional movies around the year 2000. There was a transition in Japan from film to digital format, but the digital wasn’t established like it is today. We did shoot shoot  Final Wars on 35mm film, and then we transferred to  digital for the VFX. But like I said, 20 years ago, Japan VFX was way behind. So that was the challenge. My signature is this you know, unique and crazy dynamic camera work, right? Every time I try to move the camera, VFX supervisor comes to me and says, “You can’t move the camera! The composite will be so hard!” I also love wide shots, but if we set the camera way too back to get wider shot, he came running at me and said “You can’t shoot the feet. The feet touch the ground. No, it’s so hard to composite.” So okay, so I have to just keep everything in the middle shot or the close up and I can’t move the camera? That was a challenge I had to fight every day. But you know, it wasn’t that bad. It was a different time. I understand and I don’t blame him. We simply couldn’t do it in Japan 20 years ago.

Jacob Lyngle 
You mentioned UFC. Don Frye, of course, is in your movie. Were you watching his fights before he was cast in the film? What led you to the choice of casting The Predator?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
That time was the golden age of MMA in Japan. There was this thing called PRIDE and K-1. Me and my friends used to gather at my house in the weekend and watching big fights. I’ve been a huge fan of the boxing, pro wrestling, and mixed martial arts fighting all my life. I knew everybody. During the pre-production of GFW, we started talking about who we want for Captain Gordon. I think our first choice was Jean Reno, because he was in the first Hollywood Godzilla and he came to Japan for the promotion and met legendary actor Mr. Akira Takarada – Hollywood Godzilla star and Japanese Godzilla star. Perhaps it was just as a joke, but Jean said that he also wanted to star in Japanese Godzilla movie. We sent the offer but it didn’t work. So, my second choice was Christopher Lambert, of course, from Highlander and that didn’t work. Then my third choice was the legendary Sonny Chiba. Unfortunately, his price came back way too high and we couldn’t afford him.

Next, the casting agent came to me and said, how about Don Johnson from Miami Vice? That’s when I started to feel like, let’s forget about trying to get Hollywood star. That’s when I started to look into MMA fighters. They know how to energize people, they know how to act, not only for the fight. I just knew that those fighters could act.

I actually met two fighters. One was Don Frye and the other was Mark Coleman. I loved Mark. He was such a sweetheart. He recently was in a coma due to his house on fire, but I’m so glad to hear that he survived and woke up. I was so relieved. Anyway, I had dinner with him and loved him, but schedule or fee or whatever – something didn’t work out.

Then I met Don Frye. When Don walked into this Japanese Korean barbecue place, I just knew that this is the guy. I fed him a lot, but he wasn’t sure.  He was like, I don’t think I can act like that, buddy. I was like, no, man, the way you turn around and look at the camera when the ring announcer shout out your name, come on man. That’s some performance right there. So, after feeding him lots of meat and spending like, a couple hours with him, I said, hey, brother, you have to do this. Believe me, I have a faith in you.That’s when we got Don Frye to agree to be in GFW.

Nick Crispino 
Last summer, we were at G-FEST, and they had Don Frye as a special guest. During his interview panel, he mentioned that he helped out with writing the script for his American lines. How much of that is true?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
That is pretty much true, because of course, the writers were all Japanese. I mean, I can speak English, but not the writers. My style is that we try to make the script as perfect as possible in the pre-production phase, but movie making is more like a jazz session for me, everything happens on the set. I’m not the type of director who insist the actor to say the line exactly as it written. If my actor is not comfortable, has more ideas or something, then we change it on the set. I always welcome ideas from my cast and crew as long as we share the same vision. My writer was always by my side during the three months of filming process. So, every time new idea came up to my mind I whisper to my writer “Hey, why don’t we do this instead of that in the scene?” We were always freestyling.

Jacob Lyngle 
Many of these tokusatsu films have a director to direct the “Drama” scenes with the human cast and a special effects director to direct all the stuff with the miniatures and the suits. With your film being very much your flavor and style, were you present for those filming days? Were you directing them or was it more of the special effects team?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Yes, there’s this amazing gentleman named Eiichi Asada, he was the tokusatsu unit director and he was the one doing the previous Godzilla movies, so he understood it. I of course wanted to do everything myself, but 50th anniversary was coming up close. And if I do that the shooting schedule will be up like six months, and we’re not going to make it on time. So I spent some time discussing my visual style, how I want kaiju battle scenes look. First thing I brought up is the look and tone of the movie. I wanted more high contrast look. I felt recent Godzilla movies were lit way too much too bright and too flat.

If you light it like that it’s going to look like just a costume and miniatures. In fact, one of the tokusatsu crew said he was glad I finally said it out loud because they were all kind of feeling that way.

The new Godzilla suits were created by Mr. Wakasa [Shinichi Wakasa]. Of course, he’s a master of tokusatsu. During the first meeting I said, this time, I really want to do the mixed martial arts fight. Godzilla is just gonna beat the shit out of everyone! And the suit actor Mr. Tsutomu Kitagawa said he always wanted to do that, but it’s so heavy and hard even just walking around. So Mr. Wakasa had to re-think everything. Mr. Asada, Mr. Wakasa, Mr. Kitagawa and amazing tokusatsu crew made impossible possible and came up with new suits can do all the action. I also made hundreds of 1000s of storyboard to share my vision for kaiju battle action with Mr.Asada.

Back in 2002, when I was making Azumi, the legendary genius game creator, Mr. Hideo Kojima asked me to do a re-imagination of Metal Gear Solid for GameCube. It was a true honor and I directed motion capture movie sequence for Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which ended up like four or five hours long. So, when I did that, I assembled my team of amazing storyboard artists and  created all this crazy action for MGSTTS. I brought in the same team for Final Wars. I talked with them, and they came up with a storyboard bible which was pretty amazing. So, I gave that book to a storyboard book to Mr. Asada, and said, this is my vision, but I understand there’s always the budget & time concern so feel free to make changes. Mr. Asada was tokusatsu unit director and once production starts, I didn’t want to micro manage him. He’s the boss of his unit and I trusted him.

Jacob Lyngle 
Did anything from Metal Gear Solid influence Final Wars at all? Because when I think of Metal Gear Solid, some of the costume design to me gives off the same aesthetic and vibe.

Ryuhei Kitamura 
The great designer Mr. Yoji Shinkawa of Metal Gear Solid! When I worked on Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, I asked nicely to Kojima-san, can I borrow your genius designer? He asked what are you going to do? And I said I’m going to do final Godzilla! He was like, wow go ahead. Mr. Shinkawa designed all the cool earth defense force and mutant squad costumes, and the battleship Gotengo.  So yes, there’s a lot of connection between Metal Gear Solid and Final Wars, because I did it back-to-back.

Jacob Lyngle 
Were there any kaiju that just didn’t make the cut that you really wanted in there?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
No, not really.  I mean, when the film came out, especially in Japan, it was like, war. I wouldn’t say half, but the less than half, probably 40% of the hard core kaiju fans loved the movie. 60% Maybe even 70% hated it because it’s so different. There was a huge debate. I’m happy back then there was no social media. (laugh) On one hand, some were like, I love this movie! Then, some people said no, no, no, Kitamura fucked up the world of Godzilla!  Weirdly, some fans were attacking me because Jet Jaguar wasn’t in the film. Sorry, I wasn’t the only one who made that decision. It was me, writers and the producer Tomiyama-san. We had all of these kaiju figures and toys spread out in the table, and we contemplated each one and how it would fit into the film. Jet Jaguar didn’t quite fit in the story. Come on, buddy give me a break! (laughs)

Jacob Lyngle 
Come on, man! (laughs)

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I brought back all of these characters, I even updated Gigan and you’re still not happy? It’s impossible to please everyone.  If they didn’t do the Mechagodzilla movies right before me, I would have brought him back, because it’s so cool. Imagine the Metal Gear Solid designer Yoji Shinkawa redesigned MECHAGODZILLA!  I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to disrespect. I mean, they just did it last year. I was so pleased with redesigned Gigan by the legendary artist Yasushi Nirasawa. Sadly he passed away in 2016.

I had recently found this early presentation document from Toho that detailed what they wanted from the film. The original title was Godzilla Versus Fourteen, which was  cool. The very first synopsis it was  called Godzilla: The Return of Xillians. It just didn’t sound like 50th anniversary the biggest, and the last Godzilla movie. Of course, I didn’t believe it, but Toho said it was the last Godzilla. I knew we had to have this bigger grand finale feeling and I think it was Tomiyama-san, who said suddenly at the meeting, hey, what do you think about GODZILLA FINAL WARS? I was like, that is the one! That’s when we changed the title. I think it was a time when we were working on the script. So, everything was basically me, producer Tomiyama-san, and writer Wataru Mimura and Isao Kiriyama. We made all the decisions together. 

Nick Crispino 
I got to ask– when Godzilla faced off against, the American Godzilla, whose idea was that?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
That was, of course, my idea. Tamiyama-san did say, you know, we have the rights for that creature; we can use it if we want. Of course, I wanted to use it! I want to beat the shit out of the that guy! It was like a one punch knockout!

Nick Crispino 
Was it personal at all or more of a friendly jab?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I truly admire director Roland Emmerich. Independence Day – That’s a classic! I enjoyed the first Hollywood Godzilla as a big giant lizard monster movie. I just couldn’t see that as Godzilla. And like, come on eating tuna? Come on! But the fight in Final Wars; it was nothing personal. I thought it was just a fun, crowd-pleasing moment, and it seems like it ended up one!

Jacob Lyngle 
Since Final Wars, you’ve worked on several American production, such as The Midnight Meat Train. Can you tell us about the biggest differences between an American set and a Japanese set?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I actually didn’t feel that much difference. With filmmaking, I always consider that the director has to be at the center of this circle. It starts from my crazy vision and spreads to my crew and the cast. So yes, if you are working in a big movie, like Godzilla, or you know, some Hollywood movie, the circle gets bigger and bigger, but my position always has to be the center of this giant circle or the small circle. From the days in Sydney with my friends to the Hollywood productions now, I don’t really feel a difference. My job is all about come up with a vision, an idea. I always considered the director’s job as becoming like a little child.

I have this metaphorical ball in my pocket, and I go, why don’t we try this? I throw at my crew and my cast and my producer. if they can’t catch it, or they don’t want to play the game, then I’m not supposed to make movies with them, then, I always prefer that somebody catches it like, Okay, if you want to play this, then what about this, and then there’s something brewing. My job is to motivate my crew and cast, so, it’s really, it’s all about the communication. It’s all about the relationships, so I didn’t feel that much difference.

One big difference was that here in Hollywood, if you don’t do your job, you get fired immediately. It doesn’t matter if you are the star of the movie, or you are the director of the movie or even if you are the producer of the movie. If you don’t do your job, you will be replaced immediately. That’s the first thing I learned when I was working on my first American movie, The Midnight Meat Train. I still remember on Friday night of the first week the line producer came to me and asked me what I think of crew members.

If I feel any of crew member is not doing good enough job, he or she will be replaced and someone new will show up on Monday. Then, he gave me a big check for my weekly fee so I thought okay it’s same with me. Luckily, I never got fired. I think there’s a reason why Hollywood is Hollywood because everybody’s so serious about doing the job to a certain quality. So, if you don’t catch up, you don’t match up, you will be replaced. So, that was a difference. But other than that, it’s all about communication with my crew, my producer, my cast, it was all the same. The one other thing different and surprised me was we have weekends off, which we don’t have in Japan. In Japan, if you’re lucky, you get a day off every 20 days, something like that and we sometime shoot like 15 hours a day. Compare to that Hollywood is very healthy environment to make movies.

Nick Crispino 
Did your experiences working on a Japanese production set translate well when you first started working on a set here in the US?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
When I started my filmmaking career in Japan, I was always doing this guerilla-style indie filmmaking; that’s who I am to this day. I was already an outsider in the Japanese film industry anyway.

Fitting into the Hollywood system wasn’t that hard, but to start living in this country is different thing. when I first moved to America, I went to buy a car and I couldn’t. They said, you don’t have a credit history. What do you mean credit history? I’m start making my history now! So I went to the big boss of the production office of The Midnight Meat Train and said Hey, boss, you know, this country won’t let me buy the car. So, he hooked me up with this celebrity car dealer and he said there’s a way to bring up your credit score right now – buy an expensive car. Okay, so that’s what I did.

Nick Crispino 
What kind of car was it?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
I bought a Volvo for my me and my family but I also needed one for me, so I figured, this is America, I have to buy an American muscle car, so I bought this Mustang. I did the test ride and coming back to this dealer, I saw this garage with huge letters that spelled out GAS. I thought to myself, I’ve seen this garage before… then I remembered there was this amazing MTV program called Pimp My Ride.

I see this rapper on the show, he gets this broke down car, and brings it to this garage. They just transformed it into this amazing car. So, I asked my dealer hey, is that the garage from pimp my ride? And he said yes. So I drove right into the garage and said hey I need a red stripe in the middle, change the wheels, change the steering, change this and that, and it ended up probably costing more than Porsche or something, but that’s how I made my first credit history in this country.

Jacob Lyngle 
Did it look like the Final Wars pimp’s car?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
No, no, no, it was much cooler. It was more like Mad Max.

There were some other culture shocks. Like, what the hell is a social security number? Also, it doesn’t matter who you are. You have to go into this office and there’s an insane line. I’m like, Jesus, I’m in the middle of moviemaking and I have to wait four hours in a line. Welcome to America. And then the DMV etc. It was harder than adjusting to Hollywood movie making.

Jacob Lyngle 
Can you tell us some of your favorite memories from the Hollywood premiere of Final Wars? I think that was the first big time that the Godzilla series had such a huge event like that. I’ve talked to a lot of Western fans, and the ones that live in California especially remember that very vividly.

Ryuhei Kitamura 
That was obviously one of the most glorious day of my life. It was the first Japanese movie to do a premiere at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, known now as the TCL Chinese Theatre. And at the same time, Godzilla had his stamp on the Walk of Fame, so we had a celebration ceremony for that. So, me and my cast, and everybody came. I even invited all my friends from Japan, because all my friends were the ones who like, you know, supporting me, feeding me when I was nobody.

My life was on the edge when I was like 27-28. Lot of my friends already had a family and a decent job, and I was the one that kept on saying I’m gonna be the filmmaker. Some people said stop dreaming and get a job. My brothers and sisters, they were the ones sending me money and feeding me. In fact, they are even happier than me that I finally made it. And so, I invited everybody to the premiere and had a very happy night. But the funny thing that I remember was that day, of course, we had press interviews all morning, then we had the Walk of Fame ceremony, then interview again, then the red carpet, premiere screening, then after party. So, it was a lot. It was super fun but a long long day.

Me and two stars from the movie Masahiro Matsuoka, who played the lead, and the girl, Rei Kikukawa, the three of us finally came back to the hotel. It was after the afterparty, definitely after midnight. We all came back to my room and then I asked, hey, aren’t you hungry? And they said yes, boss. We are so hungry. Yes. We didn’t have time to eat. Okay. Okay. It’s already past midnight. I mean, where are we gonna go? We didn’t want to go out again, so I said, just wait here. I drove out to Yoshinoya, I got takeout, and I brought back a ton of beef bowls, and we ate at my room. That’s a sweet memory for me.

Nick Crispino 
Those little memories that really stick with us. You hear a lot of stories like that in production to where like, you talk to these people, and you expect their answer to be like, oh, my favorite part was being on set. But the most common answer I always hear is, oh, it’s the dinner we had after like, day three of shooting where we were supposed to go home at 10. But we stayed at the restaurant until like 1:30 in the morning enjoying everybody’s company.

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Of course. Yeah. So the New York part of Final Wars with the crazy gangster guy and funky cop? I love that scene. We actually shot that in Sydney, Australia, my second hometown. I felt like I had to go back to Sydney. Only in the world of Godzilla It’s an honor to be destroyed. I have to show respect to my second hometown. Our day one of entire production started with Sydney/NY sequences, then I went to back to Japan and started main unit long three months Japan shoot.To buy some little time and save some money, we thought to create a New York atmosphere. We don’t have to actually go to New York. There was a scene of this guy who lives in a trailer in Arizona and the giant spider Kumonga crushes him when he’s watching the news. Remember that? Actually, that guy is my best friend from my film school in Australia. 

Jacob Lyngle 
On a deeper and more philosophical level — what does Godzilla/kaiju mean to you?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Godzilla means desperation and hope to me. I mean, he destroys everything. But in the end, at least when I was making Final Wars, I didn’t want to make a movie just about the destruction or, you know, the fear of Godzilla. I mean, the name says it all God-zilla. It’s kind of a god to me. I do believe in God,I don’t have a specific religion, but I pray to God. And God, I can’t really figure it out. Sometimes I feel like, God, why are you doing this to me? It’s getting too tough. But then, often I feel like somebody up there is somehow protecting me. 

So, to me, Godzilla is kind of like that. God thinks and moves in a very mysterious way that we dumb humans don’t quite fully understand. Godzilla boasts this distinction of hope and scary, but also, I kind of, like, always look up and idolize him. It’s very hard to say in one word. It’s a much wider, bigger, and deeper character, especially now, after 20 years. Because the franchise is much bigger than when I was working on Final Wars, thanks to all those great American reboots; they did the right thing this time. I mean, without the success of the all Hollywood Godzilla and MonsterVerse movies, Minus One would never have made that success. Even though I say that I wasn’t really a big fan of the Godzilla movies before me, every single Godzilla movie created this legend and legacy. I have a huge respect to all Godzilla movies ever made.

Jacob Lyngle 
That’s great. Lastly, I hear you’re working on several movies coming up. I know that it’s hard to talk about projects when you’re working in Hollywood, but can you tell us what you’re up to?

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Yeah, of course, I can’t talk that much. Unfortunately, I don’t have any kaiju movies in development now, maybe in the future. I have so many projects — some horror movies, action movies, and more. I’m working on a lot. And the thing about the Hollywood is, you never know. There are lot of producers say “I have the financing”.”I can get this star” etc – 95% is a lie. It’s a crazy industry and I don’t know what I will be doing in few months until I say “Action!” on the set. But there’s lots of super exciting projects moving right now. This year, I’m supposed to make two or three movies: it’s gonna be a very busy year. There’s also more coming next year. I also have an American project, but it takes place in Japan. I haven’t been back there for years now, but it is my hometown. I have always wanted to bring an American project back to Japan and do something crazy there.

Jacob Lyngle 
Awesome. Nick, did you have anything before we wrapped up?

Nick Crispino 
I just want to say how much of an honor it was just sit down and talk to you. Final Wars is a Godzilla movie that’s seemingly always in my ever-changing list of like, top 10 Godzilla films, and is one of my favorite films of all time, I have so much love for it. If I can go back and tell 13-year old Nick that one day you’ll be talking to the director, I wouldn’t believe myself. That’s why I say a huge thank you for not only making the movie, but sitting down and talking to us, too.

Ryuhei Kitamura 
That’s so nice of you. And thank you for remembering that this is the 20th anniversary. I would love to do a screening or event, both in Japan and here in U.S. And, oh, by the way, me and my genius designer friend in Japan have our own brand called XrossCounter https://www.xrosscounter.com/en  And we make T shirts based on movies, video games, roller coasters etc.  We will release a bunch of super cool Godzilla Final Wars T shirts and hoodies this year. My guy is designing them right now. So, a lot of cool items are going to come out. I’m planning to do some kind of celebration, screening, whatever. 

Nick Crispino 
That’d be so awesome.

Jacob Lyngle
I will do my absolute best to attend an American event or screening, Mr. Kitamura! Thank you so much for sitting down with us to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Godzilla: Final Wars!

Ryuhei Kitamura 
Being a Godzilla director, you have to carry that for the rest of your life. I’m always happy to talk about Final Wars. I appreciate it. The movie is beloved more by the world audience than the Japanese audience, somehow. I’m always happy to talk about it. Thank you so much.