Fwd: Donald Keene Center events

[Aaron Gerow]

"GODZILLA IN NEW YORK" PROGRAM
SPRING 2005 EVENTS

April 20 (Wednesday)
?Godzilla and the Bravo Shot: Who Created and Killed the Monster?
?Yuki Tanaka (Research Professor, Hiroshima Peace Institute)
?403 Kent Hall, Columbia University
?6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

?Godzilla is now one of the most popular film characters in the
?world. Yet it is often forgotten that the rise of this monster
?was?closely interrelated with the Bravo Shot, a 1954 hydrogen-bomb
  ?test?that the U.S. conducted in the Marshall Islands, irradiating a
?Japanese fishing boat called, ironically, the Lucky Dragon. The
?1954 film Gojira reflected not only the immense fear of nuclear
?arms that pervaded the Japanese nation at the time, but also the
?Pacific War experiences of the Japanese population and especially
?the aerial bombing of civilians by U.S. forces. This lecture
examines the different ways in which the American and Japanese
?people have attempted to understand the horror of nuclear war and
?aerial bombing through an analysis of the Godzilla films produced
?in the two countries over the past fifty years.

?Co-sponsored by The Weatherhead East Asian Institute

*******************************************************************
?April 21 (Thursday)
?"Godzilla in New York" Program
?Lecture with Screening: A Proletarian Godzilla: Pulgasari and
?North Korean Cinema
?Charles Armstrong (Associate Professor of History, Columbia
?University)
?Altschul Auditorium, 417 International Affairs Building (118th
?St.and Amsterdam Ave.)
?8:00 PM

?Directed by esteemed South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok during
his enforced stay in North Korea in the 1980s, Pulgasari represents a
?unique blend of entertainment and ideological education according
?to Kim Jong Il's principles of cinematic art. Set in the medieval
Koryo dynasty, North Korea's answer to Godzilla seems on the
?surface to be a critique of feudal Korean society, but it can
?also be read as a subtle attack on the North Korean regime itself.
?This talk will discuss the film and its place in the history of
?(North)?Korean cinema.

?Co-sponsored by The Weatherhead East Asian Institute and The
?Center
?for Korean Research
***************************************************
May 2 (Monday)
?"Godzilla in New York" Program Final Event
?Special Screening of Gojira (1954) in its original, uncut version
?Japanese with English subtitles
?Roone Arledge Auditorium, Lerner Hall (115th St. and Broadway)
?Please use the campus-side entrance, at the northeast corner of the
?building
?8 PM

?PLEASE E-MAIL the Donald Keene Center at
?donald-keene-center at columbia.edu by April 15th for complimentary
?tickets.

?Co-sponsored by The Weatherhead East Asian Institute