Tokusatsu is a special filming technology, and it’s a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of special effects. There are many Tokusatu films such as Godzilla, Ultrman and Power Ranger etc. Nowadays, Tokusatsu is on of the most popular forms of Japanese Movie entertainment. But there are only a small proportion of tokusatu films and television are widely known outside and inside Asia.
“A genre of Japanese entertainment often involving giant rubber creatures, bug eyes superheros in tights, lots and lots of detailed (but uncovincing) minature buildings and crowds of fleeing Japanese extras.” {01}
___by Jules Carrozza June 20, 2003
Since 1890 to 2021, Tokusatsu has been changed a lot during this long time. In the very beginning, Tokusatsu is just a special filming, using camera rotation, high and slow speed to make the character looks like fly and disappeared in the screen. In the early 19th centenary, there is not such a visual effect technic in tokusatsu, the director used foamed plastic materials to set up the filming sense and all the characters are real actors inside of these leather models. With the advances of technology in Movie entertainment, tokusatsu has some CG sense in the screen and looks more reality.
Though over the decades the technology has improved, the core elements of tokusatsu henshin have remained the same. Typically, there are secret identities, transformations, a use of special effects—typically practical effects with roots in the old school tokusatsu tradition. Quite often there are giant robots and monsters, stylized theatrical fights, and other commonalities.
“In 1954, inspired by the classic American feature King Kong, director Ishiro Honda created a monster movie of his own. A drama with a strong anti-nuclear weapon sentiment at its core, Godzilla would change the face of sci-fi cinema forever.” {02}
___by Jose Nateras16 November 2020
The influence and success of Godzilla would inspire a whole slew of kaiju movies, expanding the development of tokusatsu, and causing what was called the ‘Monster Boom.’ Without these forerunners to pave the way, some of the most iconic tokusatsu series like Kamen Rider and Ultranan wouldn’t exist. Also, as we can see there two different types of Godzilla movies, one is made from Japan, the other is made from the United States, compare these two movies, Japanese one used more real products such as real actors and the environment set up, the American edition used many CG environment and green screen to present the final effects. Though the times have changed, the love for the tokusatsu genre, and all of its various branches and subgenre, has not. Audiences all over the world continue to embrace a style of film making and storytelling that manages to be equally devoted to tradition as it is to innovation, since its origin; and that is what, even more than ‘effects’ and ‘filming’, makes tokusatsu ‘special.’
In conclusion, we need to encourage and do more Tokusatsu, this is another type of visual effect technic and this effect will give the audience a new feeling of film and also gives the director a new way to produce films.