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Culture
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Film franchises
系列电影
Atomic beast
原子弹怪兽
As a symbol of nuclear weapons, Godzilla has roared back to relevance.
作为核武器的象征，哥斯拉咆哮着归来，并再次变得重要。
At the age of 70 some might think about retiring, if they have not done so already.
在70岁时，一些人可能会考虑退休，如果他们还没有退休的话。
Not Godzilla.
但哥斯拉不会。
Since the giant lizard made his screen debut in “Godzilla”, a Japanese film released in 1954, he has crashed his way through nearly 40 movies.
自从这只巨型蜥蜴在1954年上映的日本电影《哥斯拉》中首次亮相以来，他已经出演了近40部电影。
(Guinness World Records certifies Godzilla as the longest-running movie franchise.)
(吉尼斯世界纪录认证《哥斯拉》是持续时间最长的系列电影。)
Nor does he shows any sign of slowing down.
哥斯拉也没有表现出任何放慢脚步的迹象。
In December “Godzilla Minus One”, a Japanese film, became a box-office hit.
去年12月，日本电影《哥斯拉-1.0》票房大卖。
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” has recently hit cinemas, too.
《哥斯拉大战金刚2：帝国崛起》最近也在影院上映。
From his conception, Godzilla has symbolised the fears of his time.
从对哥斯拉的构想来看，哥斯拉象征着他所处时代的恐惧。
He was created from the wreckage of the second world war.
哥斯拉是从第二次世界大战的废墟中创造出来的。
Honda Ishiro, the writer-director of “Godzilla”, was haunted by the bombing of Hiroshima, the aftermath of which he witnessed first-hand.
《哥斯拉》的编剧兼导演本多猪四郎对广岛遭到轰炸难以释怀，他亲眼目睹了轰炸的后果。
“It was said that, for the next 72 years, not a single blade of grass would grow there—and that really stayed with me,” he said.
“据说，在接下来的72年里，那里连一片草都长不出来。这句话一直印在我的脑海里。”他说。
“Godzilla represents the frightfulness of nuclear weapons.”
“哥斯拉代表了核武器的可怕之处。”
In “Godzilla”, after the monster destroys a village on Odo Island, researchers conclude that he was roused from his prehistoric slumber by hydrogen-bomb testing.
在《哥斯拉》中，怪兽摧毁了大户岛上的村庄之后，研究人员得出结论，是氢弹试验把哥斯拉从史前的沉睡中唤醒了。
The bomb’s cloud still hung in the air: earlier in 1954 America had detonated powerful thermonuclear bombs on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
氢弹的阴云仍然笼罩在空中：在1954年初，美国在太平洋的比基尼环礁引爆了威力强大的热核弹。（注：热核弹即氢弹。）
The crew of a Japanese fishing boat was accidentally irradiated.
一艘日本渔船的船员意外受到辐射。
“Godzilla” provides plenty of horror-film thrills, including scenes that have been endlessly imitated: people fleeing through narrow city streets and the monster crunching on train carriages.
《哥斯拉》提供了大量恐怖电影的惊险场面，其中一些场景不断被模仿：人们在狭窄的城市街道上逃跑、怪兽压扁了火车车厢。
But it also reflects on Japan’s war trauma.
但这部电影也反映了日本的战争创伤。
“I barely escaped the atomic bomb at Nagasaki,” one woman says, “and now this!”
“我险些没逃过长崎的原子弹轰炸，”一名妇女说，“现在又来了这个怪物！”
Japan is isolated from major world powers and must face the monster alone.
日本与世界的主要强国隔绝，面对怪物必须孤身作战。
In the story’s most interesting turn, a scientist has to decide whether to use a terrible new weapon to defeat this enemy.
电影中最有趣的情节转折是，一位科学家必须决定是否要使用一种可怕的新武器来击败这个敌人。
As the memory of nuclear destruction started to recede, Godzilla’s meaning mutated.
随着核破坏的记忆开始淡化，哥斯拉的寓意发生了变化。
America has been producing its own Godzilla films since 1956, and Hollywood has often ignored the historical aspect of the beast’s story in favour of pure action.
美国从1956年以来一直在拍摄自己的哥斯拉电影，而好莱坞往往忽视了哥斯拉故事中的历史方面，只喜欢拍摄纯粹的动作场面。
In time Godzilla went from myth to meme.
渐渐地，哥斯拉从神话变成了梗图。
He became one of several characters in a franchise known as the “MonsterVerse”.
他成了《怪兽宇宙》系列电影中的几个角色之一。
Recent instalments have brought supersize lizard and enormous ape together: “Godzilla x Kong” is a sequel to “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021).
该系列中最近的几部电影将这个巨型蜥蜴和巨型类人猿聚在一起：《哥斯拉大战金刚2》是《哥斯拉大战金刚》（2021）的续集。
The MonsterVerse has tended towards the absurd, but has also explored a theme implicit in the Godzilla story: the environment.
《怪兽宇宙》的风格更偏荒诞，但也探索了哥斯拉故事中隐含的一个主题：环境。
In one movie Godzilla helps defeat eco-terrorists who want to unleash primitive monsters to rid Earth of the “infection” of mankind.
在一部电影中，哥斯拉帮助击败了生态恐怖分子，这些恐怖分子想要释放原始怪物，以消除地球的“感染”，即人类。
In “Godzilla x Kong” the monster defends an untouched natural realm.
在《哥斯拉大战金刚2》中，哥斯拉捍卫了一个未被人类涉足的自然之域。
In these films, released in an age of anxiety about the climate, Godzilla represents an ancient natural order that humans are wont to ruin.
这些电影上映于对环境感到焦虑担忧的时代，在这些电影中，哥斯拉代表了一种人类习惯去破坏的古老自然秩序。
“Godzilla Minus One” is the best recent addition to the creature’s canon: it even earned Godzilla his first Oscar in March, for Best Visual Effects.
《哥斯拉-1.0》是哥斯拉系列新电影中最优秀的一部：还在3月为哥斯拉赢得了第一座奥斯卡奖杯：最佳视觉效果奖。
Yet the film is not just aesthetically impressive; it is as profound as the original, and in conversation with it.
然而，这部电影不仅在美学上令人印象深刻，而且与原作一样深刻，并与之进行了对话。
Set at the end of the second world war the film follows Shikishima Koichi, a timid kamikaze pilot.
这部电影的背景设定在第二次世界大战结束后，讲述了胆小的神风特攻队飞行员敷岛浩一的故事。
When he first encounters Godzilla, at a landing strip on Odo Island, he fails to act.
当他在大户岛的着陆跑道上第一次遇见哥斯拉时，他吓得无法采取行动。
He returns to Tokyo to find his parents have been killed in the bombing of the city.
他回到东京，结果发现他的父母在东京爆炸中丧生。
By the time Godzilla strikes again—the monster has gained strength from nuclear tests in the Pacific—Koichi has a makeshift family he must protect.
当哥斯拉再次发动攻击时--哥斯拉因为太平洋的核试验而力量大增--浩一有了一个重组家庭，他必须保护这个家庭。
He makes up for his wartime dishonour by defeating the reptile and, with it, the cult of death that was gripping Japan at the time.
于是他击败了这只爬行动物，并随之击败了当时笼罩着日本的死亡崇拜，从而一雪自己在战时的耻辱。
Today, as tensions rise between nuclear powers, Godzilla has regained some of his ominous symbolism.
如今，随着核武器大国之间的紧张关系加剧，哥斯拉再次被赋予了某种预示凶祸的象征意义。
The Doomsday Clock, an estimate of the risk of global catastrophe by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, is set at 90 seconds from midnight—as close as it has ever been to Armageddon.
末日时钟（即《原子能科学家公报》对全球灾难风险的估计）的指针设定在距离午夜90秒的位置上，这是迄今为止最接近哈米吉多顿的时刻。（注：末日时钟是虚拟时钟，午夜十二点表示末日；哈米吉多顿是《圣经》预示的世界末日。）
As long as the clock keeps ticking, this monster will matter.
只要时钟还在滴答作响，哥斯拉这个怪物就是很重要的。
