“Read good books, say kind words, do good deeds, be a good person.”

Earlier this morning, I braved the minus 1-degree temps and headed into Chicago for a screening of the documentary Ishirō Honda: Memoirs of a Film Director, by director Jonathan Bellés. Afterwords would be a Q&A with authors Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle, who’s latest book, Godzilla: The First 70 Years had just come out. They had previously written Ishirō Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa, which came out in 2023. It also gave me the chance to have them sign their new book that I recently got. So even though it was cold as hell, I knew it was an event I didn’t want to miss. The good thing (for me anyway) was because it was so cold, traffic was pretty much non-existent, so getting into the city was a breeze.

The documentary was very informative, giving some insight to Honda that I had no clue on. It’s not just about his filmmaking but his life as well. The documentary starts out with a Chinese proverb that I put at the beginning of this post that Honda would use often, on cards he’d send people, to even writing it on his scripts. Translated into English, it says, “Read good books, say kind words, do good deeds, be a good person.” Something so simple but seems to be tougher than one would think. But I found them to be very inspiring, to take those simple tasks or ideas, and try to make them a daily goal.

The other thing that I found inspiring was director Bellés who not only made this documentary, but it was self-financed, but with authors Godziszewski and Ryfle, they have dedicated a good chunk of their life, doing research about Honda and his work, to give audiences some books to further their own education on the subject of both Honda and Godzilla and Kaiju films in general. I’ve known and met a lot of authors over the years that specifically write on passion projects, about films or filmmakers that they admire. And I have to say, believe it or not, it’s not done for the fame and glory, or the riches that it brings. Because in reality, very few of those three things happen. But it is because they have been inspired to do the research and write about whatever the subject may be, so others can read and learn more about it as well. This in turns takes the reader on a journey, maybe getting them to seek out more films of the subject matter, or even just give more thought into the films they already know. See… there’s only a positive thing that comes out of this.

So, the next time you have a chance to meet one of these authors, give them a shout-out, a handshake, or even a simple thumbs up and “well done!”. And thanks to Barry Kaufman from House of Monsters for posting about this event, otherwise I would have missed it!