194) Godzilla Minus One

"Why did I think I could dream again?"

Director
Takashi Yamazaki

Cast
Ryunosuke Kamiki - Kōichi Shikishima
Minami Hamabe - Noriko Ōishi
Yuki Yamada - Shirō Mizushima
Munetaka Aoki - Sōsaku Tachibana
Sae Nagatani - Akiko
Hidetaka Yoshioka - Kenji Noda
Sakura Ando - Sumiko Ōta

Kuranosuke Sasaki - Yōji Akitsu
Miou Tanaka - Tatsuo Hotta

🦎 Spoilers ahead🏯

I've been looking forward to watching "Godzilla Minus One" since I heard about its release back in 2023. I also heard nothing but good things about it. Finally, I watched it over the weekend after re-subscribing to Netflix. And I can't get my thoughts written out fast enough. 

I tried to see it in the theaters but didn't get the chance. However, I did get the opportunity to see "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire" which was out in theaters around the same time. It was alright I suppose, but it's nothing when up against "Godzilla Minus One." 

The former is an American Godzilla release. The latter is from Toho Productions in Japan, the movie company that initially gave the world Godzilla.  

"Godzilla Minus One" is the 37th Godzilla movie ever since the first film released in 1954. That number includes the American Godzilla movies. Otherwise, it's Toho Productions' 33rd Godzilla film. Both numbers are just as ginormous as the "king of the monsters" himself. 

Toho's last Godzilla movie was 2016's "Shin Godzilla" also known as "Godzilla Resurgence" which I gave very positive reviews for back in 2020.  

But "Godzilla Minus One" is the best Godzilla movie I have seen since watching the Japanese version of the movie that started it all along with its 1955 sequel, "Godzilla Raids Again." 

While I watched and reviewed the first 15 Godzilla movies, also known as the "Shōwa era" (1954-1975) for the 2022 Halloween season, I have been wanting to get through the following eras ever since, but 37 movies are a lot of Godzilla to sit and watch. 

One of these Halloween seasons, I plan to get through the following Heisei era (1984–1995) which starts with 1984's "Return of Godzilla." 

Perhaps I'll tack on the Millennium era (1999–2004) to that. I don't know yet. 
Anyways, I mention all of this because watching "Godzilla Minus One" makes me want to jump back into the earlier movies. This latest movie, by the way, is the fifth movie in the Reiwa era which starts with "Shin Godzilla." There are some animated films in the Reiwa era, too.  

I mentioned the various periods of Godzilla films in my review of the '54 "Godzilla" but I could talk about this nerdy stuff for hours!

So, this movie takes place in 1945 as World War II is coming to an end. Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikaze pilot who lands on Odo Island for repairs at a Japanese base. The lead mechanic, Sōsaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) suspects that Kōichi doesn't really need repairs. Rather, he thinks Kōichi is trying to escape his duties as a kamikaze. By the way, Odo Island is a significant location in the first Godzilla movie. 

Later that night, the base is attacked by Godzilla without any warning. Godzilla suddenly appears without any buildup. I suspect if Godzilla actually existed, this would be how his attacks would happen. Sudden and completely unexpected. 

Tachibana orders Kōichi to shoot the monster from his plane as it attacks and kills the men on base. Kōichi gets in his plane, but panics and doesn't fire. 

Godzilla rampages and destroys, and Kōichi passes out. 

He wakes up the next morning to discover he and Tachibana are the only survivors of the attack. 

And Tachibana is livid at Kōichi for his cowardice, blaming him for the deaths of all the men which he thinks could have been prevented if he just opened fire. 

Kōichi returns home to Tokyo, which is in shambles from an air raid. He's scarred by war, and consumed with guilt for being alive when he should be dead. He quickly learns his parents were killed in the air raid. 

Fortunately, his small home his still standing.
Later, he encounters a young lady, Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe), who is taking care of a little orphan girl named Akiko (Sae Nagatani). Noriko's parents were also killed in the bombing, and she rescued Akiko who's now an orphan. 

Kōichi reluctantly allows Noriko and Akiko to stay with him, though he's worried the neighbors will think he fathered a child outside of marriage. 

They continue to manage well enough and Kōichi finds a job as a minesweeper out at sea.
Little does he nor anyone else know that Godzilla is gaining strength from nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll around the Marshall Islands conducted by the United States.

Godzilla ends up destroying some ships heading to Japan along with the USS Redfish. 

The Japanese government asks the U.S. to help save some decommissioned Imperial Japanese naval ships. But the U.S. and Russia don't like each other much, so the United States declines to help. 

Minami Hamabe in "Godzilla Minus One."

Japan is on their own. The government doesn't want to stir up a panic, so the people of Japan are kept in the dark. But Godzilla is making his way to the mainland. 

When Kōichi and the small crew aboard the minesweeping ship he's working on are commissioned to sail to the Ogasawara Islands to try and slow Godzilla down, they attempt to do precisely that by releasing a mine into Godzilla's mouth and detonating it. The ship's crew quickly learn that Godzilla can regenerate and heal himself almost instantly after the mine explodes and nearly tears his head in two.

Bigger ships try to attack Godzilla, but they don't really achieve that goal. In fact, they fail miserably. 

Finally, Godzilla reaches Tokyo and the hell of war breaks out again as the Japanese are still deeply wounded by the turmoil of World War II. 

Toho has a long-standing talent of including well-written, sympathetic or tragic yet relatable characters in a lot of their Kaiju movies. Kaiju, by the way, refers to Japanese giant monster movies. They're not necessarily limited to just Godzilla flicks. 

These Japanese monster movies invite audiences to become invested in the characters more than the monsters they're trying to survive in the story. Of course, the audience wants to see these monsters destroy and watch them fight other monsters. And Toho certainly delivers often in that regard. That's why Godzilla movies like 1968's "Destroy All Monsters" and 2001's "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" were filmed. "Destroy All Monsters." by the way, is an early favorite of mine. And I mention the latter movie in particular because it has the best title of any Godzilla/ kaiju movie. It rolls off the tongue nicely and it speaks for itself. 

"Godzilla Minus One" wonderfully captures what previous Godzilla movies have done well, some better than others. That is, it centers on human relationships withstanding the most hellish and unbelievable chaos going on around them and having such chaos change people for the better. "Godzilla Minus One" nails this! 

I was completely captivated by this movie, its depictions, visual effects, camera work, emotion, acting, and what I walked away with after seeing it. 

By the second act of "Godzilla Minus One" the ending becomes obvious...sort of. In other words, the ending can go one of two ways. What direction it'll take, the audience has to wait until the end to find out. 

And the reasoning behind its conclusion is magnificent. It's a testimony to remorse for past actions and forgiveness when it's most difficult to give it. It's something I sincerely admire and appreciate. 

Godzilla rips through war-torn Tokyo in "Godzilla Minus One."

The visual effects alone are flawless! Absolutely flawless. Godzilla's appearance is superb. His presence on screen is stunning and believable.  

As soon as Godzilla suddenly shows up, the movie shifts. 

Altogether, it balances emotion with the intensity. It doesn't feel like just another Godzilla movie, yet it's a Godzilla movie right to the core! 

I was curious about the meaning of "Minus One" in the title. 

Director Takashi Yamazaki said at a 2023 press conference that, "The biggest [meaning] is how people rise up from a postwar Japan that is at zero, and then Godzilla arrives, making the situation even worse and more tragic.” 

Japan, a nation most familiar with the horrors of atomic catastrophes, gave rise to the King of the Monsters. 

Unlike the rest of the giant monsters before, namely crawling from the United States such as King Kong or the crab monsters or the claw, Godzilla is written as a dark allegorical social commentary. 

The first Godzilla movie is certainly a film that gives the world Japan's point of view when it comes to the horror of atomic warfare and the cataclysmic destruction it leaves behind. And "Godzilla Minus One" is a huge tribute to that 70 years later. Having the movie set in the aftermath of World War II was a fantastic and touching move.    

It's also a true nail-biting action-packed monster movie, and it still carries the true feel of a Godzilla movie down to the classic Godzilla theme. 

It's a perfect updated rendition of the idea of Godzilla and it's a awesome salute to the first film while not being a remake. 

"Godzilla Minus One" is the best Godzilla movie since the first film. That's not to discredit some of the other great Godzilla movies filmed in the last few decades. This movie is proof that science fiction/ horror can be something absolutely sublime, and that Godzilla, the King of the Monsters, endures!