INSIGHTS

2019.12.06

R&D DISCUSSION Vol. 21

Architecture in Film: Special Effects TV and Comedy Films of the 1960s [Part 1]

Tatsuo Iso IsoArchitectural Journalist

R&D DISCUSSION TOP

Q: As an architectural journalist writing articles about old buildings, you refer to books, magazines, movies, and TV dramas as well as other sources. How do you get your information?

A: When you watch movies or TV dramas that use real buildings as filming locations, you can see how people saw and understood the buildings. Especially in the case of old movies, it's interesting to compare old maps and aerial photographs to identify which buildings they are.

For example, let's look at how Marunouchi was depicted. There is a special effects drama called "Ultra Q" [Figure 1] that aired in 1966. It is the first of the Ultra series, famous for "Ultraman." What makes it different from the second and subsequent works is that there is no superhero like Ultraman. Ordinary people dressed in ordinary clothes fight monsters. The fourth episode of this drama, "Mammoth Flower" [Figure 2], is shot entirely in Marunouchi. The setting is that the seeds of an ancient plant called "Mammoth Flower" were sleeping underground in Marunouchi. The story is that this seed starts to grow by some chance, and a giant flower blooms in the sky while destroying buildings, destroying human life, and this miniature work is well done. The story begins with a scene filmed on location in Marunouchi. The protagonist goes to pick up flyers from an advertising agency in the Shin-Marunouchi Building (1952/designed by Mitsubishi Estate), located in front of the Marunouchi exit of Tokyo Station, to get a job distributing flyers, but for some reason the inside of the building is messy and an earthquake-like phenomenon occurs. He goes to check on the moat of the Imperial Palace, where he hears something strange is happening, and finds the roots of a giant plant appearing on the surface of the water in the Hibiya moat. In order to defeat this terrifying giant plant that captures humans and sucks their blood with its thorns, the protagonist gets on a light aircraft and sprays chemicals from the air. The footage overlooking the city is a simple special effects shot in which a miniature of the entire Marunouchi area was pasted on top of a photograph, perhaps because they couldn't make a miniature of the entire area, but I guess they wanted to capture a picture of flowers blooming above a city covered in buildings.

This work beautifully captures the history and architecture of Marunouchi. I thought the building that was destroyed by the Mammoth Flower sleeping underground was a fictional building, but the book "Godzilla and Tokyo-Kaiju Movies Trace the Showa Era's Urban Landscapes" (Ichijinsha) says that it was a real office building. This building is called "Okawa Tanaka Office" (1921) designed by Shimizu Corporation, and if you compare the photo with the miniature in the drama, you can see that the arched windows and chrysanthemum crest were referenced in the construction of the building.

Marunouchi in the 1960s, when Ultra Q was filmed, was a time when the eaves height of buildings was limited to 31m (100 shaku) and a unified urban landscape was realized. On the other hand, it can also be said to be a time when the red brick Western-style office district of the Meiji and Taisho periods was demolished. A full-scale urban design emerged after the Meiji and Westernization period, called "Ichi-cho London" because of its similarity to London. The buildings that formed it, such as Mitsubishi Ichigokan, No. 2 Building, and No. 3 Building, were demolished one after another in the 1960s. This drama is a work that allows you to see such a historical background.

[Figure 1]
"ULTRAMAN ARCHIVES Ultra Q UHD & MovieNEX"
(70,000 yen excluding tax, on sale now /
Released by: Tsuburaya Productions,
Sales: Pony Canyon / Ⓒ Tsuburaya Productions)
[Figure 2] The mammoth flower, a giant plant called Juran, blooms big enough to break through a building.

Q: What is interesting about watching films that focus on architecture and cities?

A: If you look at the "Mammoth Flower" from Ultra Q, you can see it as a natural disaster attacking a city, but if you look at it with an eye on architecture, a different meaning emerges. As I mentioned earlier, by incorporating monsters, Ultra Q drama is dramatizing the situation that actually occurred in the city in the 1960s. The Mammoth Flower symbolizes the destruction of old buildings, but let's look at the setting of the Mammoth Flower. According to a monster encyclopedia published at the time, it was 100m tall. This shows that the Mammoth Flower can be likened to the Tokyo Marine Building. The Tokyo Marine Building was designed by Kunio Maekawa and completed in 1974, with a 99.7m eaves and a maximum height of 108m. It was a building that surpassed the height of the previous buildings in Marunouchi, but the design began in 1965, the same time the drama was being made. In the drama, the Mammoth Flower destroyed an old building in Marunouchi, but in reality it was the Tokio Marine Building.

In other words, the drama Mammoth Flower is a story that skillfully incorporates three generations of buildings that stood in Marunouchi. The first generation were the brick buildings that made up One Block London. The second generation were the buildings that were demolished and erected with the same 31m line. While Mammoth Flower depicts this situation, it also incorporates the appearance of the third generation, 100m-class skyscrapers like the Tokio Marine Building, which were built after eaves height restrictions were relaxed.

In Marunouchi today, the next generation of 200m-class buildings are being built one after another. They are now twice as tall as the Mammoth Flower, but at the same time, the monsters are also evolving rapidly. For example, Godzilla grows taller with each new movie, which means that he evolves as the buildings get taller. Godzilla also attacks Tokyo in "Shin Godzilla" (2016) [Figure 3]. In this movie, the building that helps to defeat Godzilla is the "Tokiwabashi Project" building [Figure 4], which is bigger than the monster. As you know, the Tokiwabashi Project is a plan consisting of four buildings, including a 390m skyscraper that will be the tallest in Japan, and is scheduled to be completed in 2027. This unseen building appears in the movie. This means that Godzilla can only be defeated by buildings of the future, not existing buildings. Monster movies have always depicted monsters destroying buildings, but Shin Godzilla shows that buildings can also fight back against monsters. In the movie Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995), there was a scene where a giant turtle-like monster attacking the Japanese archipelago was lured into the Fukuoka Dome (1993/designed by Takenaka Corporation and Maeda Construction Industry Joint Venture), where the roof was closed and the monster was captured. The Tokiwabashi Project is another rare example of architectural design helping to defeat a monster. As someone involved in the construction industry, I felt very proud when I saw this.

[Figure 3] "Shin Godzilla 2-disc set"
(DVD now on sale/Released and distributed by: Toho)
[Figure 4] In Shin Godzilla, Building B of the Tokiwabashi Project appears behind Godzilla, wreaking havoc around Tokyo Station.

[Figures 1 and 2: Provided by Tsuburaya Productions / Figure 3: Provided by Toho]

Continued in Part 2

PROFILE

Architectural Journalist

Tatsuo Iso

Iso Tatsuo

Born in Saitama Prefecture in 1963. Graduated from Nagoya University in 1988 and worked at the Nikkei Architecture editorial department. Became independent in 2000. Co-founded the editorial office Flick Studio in 2002. Part-time lecturer at Kuwasawa Design School and Musashino Art University. Major co-authored books include Showa Modern Architecture Pilgrimage: Complete Edition 1945-64 (Nikkei BP, 2019), Premodern Architecture Pilgrimage (Nikkei BP, 2018), Kikutake Kiyonori Pilgrimage (Nikkei BP, 2012), Postmodern Architecture Pilgrimage (Nikkei BP, 2011), The Future Cities We Dreamed of (PHP Institute, 2010), and Showa Modern Architecture Pilgrimage: Western Japan Edition/Eastern Japan Edition (2006/2008).

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Update : 2018.09.21

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