Episode 7: Kaiju Movies, feat. Luana Saitta from the Monster Island Commentaries Podcast

DON’T WALK, RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! GIANT MONSTERS ARE ALL-OUT ATTACKING!

Look out! It’s the first (of eventually many?) Genre Grinder episode about kaiju movies – those wonderful, sometimes frightening, sometimes hilarious, usually strange, often Japanese-based monster movies that we all know and love. Gabe welcomes special guest Luana Saitta from the Monster Island Commentaries podcast to stomp around major cities, step on cars, and push over buildings with him.

Together, Luana and Gabe cover three movies from different eras in the kaiju film life cycle with not a single Godzilla or King Kong in sight (we can’t jump into the famous stuff right off the bat, right?). Their discussion includes Kimiyoshi Yasuda’s Daimajin (1966), Toshihiro Iijima’s Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972), and Brad Peyton’s Rampage (2018). They talk about some other movies, too, of course, including various Godzilla-verse classics, World of Warcraft, and, towards the end we do a bit of a catchall for more recent, CG-driven kaiju movies, too, because, well...there’s only so much to say about Rampage. It’s great, but, c’mon. Oh, and beware of Gabe flagrantly tossing out Attack on Titan spoilers, though. He’s the worst.

00:00 – Intro

11:25 – Daimajin

34:09 – Daigoro vs Goliath

58:43 – Rampage
1:16:28 – General discussion
1:24:28 – Attack on Titan discussion in which GABE SPOILS SEASON THREE LIKE A CHUMP

1:30:19 – Farewells and everything else

Here’s a Letterboxd list I made of every single non-Godzillaverse, no gorilla, no super sentai I could possibly think of, in the event that you’re curious enough to delve further into the wild world of kaiju movies: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/non-godzillaverse-non-gorilla-kaiju-movies/

Looking for more kaiju content? Listen to Luana and Monster Island Commentaries co-host Travis Kirkland’s Rampage commentary here: http://monstercommentaries.libsyn.com/26-rampage-2018-commentary-track

Or their Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) commentary: http://monstercommentaries.libsyn.com/27-pacific-rim-uprising-2018-commentary-track

Or maybe listen to them chat about Gabe’s personal favorite Godzilla movie, Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971): http://monstercommentaries.libsyn.com/5-godzilla-vs-hedorahgodzilla-vs-the-smog-monster-1971