Publisher: McFarland
Release Date: January 2016
Price: $35.00
Author: Jason Barr
Format: 212 pgs., B&W, 6"x9", Trade Paperback
ISBN: ISBN: 978-0-7864-9963-2
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
For those not familiar with the term, it loosely refers to movies about gigantic creatures, in a genre that can include King Kong, Godzilla and Pacific Rim. Unlike some scholars, he does not try to limit the term to Japanese films, viewing it as a genre rather than a subclass of one nation’s film industry.
This is an excellent book marred by a few annoying flaws. One is the format. McFarland publishes books that are scholarly in tone, but in this case a few photos would have helped. A second is the price, which is painfully high for the size of the book. The third is the odd habit the author has of setting up straw men and then destroying them with blasts of radioactive flame.
He repeatedly quotes Susan Sontag's very flawed definition of science fiction, and then points out how flawed it is. Well, yes, it is but readers of Barr's book will understand the first time he explains her errors.
On the plus side, the writing is very readable, the footnotes are excellent, and Barr has some good points to make. For instance, you can tell how the military of a country was viewed at a point in time by how well they do against giant monsters in that nation's films. This actually works remarkably well for both U.S. and Japanese giant monster movies. The films present cultural snapshots in other ways that might not have been obvious, and Barr does a good job with this kind of information. His political interpretations of movies are more problematic, but still interesting.
Serious fans of kaiju films will find much to discuss in this book. While aimed at adults, older teens may find it interesting as well.
--Nick Smith: Library Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.
