Norman England's Behind the Kaiju Curtain: A Journey onto Japan's Biggest Film Sets is a literal journal of the author's day-to-day experiences on and off daikaiju film sets from 1997 until 2001, initially as a feature writer for Fangoria magazine and later as the sole non-Japanese chronicler of all things behind-the-scenes on the Heisei Gamera films and Millennium series Godzilla films. Few longtime, diehard daikaiju fans (of which I am certainly one) are unfamiliar with Norman's moniker. He has covered these movies in-depth in numerous publications; conducted countless interviews with the moviemakers, soundtrack composers, and actors (including those inside the monster suits); and appeared in front of the camera in several of the films. This book offers a compelling story of his sojourn in Japan as a fan, writer, and occasional actor, related in vivid, warts-and-all, no-holds-barred fashion.
In his days working for Fangoria magazine,
Norman met and interviewed Godzilla suit actors
Haruo Nakajima and Kenpachiro Satsuma. His profiles of
these gentlemen reveal their distinct personalities and philosophies with
unprecedented candor, and it's this candid, sometimes blunt approach that defines the tone for the rest of the book.
Eventually, Norman befriended film director
Shusuke Kaneko (who provides the foreword for the book), which, not
altogether surprisingly, served to open doors to the Japanese film industry
that had previously been closed to western writers. His on-set
experiences during the filming of
Gamera III: Revenge of Iris provided
him with unprecedented insight into the world of Japanese
moviemaking—daikaiju films in particular, but also in the greater picture. His rendering of the sights, smells, sounds, and moods of his experiences aren't just vivid; they are immersive.
From that initial serendipity, Norman's industry contacts snowballed, often with director Kaneko
serving as facilitator. It wasn't long before he found himself on the sets of
the Godzilla: Millennium,
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, and Godzilla - Mothra - King Ghidorah, meeting such
renowned industry figures as producer Shogo Tomiyama (who seemed to
"politely" tolerate his presence), monster suit maker Shinichi Wakasa, director Masaaki Tezuka, and many, many others. Once again, his impressions of these individuals, as painted in his prose, are not whitewashed or glamorized; these are real people doing real jobs, sometimes brilliantly, sometimes less so.
Needless to say, a journal as personal as this one, bringing day-to-day experiences and interactions into stark focus, showcases countless moments of bizarre levity, moments where you really wish you could have stood in the author's shoes, and a few genuine "what-the-hell-were-you-thinking-Norman?" moments. One thing is certain: few, if any of us will ever be able to spend day after day on daikaiju movie sets, up close and personal with our favorite (and sometimes unfavorite) monsters and human personalities. Truly, days such as those Norman chronicles are now gone. Whatever commonalities filmmaking of 20-plus years ago might have with today's, Norman's experiences were and are unique, and his voice in this book is one that any fan of giant movie monsters (or Japanese movies in general) should desperately want to hear.
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