Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Takashi Yamazaki
Godzilla Minus One: Oh, my… Godzilla! Takahashi Yamazaki created a powerful, emotionally resonant, and visually spectacular film. More than any other film in this esteemed franchise run, Godzilla is a reflection of a country in catharsis. It is steeped in survivor’s guilt, post-traumatic shock disorder, family bonds, and the restoration of a nation’s belief in itself… by way of Kaiju. As a film-going experience, this will get your blood pumping.
Godzilla is scary again. In Godzilla Minus One, the monster is genuinely heart-racingly fearsome. It can be hard to remember that he is a monster in a series that devolved into kiddie fare in the 1970s and is often an anti-hero action figure. He is most intimidating when it is just him against the human population. No other monsters to interfere. No versus. In this movie, the King of the Monsters is vengeful. He wants to destroy humans and their creations.
Also, who knew a Godzilla film would make you weepy? It isn’t as if they haven’t tried to make compelling human characters in the thirty-seven previous versions of this film. However, this time, they got us. The story is not unfamiliar, as this is a reboot. Toho Studios periodically recognizes that they need to recreate the Godzilla origin tale. Accordingly, this is the big fella trashing Tokyo without any Kaiju opponents, just like the other origin tales: Gojira (1954), The Return of Godzilla (1984), and Shin Godzilla (2016). These origin tales also cast Godzilla as a terrifying villain, and he is majestic, not cuddly this time.
Rewind the clock to the devastated immediate post-WWII Japan for Godzilla Minus One. All of the characters are survivors, and Tokyo has been bombed flat by the United States. The society has gone through the horrors of war together, and no survivors have been untouched. And now, with Godzilla’s arrival as an angry force of destruction, Japan’s reeling populace is given a chance to persevere or perish.
The Cast:
- Ryunosuke Kamiki is Kōichi Shikishima, a failed kamikaze pilot whose cowardice has shamed him at the cost of many lives. He strives to atone for his failures.
- Minami Hamabe is Noriko Ōishi, a young woman who survived the Tokyo bombings and rears an orphaned baby girl, Akiko. They band together with Koichi to form a makeshift family.
- Kuranosuke Sasaki is Yōji Akitsu, captain of the Shinsei Maru, a demining vessel that Shikishima gets hired on to help scour the coast of Japan of unexploded mines.
- Hidetaka Yoshioka is Kenji Noda, a former weapons engineer who has concocted a way to deal with Godzilla.
- Yuki Yamada is Shirō Mizushima, a young man who missed out on the war and relishes being on board the Shinsei Maru to prove himself worthy.
- Sakura Ando is Sumiko Ōta, Shikishima’s neighbor and the only one in the neighborhood who was left alive who remembers him.
- Munetaka Aoki is Sōsaku Tachibana, a bitter airplane mechanic and the only other survivor from Oto Island, where he and Shikishima survived an encounter with Godzilla.
A Redemption Tale
In the closing days of World War II, Kōichi Shikishima lands his plane on Odo Island to report repairs for his fighter after bailing out on a kamikaze raid. A skeleton mechanical crew mans the small outpost. Fortunately, the base mechanics forgive Shikishima’s dishonor as it is clear that the war is approaching its end. Later that evening, a harbinger of deep-sea fishes floating up to the surface presages the arrival of Godzilla, a monster known to locals on this remote island. Soon after, a lithe and athletic Godzilla emerges from the sea and attacks the outpost. Sōsaku Tachibana, the base commander, instructs Shikishima to get into his plane and fire his 20 mil cannons into the rampaging beast, but the young man panics and doesn’t pull the trigger. Godzilla then kills everyone at the outpost save Shikishima and Tachibana, layering additional shame onto Kōichi.
Kōichi returns home to Tokyo, now bearing the burden of failure of duty on multiple fronts. The American bombing raids leveled his old neighborhood, killing his parents. When processing his grief, he stumbles into a young woman, Noriko, who is fleeing from pursuers who accuse her of thievery. She hands him a baby, Akiko, to help her getaway. Soon, Noriko returns to Kōichi and informs him that she, too, has lost her family. What’s more, the war orphaned baby Akiko as well. Among the wreckage, the three of them become an awkward makeshift family.
The Folly of the Atom Bomb
Kōichi lands a good-paying job as a gunner on a small mine sweeping boat. Both armies left thousands of unexploded mines in the waters, so hazard pay for hard work. The best way to clear the mines is with a small wooden vessel. Meanwhile, far to the south, the Americans test nuclear weapons in the Bikini Atoll. This blast mutates and enrages Godzilla and flushes him toward Japan. Godzilla cuts a swath of destruction on his path toward Tokyo. The navy directs Captain Akitsu to use his boat to perform a delaying action until a naval destroyer arrives. The American navy, fearful of escalating conflicts with the Soviets, left Japan to fend for itself. It doesn’t take long for Godzilla to find the little boat.
Godzilla proves resilient to mines and cannons, the mutation allowing him to heal rapidly. He takes a series of broadsides but finishes off the destroyer, leaving the little wooden mine sweeper crew as witnesses. When Noriko questions Kōichi about his subsequent nightmares, he confesses his encounters with Godzilla and the shame he endures for not having stopped the creature on Odo Island. With Kōichi watching Akiko at home, Noriko is on a train to her job in Ginza when Godzilla reaches the mainland islands.
Godzilla has become an angry force, a walking disaster. In a rage, he destroys enormous swaths of the Ginza district. Reconsider what you think you may know about Godzilla’s powers. In Godzilla Minus One, the full force of his atomic powers comes to bear. It is breathtaking and tragic.
Dr. Noda developed a brilliant scheme to sink Godzilla deep in the ocean. But, it is a wildly theoretical plan, and Godzilla has proven unstoppable. The war reduced Japan to ground zero. Godzilla pushed Tokyo to minus one.
Evaluation: The Best Godzilla Movie Ever?
Yes. This goes to the top of a concise list. Best. Godzilla. Ever! I have been a fan of kaiju films, specifically Godzilla since I was a little boy. When I was six, my Grandmother took me to see Godzilla vs. Megalon at a theater on Clement Street in San Franciso. I have been a fan ever since. Granted, Godzilla vs. Megalon is nothing special, but for a six-year-old, that was movie heaven. This is the apex of all of my childhood kaiju dreams.
Several other reviews have come out at this time, and many compare this to the American Legendary produced films. The complaints were that these American movies failed to build up the human characters, eschewing the protagonists for the big monster fights. That’s not being entirely fair. The Gareth Edwards film spent much time with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Bryan Cranston. That worked ok. The Monarch TV show has excellent, compelling characters. And frankly, this movie is superior to the other 33 Godzilla movies in character building.
For Godzilla Minus One, however, the protagonists are deeply compelling because it feels culturally meaningful. Simply put, context Matters. Godzilla is fundamentally a Japanese tale. Enough time has passed that doing a period piece film can examine the Japanese culture’s psyche. This certainly was also true with the Original 1954 film and several subsequent films, but no film has made you FEEL for the protagonists like this one. Full credit goes to Takashi Yamazaki, who directed and wrote this film.
Concluding thoughts: Hello, Toho!
Exhilarating. Resonant. Emotional. Thrilling. After generations of men in rubber suits punching each other or creating features with CGI that are a generation behind the times, Toho has stuck the perfect landing. They have re-tooled the familiar story and made it sing. Akira Ifukube’s inimitable classic score will make your hair stand on end. When the thunderous horns and strings arrive along with the monster himself in the Ginza, I let out a reflexive “Yeeeeaaaahhhh…”
The design of Godzilla is arguably the best he has ever looked as well. Those eyes! Oh, his eyes are filled with anger and menace. This is a Godzilla with a soul. An angry soul. Proportionally, he is powerful but not ponderous. The radioactive power-up of his dorsal plates is fantastic to behold.
Yamazaki just gets it. He understands character arcs and the power of the redemption tale. His story taps deep into the national psyche and pulls at the nerves of honor, pride, shame, and regret. A makeshift family created from the wreckage of the horrors of war provides the central connective tissue. A brotherhood of lost souls on a longshot mission of untested potential is the last hope for a nation brought to its knees but has not given up hope.
Does the story feel manipulative at times? Yes. Can you see the story beats coming, sometimes well in advance? Yes. But the same rules apply to the best of the Pixar and Marvel franchises. It is all about the execution. This movie follows some giant footprints, and these tracks will be permanently cast as the best in the genre. Perhaps most remarkably, the film was made for only $15 million, or about half the cost of a Marvel advertising budget. It will certainly be on our annual Thingy awards list, but don’t be surprised if it garners an Oscar nod or two.
Review by Eric Li
Godzilla Minus One is a limited release in theaters and IMAX nationwide. It is Rated PG-13 for intense kaiju action that destroys Tokyo (for which probably only Shin Godzilla can compare). Go see it in the biggest theater you can with the biggest sound system possible.
