|
The “Godzilla” monster movie series from Japan landed Taiwan through theaters, cable television and books, giving birth to a group of monster fans who shared the same childhood memory, and fostered their future ability of creation.
However, in a place where circumstance and system full of changes like Taiwan, monsters are not just pure goods handing over to monster fans. Monsters had different roles and meanings due to changes in politic, economy, medium and education; they appeared in front of their fans in both legal and illegal way, shaping their unique history of hobby and personal memories.
The researcher started from his personal experience, trying to describe the history of Japanese movie monsters landing Taiwan and also the life track of this fan group by documentary, hoping to find the factor which made them become their present appearance. To dive deeper into his memory, the researcher turned the camera lens to himself, using pictures, video tapes and even school contact books to tell his past. In order to lead the audience into the process and ambience of recall, in this documentary, he also presented the floating property of memory subjectively.
The growth of monster fans became clear through deeply recalling and interview. Drawing monster is a language used by children who were fascinated with monsters by instinct, which they also use it to build an imaginary world. But their hobbies were inhibited because of the socialization from school education and their same generation, or their inner changes of values. Giving up monsters or social relationship or making balance between them, are some methods used by monster fan to protect themselves. Finally, monster itself became the container of memory, where monster fans preserve their first impression of monster by collecting or reproduce them.
As to the researcher, documentary is also a self practice as a monster fan. By making documentary, researcher not only represented his own growth as a monster fan but also preserved the feeling brought by this experience. What is more important is that the researcher did find an answer to his doubt, and also completed his own monster movie.
|