Matt Schley
October 17, 2024 
Keizo Murase, a longtime sculptor of suits for kaiju films, including many in the Godzilla franchise, has died at the age of 89. The cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver.
Murase, who was born in Hokkaido in 1935, began working in Toho’s special effects department in his early 20s, where he sculpted the suits for kaiju films such as Varan, Mothra and King Kong vs. Godzilla. He would go on to have a long career in suit sculpting in and outside Toho, also working on films like Daiei’s Gamera, and co-founding the modeling company Ex Productions. His final credit is Brush of the God, released earlier this year, which he created and directed. This year, Murase also received a special achievement award at the Japan Academy Film Prize, Japan’s equivalent of the Oscars.
You can learn much more about Murase and his work from this in-depth interview conducted by Brett Homenick.
Here’s how Fantasia Festival describes Brush of the God:
Lonely teenager Akari is feeling rather ambivalent at the memorial for her late grandfather, whose work as a modelmaker for monster movies means a lot less to her than it does to his surviving colleagues, and to Akari’s nerdy classmate Takuya. A mysterious person appears at the event, and presents the two kids with a simple prop from an unfinished film. It’s a handmade ink brush, and the stranger explains that it’s the key to the task that now falls to Akari — to stop the world from ending! With that, the two are transported to a fantastical island inhabited by strange and wonderful creatures, as well as a pair of all too human miscreants. These bungling bandits are however nowhere near as dangerous as the many-headed, mythological dragon that now threatens the world — and our young heroes!
Source: Natalie
