The Kaiju Film

King Kong and Godzilla-they are familiar names to lovers of monster films. They are classic characters.

But, there are far more strange monsters or strange beasts (Kaiju) in films from all around the globe.

Big monsters-what’s the attraction and who cares? An interesting question.

Kaiju are more that just rampaging monsters terrorizing humans and destroying cities. They are symbols and analogies.

Godzilla was a symbol of the nuclear destruction of two Japanese cities in World War II. King Kong examines the clash between primal and modern eras.

Other less known monsters represent all sorts of things from the industrial age, modernization, tradition versus change and so forth.

Author Jason Barr examines the many facets of Kaiju films in his new book: The Kaiju Film A Critical Study Of Cinema’s Biggest Monsters, published by McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

Discover what happens when science runs amok, consumerism reigns, capitalism drives civilization and pollution ravages the earth.

Monsters? No, more like harbingers and prophets of the dangers of colonialism and militarism.

Who are the real monsters? Giant beasts or mankind?

"When I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me." — Micah 7:8