I actually thought maybe they ran out of money or something and just threw that ending together at first. Then I had the same thought as Paul. I was thinking he had been imagining the whole thing all along and it was really just a TV show.

My version had no subtitles during the credits while they talk at the table though so I knew I was missing something there. Now that you mention the white light carrying the monsters away it kinda makes sense, as there is a bright flash of light just before the jump from awesome CGI to oldschool rubber suits.

I will probably watch it again, I actually fell a sleep watching the movie a few times so I had watched it in chunks. Maybe it will make more sense the next time around. It’s definitely an awesome movie though, the kinda movie I can’t recommend to my friends cause they’ll just never get it. Like RoboGeisha!

I thought the demise of traditional japanese culture was pretty explicit throughout the film and you probably had to be asleep to miss it.
As for the end, I could be wrong, but I read it completely different and it made watch the film again straight away so that I had this reading in mind.
I read it quite typically as a psychotic episode. The film playing out what the character believes he is doing (protecting japan) when in our reality he is just a tired character in a long running Japanese superhero programme. The end being the reveal. He talks of the Fourth, his grandpa the previous actor from a time when ‘the ratings were higher’ when Japan held more genesis to its culture. The genealogy of actors suggests a familial culture that has centred around this character in a less than mythical sense.
From my very limited western viewpoint it highlights the psychosis of hyperreality but Im no expert and I’ve had a few Yamazaki Japanese whiskies tonight!