Hideo Kojima at the Movies: Dawn of the Dead

This installment of Hideo Kojima's movie reviews features Mr. Kojima's account of how the George Romero horror flick, Dawn of the Dead, affected his approach in developing aspects of gameplay for Metal Gear Solid. This article was exclusively written for Official PlayStation 2 Magazine by Mr. Hideo Kojima.

When I was a child, I was easily scared by things. I was not terrified by older bullies in school or by heights. Being the second son of the house, I was the one with an unyielding spirit. In fact, I welcomed bullies and heights. Looking back at my past, there were quite a few moments in which I could have lost my life. Until puberty, I was a mischievous boy, always bruised. What scared me were 'ghosts.' I could not handle ghost films. Such films are now called horror films. I just could not watch traditional Japanese horror samurai films and special effects films. To quote my parents, I was "a very sensitive child." After watching a horror film, I had trouble going to the bathroom. I got so close to wetting my pants. And after going to bed, I always had nightmares that were continuations of the film.

My father - whether or not he knew how I felt about horror films - forced me to watch such films. The problem was when such films aired on TV. He made me sit right in front of the TV. I covered my eyes and tried hiding under the table. When I heard what was going on, I moved my hands to cover my ears. That's how I battled through the never-ending film. But my father always gave me detailed reports of what was taking place in the film. "Hideo, watch!" he always said. The following day, my mother did detailed re-enactments of the film. Growing up in such an environment did not help me get used to horror films at all.

However, there was a set of horror films that I could keep my eyes open when watching. They were the Hammer horror films. I watched many of them and started to recognise the faces of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as Count Dracula and Van Helsing. This recognition of actors built up an immunity within myself against horror films. I said to myself, "They are not real. They're films." Hammer was a British film studio that did remakes of classic monster films like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Werewolf, and The Mummy. To me, they are the Tsuburaya Pro (Ultraman and Godzilla series) of the UK. When I was a kid, there was a big monster boom. Both Godzilla and Ultraman were very popular. Although I could handle most of these monsters, I could not watch The Reptile with the snake woman with fangs and Ping-Pong eyeballs. This was another one of those films that I was forced by my father to watch. In a book I had on monsters was a photo of this reptile woman - hiding among Godzilla and other monsters. I could never open this book and ended up hiding it somewhere in my house.

When I started going to the theatres myself in the Seventies, the saturated genre of panic films was coming to an end. After The Exorcist became a mega hit then came the occult film boom. So many horror films were shown like crazy. There were so many programs on TV featuring such films. And books and magazines on horror films flooded the bookstores. Obviously, I could not go to the theatres to see them. My older brother, while making fun of me, went to see them and came back home and gave me detailed reports on them. I was afraid not only of the film but of the fact that I was not keeping up with the movie scene. To remain the movie boy that I was, I forced myself to watch a TV program on horror films. That program happened to feature a film that changed my life - Dawn of the Dead. Scenes from DOTD shown along with footage from the orthodox occult film The Omen was definitely different. The scenes were accompanied by disco music, and SWAT team guys were enjoying hunting down zombies. All was taking place in a modern day shopping mall. "What the hell is this!?" I was shocked as if hit on the head. "Is this horror? No, it can't be!" There was none of the gloom factor present in what I saw. It was even exhilarating. "I can handle this!" I said to myself. I felt as if the door to a new world had opened in front of me. This was March, 1979.

This was March, 1979. Back then I had just graduated from middle school, and I was about to start attending a public high school. It was during spring break when my friend and I took horseback riding lessons at a barn in Mount Rokko. On the way back from the barn one day, I forced my friend to go see DOTD with me at a theatre in Kobe. I probably did so because I was too scared to go alone. Since I had not checked the showing times, the movie was halfway through when we entered. The two SWAT guys Peter and Roger were blocking the mall entrances with large trucks. Roger was sinking down in the truck seat to start the engine. Then a female zombie appeared. The strap of Roger's gun prevented him from fighting back. As she tries to bite him, Peter tells Roger to raise the zombie's head. Peter shoots the head and half the face is blown away. Blood splatters on Roger's face. Roger starts yelling. The whole theatre was in shock. My friend was on top of the stairs in the theatre looking for open seats. I cannot forget the bitter expression on his face, "What kind of film has Hideo brought me to!"

I don't think I have to talk about what the film is about. There are cult fans of DOTD all over the world. And this film is indeed passed on to the younger generation. I cannot find the right words to describe how I felt when I first saw this film. I guess that's what people call life-changing experiences. The film was fun. Everything about it was innovative. It was pure entertainment. And as I said before, it got rid of my negative perspective on horror films. In that sense, it freed me of my weakness as a film fan in a very pleasant way.

The setting was what did it for me. Conventional horror films featured a mansion in the woods. Everything happened after midnight. DOTD happened in broad daylight! It happened in an everyday shopping mall! And survivors including SWAT members fought them with firearms. How innovative! Back then, I was a bit of a gun fan. The weird mix of the SWAT team, zombies, and a shopping mall was truly interesting. The shopping mall was a representation of America's consumerist society, while the SWAT members represented the gun society and the zombies represented blue-collar workers. This ironic schema of American society was what made it more than a horror film. DOTD did not feature 'invisible fear' (the occult) but instead 'fear embedded in everyday life'. Anyone could become a zombie. They are nobodies everywhere. This is exactly where the philosophical element of zombie films lies.

The setting of a gigantic shopping mall was superb. Back then there were no malls in Japan. Small markets were losing commercial power, and supermarkets and department stores started dominating the economy. There were no suburban recreational centres in Japan yet. Western malls where you visit with your family, shop for clothing, eat after shopping and play arcade games or see films were something that we Japanese had never seen. As seen in DOTD, you can get anything you need there. There is a gun shop. You can find a jewellery shop. There are restaurants, an arcade, barber, fountain, a clock tower, and even a skate rink. The mall where the film was shot is Monroeville Mall. Unfortunately, the skate rink where the guys practised shooting guns has disappeared. Still, I would love to pay a visit to that mall one of these days.

What makes DOTD so attractive is that it contains so many means of scaring people. As John Carpenter does in his films, you see a zombie walk across in the distant background, way behind the main character. You see the use of shadows as done by Dario Argento. Then you see a lot of the 'suddenly appearing in front of the camera' stuff done in most shocker films. You also see the camera fixed, and as time elapses, you see something approaching toward you slowly but steadily. When Flyboy has trouble loading his revolver and shoots a bunch of empty shots at the zombie, and when Roger already bitten in his leg - is sticking his leg and a zombie tries to grab that leg, the audience feels so frustrated and desperately wants to tell them to do something. When surrounded by zombies, one of the characters goes through every single key to open the key to a door. "This key does not work!" The zombies come closer. Just before the zombies take a bite, he gets the right key. Then the classic scene where Roger turns into a zombie and resurrects. A fixed camera films a blanket. Roger's buddy Peter is pointing his gun. The audience has not seen Roger die. You then see the wrinkles on the blanket move slightly. Roger the zombie (the most scary-looking zombie in the entire film) rises. Limiting the amount of information provided makes the audience use their imagination. This kind of directing has become the standard in zombie films that followed. While zombie films are well known for their gore, what makes DOTD a classic is the conglomerate of orthodox horror film camerawork and directing that make your heart thump.

The introduction of black humour is characteristic of Romero films. Throwing pies at zombies, stealing jewellery from them, and the second half of the film where the road warriors flood into the mall - I must take my hat off to the use of mannequins. Real humans, zombies, and mannequins work together really well. First there is a scene where a character mistakes a mannequin for a zombie. Then there is a scene where a zombie looks like a mannequin and surprises you. In a scene where the people talk about zombies, they use a mannequin torn into pieces by zombies. Later on, live humans are torn into pieces like mannequins. Fran who is pregnant shoots mannequins during shooting practice. She opens a hole in the mannequin's head. This scene is overlapped by another in which a zombie's head is blown away. Romero's direction is so well calculated.

The big question now is: 'How has DOTD affected MGS?' The answer is the maximum three-dimensional use of a closed area like a shopping mall with elevators, air ducts, and escalators. The gameplay in MGS involving air ducts and elevators is straight out of DOTD. Some people think it's based on Die Hard, but that is not true. The original Metal Gear for MSX was released in 1987 - before Die Hard. The concept of a 3D maze composed of elevators and ducts is from DOTD. While escaping came from The Great Escape, infiltrating came from The Guns of Navarone, "dealing with the enemies in a closed building" comes from DOTD. Fighting enemies scattered in a closed area while making maximum use of the structure of the building - MGS is DOTD if you replace soldiers with zombies.

In the MSX versions of Metal Gear, the player has security card keys 1 through 9. The player had to select the right key for each door every single time opening a door. Going through a stack of card keys as if going through a set of keys while being chased by zombies - it was this tension that I wanted to implement in the game. The PSone Metal Gear Solid was supposed to feature this, but my staff told me that it was simply too troublesome. I gave in and dropped this feature. However, I do pay homage to DOTD in MGS. The hole in the wall of the room where the ArmsTech president is kept hostage is cemented over. In DOTD, Peter and the gang build a wall out of wood and block a hallway as disguise.

The DOTD experience was a big turning point in my life. Although I loved films, I could not watch horror films. Even if I knew they were fake, I could not deal with them objectively. If I recognised an actor, or knew of the director, I did feel a bit relieved. However, that did not make me comfortable enough. It was miserable. It was my weakness as a movie fan. It was DOTD that broke this barrier around myself with no difficulty. It taught me how fun horror films are. After this triumph, I saw so many horror films. I was no longer afraid. I really enjoyed horror films. If I did not encounter DOTD, I probably would never have picked up horror films. DOTD to me is a beloved film of my days of youth.

There are different versions of DOTD. The version I saw in 1979 was the Japanese version which had an extra opening scene (added to Dario Argento's Italian version) of a mysterious star exploding, leading to mysterious rays pouring onto Earth and causing the dead to rise. The most violent scenes were turned into black and white still shots. This version was never released on video or DVD. When videotapes became the thing in the Eighties, Romero's US version was what was released. Those including myself who were used to the Japanese version, which was a derivative of the Italian version edited by Dario Argento with music by Goblin, could not stand the US version. Back then, Argento was well known for Suspiria. Most of us fans in Japan thought of Argento as the director. I do love George Romero's zombie trilogy. However, as for DOTD, I have special sentiments for the Japanese version and prefer the joyful Italian version. In 1994, the director's cut of the Romero version was released. As a zombie fan, I went to a mini-theatre in Osaka. Just like when the Romero version was released on video, there was great hype. The Italian version, which was the closest to the Japanese version, was then released on video and laserdisc. I personally long for the DVD release of the Japanese version I saw in 1979.

Now that I mentioned Goblin, I would like to talk about the music. As I said when I talked about The Guns of Navarone, the reason why I started reading books was that I wanted to read novelised versions of movies. This holds true for music as well - especially with progressive music. After seeing DOTD and Suspiria, I really got into Goblin who were the leading figure in Italian progressive music. After seeing Le Salaire De La Peur (The Wages of Fear), I listened to a lot of Tangerine Dream. Although The Exorcist scared the living hell out of me, I enjoyed listening to music by Mike Oldfield who composed Tubular Bells. And of course, I bought the LP record of the DOTD soundtrack and then the CD which was released later on.

As a fan of zombie films in general, I would like to talk about other zombie films. The 1990 remake of Romero's original Night of the Living Dead (1968) by Tom Savini the makeup artist and actor who does neat stunts in DOTD is a great film. I recommend it to those who have not seen it yet. By the way, my three favourite zombie films are Romero's DOTD, Lucio Fulci's Zombie 2 and Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead. You can see differences in how zombies walk and eat human flesh in these films. What is even more charming about zombies than their makeup is how they walk. The very unstable baby-like walk in DOTD I think works the best. As a zombie fan, I was impressed by how Paul Anderson's Resident Evil shows respect to its predecessors. The best Japanese zombie film by far is "Versus" by Ryuhei Kitamura who is also a good friend of mine. My favourite individual zombie among all zombie films is the zombie in Night of the Living Dead (1968) who plays with intestines like some elastic piece of rubber.

While there are quite a few zombie games, none of them have re-created the zombie 'feel' within myself. There is not a single game that turns the 'eaten' into a zombie. If the game does not feature gameplay in which the player is eaten and becomes a zombie, it is not a zombie game in the true sense. At one time, I seriously considered purchasing the rights to DOTD to create a game that takes place in a closed mall. But because DOTD is too great a film for me, and because the concept of zombies is too popular in the video game world, this has not happened yet. How can one implement the concept of 'turning the eaten into zombies?' I have an answer to this. It would be an online zombie game.

Your objective is to eliminate all zombies in the world. You use firearms to fight and if you are eaten you become a zombie. You can no longer control your character. You simply roam around in this online world. You'll have to pay even while you roam around as a zombie. To play again, you have to enter the game as a new character. And if your new character is eaten, you become another zombie. Now that you are two zombies, you have to pay twice the money. If you don't enter the game as another new character and go kill your 'zombie selves,' you'll have to keep on paying multiple fees. The number of zombies in the game keeps on increasing. If you cannot kill your zombie selves by yourself, you can ask your friend to do the job for you. It's a zombie pyramid scheme. Once the number of zombies exceeds that of human players, the game ends. This game design makes best use of the zombie concept. Someday, I would love to create such a game. It is true that those who fear the most are best at creating the most scary films and games. Like Spielberg, those creators who are great at expressing fear know what is really scary, through their actual fear experiences. However, competition within the horror genre in videogames is very tough. It is a quite saturated segment. I do not want to fight zombies, get bitten by one, and become a zombie myself. If I were to borrow the words of Roger from the film:

"There's a lot to get done before... before you can afford to lose me..."

-- Article by Hideo Kojima, Official Playstation 2 Magazine, 19.03.2003