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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 04/14/00 -- Vol. 18, No. 42
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. Most of us have heard the litany from Prairie Home Companion
where they say that Lake Woebegone is "where the women are strong,
the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average."
People laugh at the mathematics of having all the children be above
average. There are, however, several ways to resolve the paradox.
It could mean above average for the country, for example. But I
want to suggest that something else may be what is happening. It
may well be that adults are pretty much all above average. Let me
ask you. Are you above average? Is that how you think of
yourself? I know I am. I have been above average for almost all
of my life. And why? Well, I have decided for myself what
standards I have been measuring myself against. It surely was not
sports. I was lousy at sports. But, of course, sports are very
unimportant. I have known a lot of people who have thought that
sports really were important, but they were just about all losers
and themselves way below average. Children are just about the only
people who can be below average because they are just about the
only people whom you can force to live by somebody else's
standards. Adults choose their own standards for most aspects of
life. And the ones they choose to be important are the ones in
which they are above average.
Look at the early Christians being turned into animal chow in the
Roman Circus for the entertainment of the mob. That is a pretty
bad fate by most standards of society. Were they lowly people in
their own estimation? No. They were martyrs for their faith.
They thought they were among the few who really did understand the
order of the universe. If everybody knew what they knew others
would be rushing to be Christians, even with the risks. This
eaten-by-lions thing is just a temporary minor drawback.
That same thing is in the news this week. There is another death
cult, this time in Uganda. These people live in a country ridden
by AIDS and poverty. Life is pretty tough for the people in this
cult. So are they at the bottom of the totem pole? Not in their
world view. From their point of view the Virgin Mary is coming
down from heaven to personally accompany them into heaven, so much
are they her favorites. This is what I am told they died
believing. They feel sorry for us because we do not have the
inside knowledge that they have about how to get the Virgin Mary on
your side. We may even end up in Hell without the willingness to
join their order. But being stubborn as we are there are very few
of us who are going to get the special escort treatment that the
Virgin Mary is going to give them.
This is why I am mistrustful of being part of an elite defined by
someone else. There is a basic human need to believe that we are
special. That is one of the standard ways that people are
manipulated and even enslaved. People will do some of the dumbest
things to get an award that will make them think they are in a
select few. If you don't believe that, flip through the Guinness
Book of World Records. I think that this is one reason why there
are so many exotic religions with so many fanatic followers.
Wherever you find people who are not on top in a given social
order, you find a new social order being born. The need to be near
the top of some social order is why there seem to be no end of
subcultures, religions, weird life styles, etc., etc. And perhaps
it is a good thing, perhaps it is not. But it is a fact of life.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
2. MOSURA (1996) [US Video Release: THE REBIRTH OF MOTHRA] (a film
review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: A very strange departure from Toho's
previous monster films. Toho has aimed MOSURA
at younger children, only tangentially using
elements of previous plots. The use of color
in this movie is extraordinary, making this a
beautiful fantasy film with some astonishing
images. But the story itself is heavy-handed
with a didactic "save-the-environment" plot and
too much left unexplained, so it does not work
as well as it might with any age group.
Rating: 5 (0 to 10), low +1 (-4 to +4)
I was in Tokyo in October of 1996 and found myself walking by the
offices of the Toho Corporation. I was delighted to see a two-
foot-high sculpture of Gojira (whom we gringos call Godzilla). Who
else but Toho would erect a statue to commemorate a movie monster?
However, Gojira (and kaiju films in general) have done well for
Toho. ("Kaiju" is Japanese for "monster" and kaiju films are their
own genre in Japan.)
Continuing my walk, nearby I saw a beautiful poster for the
upcoming film MOSURA. Aficionados will recall that Gojira II is
now dead and Gojira III is just getting his first set of fins and
his earliest puffs of breath are already powerful enough to fry
doughnuts. So while he grows to full-size we are getting a hiatus
on Gojira films and Toho is returning to its second favorite
monster, the good-guy monster Mosura (a.k.a. Mothra). The poster
showed a giant Mosura behind the Earth against a background of
space. I would have loved to get a copy of that poster and even
more I wanted to see the film, but I knew I had to be patient. It
took a few years for the film to be released on DVD and
videocassette. It is now available and not at all what I or
probably anyone else expected from Toho. It is a frequently-
charming fantasy aimed at younger children. Unfortunately it has a
plot that even adults might have trouble following.
While Gojira has been a creature belonging to the realm of science
fiction, the Toho people have always seemed to imply that Mosura
belongs to worlds of magic and fantasy. She never seemed like a
prehistoric animal and she is controlled by two fairy-like women.
But the fantasy element of Mosura was never explored as it is with
this new MOSURA. While science fiction and fantasy seem to sit
uneasily with each other, it should be remembered that it is not
unusual for American films to mix the science-fictional
Frankenstein monster with the purely supernatural Dracula and the
Wolf Man.
The story is about two young children, Tykee and his younger sister
Wakaba. Their father is important in a company logging a Japanese
forest and incidentally displacing many innocent, dewy-eyed
animals. In the course of clearing the forest they find a rock
shrine which fans will recognize as being in the shape of the
circular symbol for Mosura. They remove a small medallion embedded
in the stone, unwittingly opening a passage to a fairyland beneath.
The father gives the medallion to Wakaba, unaware that an evil
fairy Belvera, riding a squirrel-sized flying dragon, will reclaim
it and use it to release DesGhidorah. DesGhidorah is a somewhat
cuter version of Toho monster Ghidorah. Sixty-five million years
ago, DesGhidorah came from space and killed off the dinosaurs by
sucking the life from the planet Earth. Belvera releases
DesGhidorah from the Earth to repeat his misdeeds.
Defending Earth we have two good fairies Moll and Lara. They have
the power to call on the Mosuras. Mosuras are giant moths bigger
than airliners and the caterpillars that grow into them. There is
also a small Mosura only a foot across. Most of these creatures
have appeared in previous Toho films but, perhaps to play well with
a younger audience, they have been softened here. Mosura is much
more plush and cuddly looking than she has ever looked in the past.
DesGhidorah's faces (did I mention that DesGhidorah has three
heads?) are rounded and shortened to look less frightening than
Ghidorah of previous films. Even the music is softened from the
usual brassy marches. This film's score is inspired more than
usual by John Williams and less by John Philip Sousa.
One wonders how this story fits in with other kaiju films from
Toho. Why does nobody recognize Mosura from previous bouts with
the Japan Defense Forces? Does nobody notice that DesGhidorah
looks a lot like Ghidorah? Similarly, a problem particularly of
late in Toho films is their propensity to have just about anything
happen without an explanation. If Mosura is to have a new power
you just see Mosura using it without benefit of logic or
explanation. If a new kind of creature is to be introduced, it is
just there. Suddenly there are tiny Mosuras around. The problem
is that if anything can happen, there is much less interest value
in the story. Even fantasy needs some rules.
Mosura is in some ways a poor choice for a hero monster. Gojira
expresses emotions--even Radon (Rodan) expresses emotion. Mosura
has two eyes like bicycle reflector disks and a mouth like the
business end of an alligator clip. This makes the giant moth
forever enigmatic. She is even more so for being a moth. The real
face of Mosura is that of her soul-mate. Her soul-mate is has been
a single creature with two bodies. These are the two tiny "Cosmos"
or "Peanuts." Two fairies that dress identically, sing and even
speak in unison, and are indistinguishable from each other. They
have a mystical control over Mosura never explained. In the new
Mosura the Cosmos are two fairies who for the first time look
different, dress differently, and one, Moll, dominates the other
Lora, they still sing in unison, however, and with three songs they
seem to sing entirely too much.
There are really two reasons to see MOSURA. You may be genuine fan
of kaiju films with or without Gojira. Or you may want to see what
Toho can do with color and with form when they are at their best.
In either case you will find the unexpected in this film. MOSURA
is not really a good film, but there are moments that are well
worth seeing. And the kids might like the rest of the film. I
give it a 5 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +1 on the -4 to +4
scale.
Incidentally, MOSURA is the first part of a trilogy of films.
Rumor has it that MOSURA 3 is this best of the trilogy, but it has
yet to be released in this country. MOSURA 2 is available. The
plot has Belvera again trying to destroy the Earth by releasing a
rather uninteresting monster from ancient Mu. Visually it has
fewer scenes of striking beauty. There are a few, but not many.
The best scene is an ancient fortress rising from the sea. But
overall MOSURA 2 is a disappointment after the few enough virtues
of MOSURA. Again the monster is a symbol of what happens when you
do not take care of nature. Mosura is a giant Mother Nature.
There are again lots of things happening without explanation so
there is no reason ever to fear for Mosura. The writers will
always invent some reason why Mosura will survive and win. The
film is a definite step down from MOSURA. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
Politics is the art of looking for trouble,
finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing
it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
-- Ernest Benn
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