What is the importance of "Tokusatsu" in Japanese film history? Why do Japanese love "special photography"?

"Tokusatsu" (Japanese: Tokusatsu), that is, "special photography", is a Japanese term and film type. It is also Japan's most internationally renowned technology and product, represented by "Godzilla" 》 series is one of Japan’s well-known international pop culture symbols. The original meaning of tokusatsu - special technology. To use special effects, screen compositing and other special techniques to create things that do not exist or cannot exist in reality.

For example, various disaster scenes such as tsunamis, earthquakes, subsidence, volcanic eruptions, magma outflows, and meteorite falls are all restored and filmed using on-site materials. Such as the classic disaster scenes in "The Birth of Japan", "The Love of the White Lady" and "The Sinking of Japan".

Tokusatsu films were Japan’s national policy films before World War II. The 1942 Japanese war feature film "The Battle of Hawaii" was mistaken by the US occupation forces as a real war documentary after World War II. In 1954, Japan's Toho Corporation launched Japan's first monster special-photography film "Godzilla". It pioneered the stop-motion shooting techniques popular in Europe and the United States, such as wearing props and costumes to play monsters and the creation of supernatural creatures that reflected reality, which had a great impact on the West. Had a great impact. For a long time, leather cases and life-size miniature models have also become popular in Europe and the United States. Masters such as Spielberg and Tim Burton were deeply influenced by Japanese tokusatsu and learned and applied them.

Japanese special films (especially those focusing on monsters, adventures, wars, weirdos, horror, disasters and other themes) have also become the darlings of the West for a long time. Its sophistication in production, technological leadership, depth of plot connotation, interest and other commercial and popular elements, as well as its advanced setting, were unmatched by European and American SFX at the time. In Japan in the early 1970s, superhero tokusatsu TV series began to rise. War special effects movies were popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Such as "Warlords", "230 Highlands", "United Fleet", etc. In the 1970s, Japanese special photography also produced two works similar to "Star Wars". They are Toho's "Planet Wars" and Toei's "Message from the Universe". The latter was also nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Japanese tokusatsu films have had a great influence on ACGN, and elements similar to a certain film can still be found in some works