The Kaiju Transmissions Podcast

The Original Street Fighter: Interview with Action Star Sonny Chiba!

On a very special episode of the podcast, we are ridiculously excited to welcome the legendary and prolific martial arts action star Sonny Chiba! Matt ventured to Fandom Fest in Kentucky to sit down and talk with Mr. Chiba. With nearly 200 acting credits, Sonny Chiba has done it all. He's well known for his roles in cult classics like the Street Fighter series, Golgo 13, Message From Space, the Yakuza Papers and Bodyguard Kiba. He's been in everything from early tokusatsu films like Golden Bat and Invasion of the Neptune Men to work in Hollywood with Kill Bill and Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. He's done dozens of yakuza and martial arts films. He's also done a lot of stunt work, as well as founding the Japan Action Club for stunt/action actors. Listen as Sonny describes a variety of topics including legendary director Kinji Fukusaku, Vic Morrow, being cast by Quentin Tarantino, Fast and the Furious, language barriers on set, early tokusatsu hero film sets, differences between Japanese and Hollywood films, late actors Ken Takakura and Hirkoi Matsukata, advise for future stunt actors and more! Special thanks to Hiro Kitagawa for translating for this interview.

"Jouchaku!" Interview with Actor Kenji Ohba!

On a very special edition of the podcast, we present another celebrity interview with actor/stuntman Kenji Ohba! Kenji is best known for playing the long-running Toei tokusatsu superhero Space Sheriff Gavan, as well as his long career as a stunt man. Matt traveled to Fandom Fest in Kentucky this past July to conduct this interview. Ohba discusses his tokusatsu beginnings as a stuntman/suit actor in shows like Kikaider, being mentored by Sonny Chiba, mentoring Godzilla actor Tom Kitagawa, the difficulties of stunt work, how working on tokusatsu TV shows has changed over the years, and of course, the continued popularity of the Space Sheriff Gavan character (who he still plays to this day). Tune in and enjoy! Special thanks to Hiro Kitagawa for translating for this interview.

Finding Willis O'Brien's Lost World with Nicolas Ciccone

Byrd and Matt are joined by silent film historian and film restorationist Nicolas Ciccone to discuss Willis O'Brien and Harry O. Hoyt's 1925 game-changer The Lost World. Nicolas had the experience of reconstructing the film with newly discovered footage for Lobster Films' upcoming blu-ray release (in addition to providing the audio commentary). This pre-King Kong dino-on-the-loose classic is the very first giant monster run amok film and the true great grandfather of the entire giant monster/kaiju genre. We discuss the making of the film, the differences between the original Arthur Conan Doyle novel and the film, the early career of Willis O'Brien, Obie's falling out with Herbert Dawley on The Ghost of Slumber Mountain, the casual racism in the film, the brand new extended cut, lost footage, the new restoration and more! Much of this film has been lost over the years, only available in truncated versions pieced together from various elements, and the upcoming blu-ray will be the most complete version seen since the 1920's. Flicker Alley will be unleashing Lobster Films restoration on 9/19/2017 with a brand new 2k transfer!

KT Writes a Death Note!

Byrd and Matt are joined by Trev (If It Bleed We Can Kill It and Days of Future Podcast) to take one of our occasional detours outside the giant monster landscape to examine the the Death Note franchise. In the early 2000s, this supernatural thriller became a worldwide phenomenon, starting with the successful manga and anime series. It also spawned multiple live action films from such genre heavyweights as Shusuke Kaneko, Hideo Nakata and Adam Wingard. Our discussion is mostly based on the two 2006 Shusuke Kaneko films and Adam Wingard's American adaptation that just dropped as a Netflix Original. We'll also touch on the manga and anime, the L spin-off film, and the 2016 Japanese sequel Light Up The New World. We also discuss the recent "whitewashing" controversy surrounding the Netflix film. But first, we discuss the Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters teaser and the recent news that Steven Soderbergh was planning a remake of Matango!

LIVE Panel with Haruo Nakajima and Tom Kitagawa at Days of the Dead Con!!

From June 30-July 3 of 2017, Godzilla suit actors Haruo Nakajima and Tom Kitagawa were featured guests at the Days of the Dead convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is the panel Q and A with the two actors from the convention. Unfortunately, this would also become one of Haruo Nakajima's final interviews and his final convention appearance. The two men answer questions about how they got involved in suit acting, working in the suits, working with miniatures, their thoughts on the American Godzilla films and more! With the clearance from the Days of the Dead con, KT is proud to present this panel discussion with two legendary kaiju performers! Listen and enjoy! Special thanks to Nick Adam Poling and Jonathan Crocetti for providing the audio, Christopher Marti for his post production work, and Corey Hannigan for translating at the panel! DISCLAIMER: The audio for this is a little rough, as the convention did not have a proper set up to accommodate some of the recording hardware. After a lot of post-production work, we are presenting it in the absolute best quality we were able to get from the elements available.

Monster Attack Team with Ed Holland!

Matt and Byrd are joined by special guest, Ed Holland of Monster Attack Team magazine! We interview Ed about the creation of the magazine, its hiatus, and its resurgence over the last few years! Just how does one get a high quality magazine made in 2017? Ed also tells us about being on the sets of Ultraman Powered and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. But first, we discuss Ed's relationship with the late Haruo Nakajima, who passed away shortly before this recording. Ed did a lot of stateside events with Mr. Nakajima and shared some great stories and insights! Kick back and enjoy!

KT Live At G-Fest 2017: Gamera vs. Gyaos 50th Anniversary Discussion

For our very first LIVE episode, we present our 50th anniversary panel discussion on 1967's GAMERA vs. GYAOS. Byrd and Matt are joined by Nicolas Poling (of the Monster Report on YouTube) to take a deep dive through how it was made, how it originated, the SPFX, how it changed the Gamera franchise, the social climate of the time that is reflected throughout the film, differences in the rare manga adaptation, audience Q & A, and more! DISCLAIMER: The audio on this one isn't perfect since the convention couldn't support some of our hardware, but we cleaned it up the best we could!

G-FEST 2017- Guest Interview Recaps + Fan Mail

Due to some MAJOR technical difficulties at G-Fest, the audio from our interviews with composer Michiru Oshima, director/SPFX Director Kiyotaka Taguchi and assistant director Kazuhiro Nakagawa were all unusable. To make up for it, we've transcribed the interviews for us to discuss them on the podcast, where we can talk about their answers and give our thoughts on what they had to say. Oshima discusses working on the Godzilla films, working with Seijun Suzuki, and composing for anime and video games. Taguchi discusses working on Godzilla films, the Ultraman shows, his short films, and his thoughts on CGI. Nakagawa discusses his film Day of the Kaiju, working on Attack on Titan and Shin Godzilla, and his thoughts on the Monsterverse. So listen up and hear our reflections on getting the amazing opportunity to interview these incredible people. But first, we have some fan mail! Also, check out the text transcripts of the interviews at maserpatrol.wordpress.com!

Akira Ifukube Spotlight with Erik Homenick and John DeSentis

Byrd and Matt dig into the life and career of famed monster music composer Akira Ifukube! To do this, they interview Ifukube's official biographer Erik Homenick (who runs AkiraIfukube.org) and film music buff John DeSentis (conductor & co-organizer of the Ifukube 100 and Symphonic Fury kaiju music concerts). As an added bonus, they've brought some SUPER rare Ifukube music cues (reconstructed and recorded by John from Ifukube's manuscripts). This is UNHEARD Ifukube music you will only hear on this podcast! We discuss how the composer got involved in film music, his preferred instrumentation, why he didn't get along with Akira Kurosawa, his political views, his relationship with Ishiro Honda, how he felt about his kaiju scores, the creation of Godzilla's roar and more! Then we take a dive into how he got involved with the original Godzilla film, and debunk some common myths about the score. This is a packed episode, so listen up!

Tribute to Haruo Nakajima (1929-2017)

Byrd and Matt are joined by guest Chris (of the Other Sounds Podcast and Cosmic Monster) to discuss the work and life of Haruo Nakajima, who passed away on August 7, 2017. Nakajima is best known for playing Godzilla from 1954-1972, as well as playing Rodan, Mothra, Baragon, the Green Gargantua, Varan, various Ultraman kaiju, and many others. Nakajima was the most prolific suit actor of the Showa era and endured plenty of dangerous situations by playing monsters underwater, being flung through the air on wires, having explosives go off near his flesh, being buried alive, and more, all in the name of entertainment. We discuss Nakajima's start as a stuntman, working with Akira Kurosawa, his filmography, and our favorite Nakajima roles, as well as who he was to us and his legion of fans worldwide.