The kaiju (daikaiju in this sense, "giant monster") pop culture genre is not normally associated with China. Which is odd since with their predilicition for dragons you'd think it would be a good fit. Chinese audences seem more interested in importing their science fiction than growing it domestically; Chinese "genre" filmmaking tends to still be wushu/martial arts and "Hard Boiled"-style crime movies. The cynical response is that "oh they did it so that it would play well in China like Iron Man 3," but I don't know if I believe that or not. I suspect that the reason we do not get a Japanese Jaeger in the film is because Del Toro and Beachem wanted to avoid using Japan lest it be seen as cliche. I know that Del Toro told his art team to avoid looking at classic daikaiju movies for inspiration in concocting the Kaiju, so this seems to fit. It is possible that this is addressed in the near hour of deleted scenes; would also love to see this addressed in either tie-in media or the sequel.
On Friday, July 26, 2013 6:20:23 AM UTC-4, Edward Crosby wrote: > I posted this over on Google+ in the Sci-Fi community but I was hoping > someone here may be able to answer this question. Maybe Luke? > Anyone here know any details on why there is, pretty much, almost a > non-existent Japanese presence in Pacific Rim? I was not familiar with the > term Kaiju until Pacific Rim came out even though I grew up watching > Godzilla and Ultraman. Because of the history and phenomenon of the Kaiju > culture being so big in Japan that you would have thought the writers would > have at least had a Japanese Jaeger in the movie. I noticed on the second > viewing of Pacific Rim last night that there seemed to be more of a Chinese > presence than a Japanese presence in the movie. Examples: The main complex > was in the Hong Kong harbor and one of the Jaegers was from China. Is the > Kaiju genre big in China also? > > ---------------------------------------- > Have a Better One, > Edward Crosby > http://about.me/edwardcrosby > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Unique Geek" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
