Please forgive this review as I stoop down into my teenage self for some parts, cheering, whooping and hollering at the big loud crushy monster. Please then allow for the improper tonal shift as I try to crawl back up to intricate analysis of the emotional depth of the film. Godzilla: Minus One is the 37th (?) film to come out of the Godzilla franchise, including the American take on the monster, which are my guilty pleasure films, having no substance to them whatsoever. I was excited to see there was going to be a new Japanese adaptation of the iconic character, known to be a mixed bag of quality and campy nonsense. Regardless of reviews, I was going to see this, and then some reviews started to trickle in that it was actually good. Not having seen a good Godzilla film in a while, I was sceptical and went in with my usual expectations of buildings being squished and screaming inconsequential pedestrians being stomped on by giant lizard feet. Instead, I got that, with an added emotionally intelligent story, and a Top Gun level conclusion to the action.
Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikaze pilot in World War II. When we join him, he is landing on a muddy runway on a remote island, where they repair any kamikaze planes ahead of their missions. While there, we see our first glimpse of Godzilla, who wrecks through the camp, killing all but two people, Shikishima and Sosaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki), a crew member who blames Shikishima for not killing Godzilla when he had the chance to with the gunner on his kamikaze plane.
We time jump to Shikishima returning to a war torn Tokyo, having lost everyone around him. There he finds Noriko Oishi (Minami Hamabe) along with a baby (Akiko) running through the town market, away from the police. Shikishima takes them both in and they raise Akiko in an unique family dynamic, post war and pre Godzilla. Just as things start to settle. The pairing go through another Godzilla attack, on a nearby city where Noriko has just got a job. This attack causes the citizens to rise up and form a plan to take down Godzilla, in an action packed and emotionally dense conclusion.
Okay, so Godzilla. There’s a slider of goofiness and scariness brought to this version of the character, with some sparkling white teeth on show the entire time, a beautiful roar to add to the roar compilations and the silliest little walk waddle I have ever seen. Although in an almost anti silliness protest, Godzilla absolutely rips through cities, people and tail whips buildings out of existence. This is one of the most senselessly destructive godzillas that I have seen. I think through the American take of the character, there is a push to make it seem more likeable or to almost personify it, giving us reasons to sympathise. This one, has nothing redeemable about it, heighting the human likeability while we rally behind them to root for its destruction.
Special shout out to the nuclear blast that it does, always cinematic in the charge up of power and complete annihilation of its target.
The humans in the film are really what makes it what it is, not just the spectacle of Godzilla. We see them struggle and feel their total hopelessness at times, seeing how indestructible Godzilla does seem. Shikishima and Noriko have such lovely chemistry and their unique platonic family dynamic is welcoming. I did find it a little difficult to settle into the acting style of this film which is quite dramatic and what I would consider over acting. Once you settle into the style though, I do think you feel the emotion a lot more, not finding what they’re saying to be too melodramatic in tone. Even though the acting is quite in your face, it avoids pushing beyond and becoming ridiculous, staying enough within the tone to warrant its material.
Godzilla has a lot of symbolism and has done throughout most of its iterations, most of it stemming from wartime. As this one is set in the wartime, it is hard not to also compare it to the others. Although, unlike the others , where Godzilla is often representative of an unstoppable force like the adversaries of Japan, this Godzilla seems to be a manifestation of survivors' guilt and post war trauma, beating the country while it is down. Japan at this time is in ruins, with most of the country focusing on regaining their homes and rebuilding their lives, all while living with this guilt, manifested in this monster. Having this emotional weight behind it, does help to set the humans up as more realised characters and easier to sympathise with.
This more human focused Godzilla film doesn’t take away from my unfortunate excitement for the upcoming trash Godzilla x Kong movie that was teased ahead of this. It does feel like an insult to advertise the new American Godzilla film before this one though, understanding the balance of monster and emotion, with actual depth and meaning behind the destruction. I look forward to ordering a popcorn that I could sit in, watching the new American one and never thinking about it again. This one though, I will look forward to its sequel with the memory of the characters and their journeys. Also, they are re-releasing it in black and white, which is completely unnecessary but does look quite cool, and will drag me back in for another ride of the emotional nuclear rollercoaster.
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