Kaiju and Punishment

This week I started the novel Russian novel Crime and Punishment for my plotting in fiction class. I also watched the Kaiju (giant monster) movie, Pacific Rim for the second time. This caused some confusion in my mind. It also made me wonder how many other people mix up Kaiju movies with great Russian novels. So here is a quiz to test your knowledge on both subjects. The key is at the bottom. No cheating!

Quiz: Russian Novelist or Kaiju?

 1. Select the Russian Novelist who did NOT direct King Kong?

    a)  Merian C. Cooper

b)      Peter Jackson

c)      Nikolai Gogol

d)      John Guillermin

2. Matthew Broderick’s character in the 1998 Godzilla:

    a)  Nikolai Blagoveshchensky

b)      Niko Tatopoulos

c)      Nikolay Karamzin

d)      Nikolai Negorev

3. “Drift” Pilot Team of the Russian Alpha Jaeger in Pacific Rim:

        a)     Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky

b)      Alyona and Lizaveta Ivanovna

c)      Vadim and Nadezhda Kozhevnikova

d)      Sofia and Sasha Sokolov

4. This epic story revolves around a giant monster attack on a major metropolitan area as told by a small group of people.

    a)    Taras Bulba

b)      Demons

c)      Cloverfield

d)      One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

5. This controversial story tells of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze.

        a) Ghidora

b)      Rodan

c)      Cloverfield

d)      Lolita

6. An experimental Kaiju escapes from his captors and is suspected to be the creature that is killing people all over the countryside. But when the Kaiju from the lab appears at the same time as the evil Kaiju, the two begin to battle across Japan.

        a)  War

b)      War and Peace

c)      The War of the Gargantuas

d)      The Duel

7. Name the female character played by Fay Wray and Naomi Watts in King Kong who was the “Beauty who slayed the beast.”

        a)  Anna Karenina

b)      Anna Dostoyevskaya

c)      Anna Kashina

d)     Ann Darrow

8. Godzilla’s lovable, flying, comic relief Kaiju son introduced in the 1979 animated Hanna-Barbera/Toho production:

        a)  Gaidar

b)      Gogol

c)       Godzuki

d)      Guro

9. Thought by many to be the number one Russian Novel of all time. When the student Raskolnikov puts his philosophical theory to the ultimate test of murder, a tragic tale of suffering and redemption unfolds in the dismal setting of the slums of czarist, prerevolutionary St. Petersburg.

        a)    Gamera vs. Monster X

b)      The Host

c)      Crime and Punishment

d)      The Brothers Karamazov

e)      Monster Zero

10. Thought to be the King of All Giant Monsters, this Kaiju appears in over 25 films.

        a) Tolstoy

b)      Dostoyevsky

c)      Zamyatin

d)      Godzilla

e)      Gigan

So how did you do? If you got only the Russian Novelist questions right, go see more Kaiju movies. If you got only the Kaiju questions right, good on you. And if you got both types of questions right, well, you are one messed up person. Seek help immediately.

     ~ Mark - @ManOWords

Just Because (Bambi vs. Godzilla)

(Answer Key Below)

Key

1. C  Gogol did NOT direct Kong (but he wanted to)

2. B   Niko Tatopoulos

3. A  Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky

4. C  Cloverfied

5. D  Lolita

6. C  The War of the Gargantuas

7. A  Ann Darrow

8. C  Godzuki

9. C  Crime and Punishment

10. D  Godzilla!