2450 – Godzilla Minus One (2023)

timespace coordinates: 1945-47 (postwar) Japan

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Godzilla Minus One (ゴジラ-1.0マイナスワンGojira Mainasu Wan) is a 2023 Japanese epic kaiju film written, directed, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. Produced by Toho Studios and Robot Communications and distributed by Toho, it is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, Toho’s 33rd Godzilla film, and the fifth film in the franchise’s Reiwa era.

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The film stars Ryunosuke KamikiMinami HamabeYuki YamadaMunetaka AokiHidetaka YoshiokaSakura Ando and Kuranosuke Sasaki. Set in postwar Japan, it follows a former kamikaze pilot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after encountering a giant monster known as “Godzilla“.

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Godzilla Minus One is widely considered one of the best films of 2023 and among the greatest Godzilla movies ever made. (wiki)

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2385 – Weathering with You (2019)

timespace coordinates: summer of 2021 in Tokyo

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Weathering with You (Japanese: 天気の子, Hepburn: Tenki no Kolit. ’Child of Weather’) is a 2019 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, produced by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho.

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It follows a 16-year-old high school boy, Hodaka Morishima, who runs away from his troubled rural home to Tokyo, and later befriends Hina Amano, an orphaned girl who has the ability to control the weather. (wiki)

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2384 – The Man in the High Castle (TV Series 2015–2019)

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timespace coordinates: Set in 1962, the series’ main setting is a parallel universe where the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan have won World War II in 1946 after Giuseppe Zangara successfully assassinates United States President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, creating a series of developments that include the Germans dropping an atomic bomb on Washington, D.C. (now renamed “District of Contamination”). The German Reich extends to Europe and Africa and the Empire of Japan comprises Asia, but most of the series is set in the former US and in Germany proper.

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Western North America, now part of the “Japanese Pacific States”, is occupied by the technologically less-advanced Shōwa-period Empire of Japan, which has assimilated its formerly American citizens into Japanese culture, although high-class ethnic Japanese are extremely fascinated by pre-War American culture. Japan’s Trade and Science ministers work in the Pacific States’ capital, San Francisco. The Japanese rulers subject non-Japanese people to racial discrimination and grant them fewer rights.

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Eastern and Midwestern North America is a colony controlled by the Greater Nazi Reich (GNR) under an aging Führer Adolf Hitler. The colony, headed by a “Reichsmarschall of North America”, is commonly referred to as “Nazi America” or “the American Reich” and its capital is New York City. The Nazis continue to hunt minorities and euthanize the physically and mentally sick. The superior technology of the Germans is highlighted by the use of video phones and Concorde-like “rockets” for intercontinental travel.

The US as depicted in the television series. Though Denver is the capital of the Neutral Zone, Cañon City, Colorado, is a major setting.

A Neutral Zone, which encompasses the Rocky Mountains, serves as a buffer zone between the Japanese Pacific States and Nazi America due to Cold War–like tensions between the German and Japanese blocs. Another buffer zone is present in the Urals.

Films collected by the eponymous “Man in the High Castle” show views of numerous other Earths, including some where the Allies were victorious, some featuring executed Allied leaders (such as Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin), and some where an American resistance is doing well.

The Man in the High Castle is an American dystopian alternate history television series created for streaming service Amazon Prime Video. It was created by Frank Spotnitz and produced by Amazon StudiosRidley Scott‘s Scott Free Productions (with Scott serving as executive producer), Headline PicturesElectric Shepherd Productions, and Big Light Productions. The series is based on Philip K. Dick‘s 1962 novel of the same name. (wiki)

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2360 – Gyeongseong Creature (TV Series 2023-)

timespace coordinates: spring of 1945 in Gyeongseong (the old name for Seoul), during the Japanese colonization of Korea,

Gyeongseong Creature (Korean: 경성크리처) is an ongoing South Korean web series written by Kang Eun-kyung, directed by Chung Dong-yoon and Roh Young-sub, and starring Park Seo-joonHan So-hee and Soo Hyun.

The first season was released on Netflix on December 22, 2023 (The first season was divided into two parts: Part 1 was released on December 22, 2023 with seven episodes, while Part 2 with the remaining three episodes will be released on January 5, 2024.). A second season is already underway. (wiki)

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2346 – Oppenheimer (2023)

timespace coordinates: 1920’s Cambridge, Göttingen, Switzerland > 1930’s California, 1940’s Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1950’s Washington, D.C.

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Oppenheimer (/ˈɒpənhmər/ OP-ən-hy-mər) is a 2023 epic biographical thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist credited with being the “father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project—the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons.

Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film chronicles the career of Oppenheimer, with the story predominantly focusing on his studies, his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing.

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The film also stars Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife “Kitty”Matt Damon as head of the Manhattan Project Leslie GrovesRobert Downey Jr. as U.S. Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s communist lover Jean Tatlock. The ensemble supporting cast includes Josh HartnettCasey AffleckRami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh.

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Oppenheimer’s simultaneous release with Warner Bros.’s Barbie led to the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature. (wiki)

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2340 – Gran Turismo (2023)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s UK, Dubai, Japan, France, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Spain

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Gran Turismo is a 2023 American biographical sports drama film directed by Neill Blomkamp from a screenplay by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin. Produced by Columbia Pictures, PlayStation Productions, and 2.0 Entertainment, it is based on the racing simulation video game series of the same name developed by Polyphony Digital.

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It tells the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a teenage Gran Turismo player who became a professional racing car driver. The film stars Archie Madekwe as Mardenborough alongside David HarbourOrlando BloomDarren BarnetEmelia HartfordGeri Halliwell HornerDjimon Hounsou and Josha Stradowski. (wiki)

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On July 2, 1996, an extraterrestrial mothership enters Earth’s orbit and deploys saucers (each 15 mi (24 km) in diameter) over major cities worldwide, including New York CityLos Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Independence Day (1996)

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Independence Day (also promoted as ID4) is a 1996 American science fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. It stars an ensemble cast that consists of Will SmithBill PullmanJeff GoldblumMary McDonnellJudd HirschMargaret ColinRandy QuaidRobert LoggiaJames Rebhorn, and Harvey Fierstein.

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The film focuses on disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert in the aftermath of a worldwide attack by a powerful extraterrestrial race. With the other people of the world, they launch a counterattack on July 4—Independence Day in the United States.

Considered a significant turning point in the history of the Hollywood blockbusterIndependence Day was at the forefront of the large-scale disaster film and sci-fi resurgence of the mid-late 1990s. (wiki)

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Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Twenty years after the War of 1996, the United Nations has founded the Earth Space Defense (ESD), a global defense advanced research program that reverse-engineers alien technology and serves as Earth’s alert system against extraterrestrial threats. Civilization has been restored and relative peace among nations exists following the human race’s victory over the aliens’ attacks, and major cities around the world including Washington D.C. were rebuilt and modernized with amalgamated technologies. After establishing Area 51 as its headquarters, the ESD set up bases on the MoonMars, and Rhea, a moon of Saturn, and orbital defense satellites above Earth, as fortifications against future invasions.

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Independence Day: Resurgence is a 2016 American science fiction action film co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich, serving as a sequel to the 1996 film Independence Day. It stars an ensemble cast that consists of Liam HemsworthJeff GoldblumBill PullmanMaika MonroeTravis TopeWilliam FichtnerCharlotte Gainsbourg, and Judd Hirsch. (wiki)

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