Gamera and Kim Jong Il

Gamera is a rather bizarre monster. He’s essentially a giant mutant turtle. Except he has rockets under his shell, which allow him to fly, and spin round and round. Just like Godzilla, he’s sometimes friend, sometimes foe; this April, there was a new Gamera film released in which he was very much our friend - Gamera The Brave - you can see the trailer here.

What then, is the connection with Kim Jong Il?

Well, there was a report on the news this morning about the worrying possibility that the dear leader is ready to fire his Taep’o-dong-2 missiles at Japan, and it turns out there’s an early warning installation in Chiba Prefecture:

Its name? Why, Gamera Radar of course. Pop culture meets military defence. Nice.

Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 Japan, Japanese News, Japanese Trivia Trackback URL for this entry