"Godzilla Minus One" review — A devastating postwar creature feature
“Is your war finally over?”
This film was featured in my Best Films of 2023 list.
The wounds of war are still open and bleeding at the start of Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One. The film takes place in the immediate years following the end of the Second World War with Japan in total ruin. Its cities have been obliterated, its population decimated with disease and violence, its local economy in freefall, and all under a strict U.S. occupation. The film makes itself at home with these results of war. Much of the imagery is quite uncomfortable, with its characters living amongst the ruins of civilizations, often in slums and in quickly-made shelters. Its characters are haunted by the memories of conflicts and are trying desperately to find a new future for themselves that’s not defined by violence. The film also addresses the failing state of the nation head-on, with its very vocal commentary on the sociological and cultural faults of Imperial Japan and the brutality of the U.S. postwar occupation. The spectre that hangs above it all is the horrific bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s a rather difficult, nuanced, and emotionally fraught film, loaded with commentary about the legacy of the war on Japan and the universal trauma of wartime experiences. It’s almost enough to make you forget you’re watching a monster movie. Until, of course, the monster shows up.
To call Godzilla Minus One the most emotionally heavy Godzilla film would certainly not be a difficult claim to make, although that title would be contested by the 1954 original. The first depiction of the legendary monster saw him take on the role of an atomic bomb allegory and the unspeakable horror it unleashed upon Japan. Subsequent films in the series have taken some very liberal interpretations with this original intention, with the various films ranging from the thematically challenging to the downright goofy. With Minus One, we have a sharp return to the postwar conditions that fueled the monster’s creation, a strong break from what the Legendary-produced Monsterverse is doing with their more shlocky Zilla incarnation. The 1940s setting provides some excellent visual and historical material to make this version feel particularly distinct from its predecessors. Director Takashi Yamazaki, who also serves as writer and visual effects supervisor, channels the ghost of Ishiro Honda for a film that manages to cleverly and masterfully blend the human and the spectacular, making for one of the most compelling Godzilla outings yet.
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| Ryunosuke Kamiki in Godzilla Minus One. Photo via Toho. |
The story begins on the fictional Odo Island, just off the coast of Japan, in August 1945 when kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki) arrives at the military base for repairs to his aircraft. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Shikishima’s fighter plane, he is just trying to avoid taking this suicide mission when he knows the end of the war is just around the corner and a Japanese loss is inevitable. In the night, the base is attached by a vicious, dinosaur-like creature, who tears easily through the crew and their gear, leaving Shikishima one of two survivors. Overwhelmed with grief, Shikishima returns home to Tokyo to find that his family has died in the air raids. By chance, he meets Noriko Ōishi (played by Minami Hamabe) and her adopted baby, Akiko, in a market. The two decide to live together to raise Akiko and help support each other socially and financially. Shikishima takes a job as a naval mine hunter, trying to clean up the residual damage done to Japan, all the while haunted by dreams of his experience on Odo Island that he cannot quite rationalize.
Meanwhile, in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. begins its atomic weapons tests in Bikini Atoll, where the sleeping Godzilla lies, causing him to mutate from his meagre 15-metre size to a staggering 50-metres with a significant nuclear-superpowered upgrade. Now with a newfound sense of anger and aggression, the creature starts chomping its way through the U.S. and Japanese navies on its way to the coastline of Japan. Godzilla himself (itself?) is portrayed here as decidedly malicious. Whereas the ‘54 version is an impersonal force of nature, the Monsterverse version is a sublime champion of order, and the Shin Godzilla (2016) version is more of a helpless creature, this version makes Godzilla definitively the antagonist. There are quite a few stunning action sequences involving the human characters facing off against the monster. Godzilla’s rampage through Ginza in the second act, a focal point of the marketing, is a stand-out moment, with the devastation unleashed expertly realized. The film leans into Godzilla’s aquatic nature more than other interpretations, with one of its earliest fight sequences taking place out on the open seas, channelling influences from Speilberg’s Jaws (1975), in a tense, frightening encounter.
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| Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe in Godzilla Minus One. Photo via Toho. |
Minus One is the thirty-seventh film in the Godzilla franchise and the thirty-third produced by Toho. It’s the first Japanese Godzilla movie in seven years, following Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Godzilla in 2016 and serves as a clean reboot of the series. Keeping a franchise that’s sixty-nine years old fresh is certainly not an easy feat, but Yamazaki is certainly up to the task. Despite its rather modest budget of something south of $15 million US, the film holds up against many of its American blockbuster competitors, both in its visual style and its emotional grounding. Yamazaki’s experience working with visual effects is evident here, not only in the quality of the images presented on screen but in how well the live-action and computer-generated images work with each other. The cinematography by Kōzō Shibasaki is quite stunning as well, with so many brilliantly captured scenes, from both its action to its more personal moments. The colouring of the images gives the film a deep, rich visual aesthetic, which compliments its more grounded tone.
While this Godzilla is shorter than its current American counterpart by about 70 meters, it leaves much more of an impression with how it’s shot and realized. Thanks to the intimacy of the narrative and execution of the action scenes, Godzilla’s presence on screen is always paired with scenes of human suffering. He is not just a CG monster colliding into CG buildings, but a living organism causing palpable destruction to the lives of characters the viewer cares about. The 1940s setting allows for the film to differentiate itself visually from the other films that have come before it, allowing the story to speak into a traumatic part of Japanese history explicitly.
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| Left to right: Yuki Yamada, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, and Ryunosuke Kamiki in Godzilla Minus One. Photo via Toho. |
At the forefront of any Godzilla film is its human characters. Minus One takes a highly personal approach to its central figures, focusing on a relatively small cast with Shikishima serving as the film’s clear-cut protagonist. The story primarily concerns Shikishima’s internal struggles as a failed kamikaze pilot as he fights to overcome his trauma and build meaningful relationships with those in his life. This makes for a much more intimate story than other versions of the Godzilla origin myth. It contrasts well with Shin Godzilla’s sociological approach, where the film is populated with ineffectual government agencies, rather than any actual characters. Shikishima and Noriko are the film’s emotional core, grounding the story with two excellent performances from Kamiki and Hamabe. The strange nature of their relationship, one decidedly intimate but never romantic, is a primary focus of the film, with Shikishima’s guilt over cheating death keeping him back from any sort of genuine expression of love.
The rest of the supporting cast is excellent, especially Shikishima’s fellow sailors on the rickety, wood-building minesweeper. Yuki Yamada is delightful as Shirō “The Kid” Mizushima, the youngest member of the crew. Hidetaka Yoshioka plays the wise Kenji “Doc” Noda, a veteran scientist who is the brains behind the minesweeper’s operations and who eventually takes on a leading role in the fight against Godzilla. Kuranosuke Sasaki plays the choleric captain of the minesweeper, Yōji Akitsu, whose playful reluctance is always a source of joy. But the best supporting performance might just be Munetaka Aoki as Sōsaku Tachibana, the other soldier who survived the attack on Odo Island. Tachibana’s antagonistic relationship with Shikishima makes for one of the most interesting character dynamics and helps drive the film toward its emotionally impactful ending. The film’s exciting, action-heavy third act feels like a deserved diversion from the more human-centred postwar drama that has carried most of the film. The spectacle is power, the action is well-thought-out, and the film remains visually spectacular until the last moments. The character arcs are tied in well to the action, giving each of the main players a worthy resolution to their stories. The finale is incredibly satisfying, serving as a testament to the power of hope in times of extreme hardship and a nationalistic sense of perseverance.
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| Godzilla's devastation of Ginza. Photo via Toho. |
Over its history, the Godzilla franchise has taken on many forms, from its war-weary original film, through the ridiculous technicolour joy of the Shōwa era, to the extravagance of the Heisei and Millennium eras, to its blockbuster status in the Monsterverse. And these sillier, campier interpretations of Godzilla are wonderful and imaginative. The fifteen Shōwa movies each hold a very special place in my heart, largely because of how unseriously they take themselves. But it also refreshing to see the series fall into its more serious nature. Godzilla Minus One goes back to the roots of the iconic monster, taking the world-ending threat he possesses as a stand-in for the horrors of war inflicted upon humanity, especially the Japanese people. I certainly didn’t expect myself to be as enchanted or moved by this film, but Yamazaki’s work here is tremendous. The resulting film is an excellent commentary on the devastation of atomic weapons (making it an excellent pairing with Oppenheimer), an ode to the power of community, and a great blockbuster.
Godzilla Minus One is now playing in theatres.
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