Seeing these two blog posts today reminded me I've been meaning to share a video. It's from North Korea and was Kim Jong Il's entry into "giant monster" cinema genre (I guess he fancied himself a cinematic impressario before becoming the focus of a personality cult). The full tragically gripping details behind the making of the film are another story altogether. Today I want to focus on the visuals. Check this clip out:
What I find so interesting about this movie is that it's set in "medieval" Korea. Have there been other giant monster movies set in pre-industrial times? At any rate, that right there is visual inspiration for all your "orientalist adventure" needs. To riff off Jeff Rients' point, if I were running an OA/Ruins & Ronin-type game, there'd be no dragons, at least not in name. Instead, I'd use the dragon stats to represent my giant monsters (daikaiju, if you will) as they rampaged across rice paddies and temple complexes. Muhahahaha.
The Daimajin movies are set in medieval Japan, if I recall correctly.
ReplyDelete"Have there been other giant monster movies set in pre-industrial times?"
ReplyDeleteWell, that's just it. Those are "dragon" movies you're talking about. Unless you mean specifically "Asian monster movies" a la Godzilla, a movie like "Dragonslayer" is essentially a monster movie set in a medieval period.
blizack: Thanks for the pointer. I figured there probably were some more, but I'm not overly familiar with the genre, so...
ReplyDeleteBadelaire: Indeed. Jeff Rients' OA post talked about how one can take the underlying assumptions of D&D, file the serial numbers off, and come out with a completely different experience that is still the same in the fundamentals. Between his post and the clip I posted, I have to say that for the first time I'm really seeing the appeal of Asian-flavored D&D.