2024 is a year that I knew would be big for me for one main reason: the 50th Anniversary of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), the first Godzilla movie I ever saw back in 1998, when I was 8 years old. Ever since then it has been my #1 favorite movie of all time, simply because it was such a life changer for me, and for years I hoped that one day I would get the chance to see the movie on the big screen.
On May 21st this year, I got the first sign indicating that my dream would finally come true. Kino Regina, a cinema in Helsinki dedicated to showing classic movies, announced their summer lineup, and one of the retrospectives in there was called ”50 Years Ago: Movie Year 1974”, naturally meaning that they’d be screening movies from that year. To my absolute surprise, MG74 was on the list! I was overjoyed. That bit of news most definitely made my day, my week, and possibly even my whole year.
I was so excited that I felt the need to take part in this event, other than just simply getting a ticket. I wrote an e-mail to the cinema staff, asking them if it would be OK for me to bring my MG74 collection over there for display. I also said that I’d be willing to do an introductory speech in at least one of the two screenings they would have for the movie. I had to wait for a few days until I got a response from them. I was a little scared that they wouldn’t take my request seriously, so I was prepared for the worst. However, to my relief, they actually said yes!
Now let’s move ahead to August, one week before the screenings. I went to the cinema with my memorabilia to help set up the ”exhibition”. Here’s the list of all the items I took there:
- Japanese poster (reproduction)
- International poster
- US press book sheet
- Japanese and German Blu-rays
- US and Australian DVDs
- Finnish VHS
- Two soundtrack releases
- Mechagodzilla 1974 visual book
- X-Plus MG74 figure
- Bandai G74, MG74 and King Caesar figures
- Small G74 head bust
- Fridge magnet
- Clear file folder
There were a few other items that I had ordered from Japan, like a Bandai Anguirus figure and a Japanese laserdisc, but unfortunately those didn’t manage to arrive on time. It would’ve been nice to have at least the entire kaiju cast on display, but three out of four is better than nothing. Of course, the cinema staff had also put up the Finnish-Swedish poster. If only I could get my hands on that one day…
Then, a week later, on August 29th, it was time for the first screening. I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. I don’t know if the exhibition had been any help or not, but a fairly big number of people came to watch the movie. I think that helped boost my confidence when it came to my introduction. For a long time I had thought whether or not I would actually write the speech down in advance, but in the end I decided to just improvise the whole thing. So I stood in front of the screen with my G54 hand puppet for 10 minutes and talked about the movie and what it means to me. All in all, it went pretty well, at least judging by the volume of the applause I received.
At this point, I should mention that my dream of seeing the movie in a theater had already become true, because I went to see it at the Pickwick during G-Fest in July. But of course that was all digital and not an actual film print, so I was sure that the Helsinki screening(s) would be an even cooler experience (no offense to G-Fest at all). Boy, was I right. The Finnish/Swedish subtitled 35mm print of the international export version was in surprisingly great condition. The colors looked suitably vibrant and there was not much print damage, except for the reel changes obviously. The sound sometimes had some clarity changes and went a bit out of sync as well, but that wasn’t a big issue, all things considered. I was just happy that I finally got to see a real 35mm print of my favorite movie.
As the movie ended, I was glad that the people applauded it. It felt like they really had a good time, possibly partly thanks to my introduction. After exiting the theater, I went to the lobby again, and some of the other attendees were also there, discussing the movie and admiring my collection. I even went to talk with them. One person told me that they were already hyped to see the movie, but my speech lifted their hype levels even more. That certainly seemed to be enough proof that my decision to provide my services to the cinema was a good one.
I went to the second screening on August 31st too, and while the turnout wasn’t as big as two days before, it was still considerably successful. Sadly I didn’t get to do an introduction again, but I honestly wasn’t expecting that to happen that much anyway. The most important thing is that everyone had a fun time.
In closing, I would just like to give my sincerest thanks to the staff at Kino Regina. I’m beyond honored that they gave me a chance to cooperate with them in celebrating a movie that’s so important to me. That means a lot to me. Here’s to hoping that they’ll screen more kaiju/tokusatsu movies in the future and that I’ll be able to join forces with them again.
