I don’t know if Toho Studio’s decision to take Godzilla seriously again was in response to the bombastic and silly Warner Brothers “monsterverse” movies, but if it is I applaud them. Godzilla may be big, but bigger is not better when it comes to the Godzilla movies I’ve watched since I was a kid.

In Toho’s previous offering, Shin Godzilla (2016), Godzilla was born out of an environmental disaster. As he grows and mutates at regular intervals, scientists and military men try to destroy him before he destroys Japan. The movie avoided the goofy monster antics that had infused the franchise for decades and instead focused on the characters struggling with an existential threat. Similar to how the 1954 film used Godzilla to symbolize the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan during WWII, Shin Godzilla drew inspiration from the Fukushima nuclear disaster just five years earlier. The maturity of Shin Godzilla was a breath of fresh air and renewed my interest in the Toho franchise. (As far as I’m concerned, Warner Brothers can go back to the CGI hell from which it emerged.)

Godzilla Minus One is not a direct sequel to Shin Godzilla but is instead a reimagining of the original movie. It opens during the closing days of WWII on the small Pacific island of Odo, where Kamikaze pilot Shikishima (Kōichi Shikishima) is awaiting repairs. When Godzilla appears (in noticeably smaller form), Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki), the leader of the repairmen, orders Shikishima to fire his plane’s guns on the creature so that the repairmen can safely evacuate. Shikishima realizes that this will result in his immediate death and is paralyzed with fear. Dying for your country is one thing, but getting killed by Godzilla is another thing entirely.

The frightened repairmen shoot at Godzilla and he makes short work of them. Shikishima is knocked unconscious during the chaos and awakens the next morning. Tachibana blames Shikishima for the death of his men, which I thought was unfair because the repairmen definitely panicked. Regardless, Shikishima returns to the mainland in dishonor and wrecked with survivor’s guilt.

Wandering about the rubble of his hometown, Shikishima asks Sumiko (Sakura Ando) if his parents survived the bombing. She angrily tells him that they didn’t, and says their deaths were his fault because he refused to do his job. (By definition, Kamikaze pilots are not expected to return home alive.) Aside from Sumiko’s accusations, the movie is sympathetic towards Shikishima. The underlying issue is that Japan has found themselves on the losing side of the war and survivors like Sumiko that they’ve become a living symbol of the country’s collective failure.

Shikishima meets a beautiful young woman named Noriko (Minami Hamabe), who asks him to watch her baby so that she can avoid being caught by police. (I didn’t understand why the police would be interested in apprehending anybody under the circumstances.) After several hours pass and Noriko is nowhere to be seen, Shikishima leaves the baby on a bench. But he can’t go through with it and returns immediately. Noriko reappears and says that she was watching him the entire time. She’s surprised he didn’t leave the baby, then admits that the baby actually isn’t hers. The baby’s parents died in the bombings, and she found her in the rubble. Shikishima lets Noriko and the baby move in with him, and together with Sumiko as an honorary aunt they form a makeshift family.

Shikishima’s outlook on life improves when he finds work detonating mines at sea. Noriko also gets a job in the city of Ginza, but Shikishima doesn’t approve of her decision. Noriko wants to move on from the war, something that Shikishima has been unable to do since returning home. Then, just when things have turned a corner, Godzilla appears. He’s significantly larger than when Shikishima encountered him at Odo due to the US nuclear tests at the Bikini Atoll. Much to Japan’s chagrin, the US declines to destroy the monster they created because of increasing tensions with Russia.

Shikishima and the minesweeper crew are sent to engage with Godzilla and distract him long enough for larger Japanese ships to arrive. After surveying a crumpled US warship, they realize that Godzilla is stalking them and attempt to kill him by detonating a mine. This only makes Godzilla angrier as he pursues the fleeing boat. The crew are able to stun Godzilla with another mine, but his radioactive biology enables him to heal quickly. He proceeds to destroy an approaching ship with his atomic breath and disappears.

Shikishima is understandably shaken after witnessing Godzilla’s destructive power a second time. He tells Noriko what happened, but she dismisses the incident because everyone else on the mainland is focused on recovery. Godzilla, however, has other plans in store for them. Noriko takes the morning train to Ginza, only for Godzilla to appear on the mainland. Godzilla has always been drawn to trains and he attacks the one Noriko is on. She manages to survive and later sacrifices herself for Shikishima. Godzilla unleashes his atomic breath on Ginza and Shikishima bears witness to another fiery mushroom cloud.

Kenji (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a fellow mimesweeper, discerns that Godzilla’s intended target is Tokyo and gathers a group of private citizens and military men. He discusses his plan to destroy Godzilla and asks for volunteers. Some of the men decline to take part in the mission, but many former military men agree to help, including Shikishima. After losing the war and witnessing the destruction of their country, they are eager for a chance at reclaiming their honor. Of course, Godzilla won’t go down easy, no matter how well thought out the plan may be.

For many years, Godzilla movies have been content with being campy fun. The recipe is simple: Godzilla appears, smashes buildings and fights other monsters. Humans first look sadly upon the destruction, then devise ways to stop him while reciting bad dialog. Amazingly, even though the franchise is over seventy years old and spans multiple studios, the movies have been remarkably similar. (The American entries, even with their big budgets, have been surprisingly underwhelming.) Godzilla Minus One, however, takes Godzilla back to his roots as a direct result of America’s investigation of atomic weapons. As a reimagining of the original 1954 movie, this Godzilla is just as lethal as before and still is dead-set on destroying Tokyo. However, in this movie he’s scarier than he’s been in a long time. Additionally, instead of having us witness Godzilla’s devastation from afar, director Takashi Yamazaki makes it up close and personal. In addition to making Godzilla a terrifying villain, the movie also includes human characters who I honestly cared about. Ryunosuke Kamiki is incredibly affecting as Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot who returns home racked with survivor’s guilt. Minami Hamabe is also touching as Noriko, a woman who wants to move beyond Japan’s defeat in the war and start a family with Shikishima. Together with their informally adopted daughter, the three symbolize Japan trying to pick up the pieces after WWII. The result is a movie that is one part Godzilla and one part emotional wartime drama, and the combination works surprisingly well. Like its predecessor Shin Godzilla, this entry treats Godzilla seriously and is also one of the best entries in the franchise. Highly Recommended.

Analysis

Aside from the original movie, the Godzilla franchise has rarely taken the character seriously.  After leveling large swaths of Japan in the original movie, the Toho Studios refashioned Godzilla as a protector of mankind.  This was logical because having Godzilla destroy Tokyo again and again would be ridiculous.  Even a country as industrious as Japan can’t rebuild Tokyo in several years or even decades.  As such, subsequent Godzilla movies had him face off against evil monsters that (ironically) were also intent on destroying Tokyo.  This approach lent each movie the atmosphere of a wrestling match, where the outcome was never in doubt but still highly anticipated by the children rooting for their hero.

There have been several unsuccessful attempts to return Godzilla to his horror origins over the years but none have worked.  Godzilla 1985 was a distractingly cheap sequel to the Americanized Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956).  Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla (1998) had a blockbuster budget but was comically inept.  Warner Brother’s Godzilla (2014) had a sizable budget and a cast of renowned actors, but quickly abandoned its apocalyptic approach to once again have Godzilla return to his role of the protector of mankind.  All of these movies refused to take Godzilla seriously.  Time and again, filmmakers have taken the safe approach with Godzilla by presenting him either as kitsch, as a form of comic relief or as smasher of things without consequence.

What’s changed

Godzilla Minus One, on the other hand, takes the monster seriously.  (This approach was also used successfully in Toho’s Shin Godzilla.)   Rest assured, this movie is definitely a Godzilla movie.  He grabs a train with his jaws, levels buildings with his tail, wards off a fleet of tanks firing missiles at him and uses his atomic breath (or heat ray, as the characters call it) when the mood strikes him.  Godzilla makes the same roar that he always has, and the score is filled with musical cues fans will instantly recognize.  The main difference between Godzilla Minus One and the more traditional Godzilla “kiddie fare” is that this movie depicts his destruction from the perspective of characters who experience it first hand.

In the movies where Godzilla is the villain, the highlight was the scenes of him smashing all sorts of things: boats, electrical towers, trains, buildings and so on.  In Godzilla’s golden age (the Sixties and Seventies) these scenes were fun because it was obvious that he was a man in a rubber suit, the structures he destroyed were miniatures and the screaming citizens were on a different soundstage.  Eventually, the movies used CGI to make the action look more realistic, but the movies were clearly more awestruck than shocked by Godzilla’s fury.  Countless people were killed but it never registered because these movies emphasized the grandeur of Godzilla destroying things but never the human toll.

Godzilla Minus One, however, shows us what being face-to-face with an angry Godzilla would be like.  For example, the opening scenes on Odo Island were at the level of a Jurassic Park/World movie, something that a Godzilla movie had never achieved before.  The scene when Godzilla pursues the minesweeper boat was intense because the special effects are incredibly convincing and because director Takashi Yamazaki stages it like Jaws.  Godzilla isn’t frightening just because he’s big and powerful, but because we see both him and his human prey in close proximity and the suspense over whether the characters will live or die from the encounter is palpable.

When Godzilla is on land, Yamazaki shows us how his actions are felt by the people at ground level.  Rubble crashes to the ground while people desperately try to run away.  The noise is deafening.  The Ginza sequence not only echoes Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 when Noriko dangles from a train car while it is being carried by Godzilla, but does it better.  Later, when Godzilla destroys the city with his atomic breath, the shockwave of the explosion throws Noriko through the air.  Finally, when Shikishima realizes that the woman he cares for has died, he cries in anguish while being pelted with black rain.  Yamazaki doesn’t want us to vicariously enjoy Godzilla’s carnage–he wants us to be horrified by it.

Godzilla’s attack on Ginza is easily one of the best scenes I’ve seen in this franchise.  The technical virtuosity is incredible in how seamlessly the special effects are rendered within the various live action settings.  In addition to the scene being genuinely scary, it’s also incredibly devastating because I cared about Shikishima and Noriko.  This is exactly the opposite of how I’ve felt about the characters in the Warner Brothers “monsterverse” movies.  They may have been portrayed by solid actors I like, but their fate didn’t matter because they are one-dimensional and speak inane dialog.

When viewed within the larger context of the Godzilla franchise, it’s actually revolutionary that Godzilla Minus One features human characters that are fully realized and relatable.  Whereas previous entries have focused on Godzilla, this one let us get to know the characters involved.  Shikishima has a rich character arc that begins with his despair and concludes with him reclaiming his honor by helping to defeat Godzilla.  The movie also contrasts Shikishima’s dark emotional state with Noriko’s budding optimism.  Together, they represent how Japan was  devastated at losing the war, saddened by the aftermath of that defeat and simultaneously looking ahead to a better future.

Godzilla Minus One also makes Godzilla looks meaner than he has in a long time.  I loved how this Godzilla was hell-bent on destruction and seemed to enjoy the devastation he creates.  This Godzilla wants to pick a fight at a moment’s notice and is confident he’ll win.  I thought it was masterful how every time Godzilla prepared to use his atomic breath, the characters held their collective breath while he powered-up like a weapon.  As each of his dorsal plates begin to glow and extend, the movie transforms what everyone knows is coming into a shared moment of dread not unlike watching the rise and fall of a guillotine.

Lastly, Godzilla Minus One works so well because director Takashi Yamazaki and cinematographer Kōzō Shibasaki have filled the movie with shots that are simply iconic. I haven’t seen every Godzilla movie, but I suspect that the artistry on display in this one is far beyond what this franchise has produced in the past. As a lifelong fan, I’m extremely gratified at how this movie single-handedly elevates the franchise to a level its rarely experienced.

Parting Shots

Even though I’m a lifelong fan of Godzilla, I haven’t reviewed any of his films until now. My first should have been for Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), but I don’t write reviews for movies I haven’t finished. At the midpoint of the movie, when Kong and his human companions plummeted to the center of the Earth, I’d had enough of the bloated CGI action, ridiculous story and silly dialog and turned the movie off. Even the presence of Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler wasn’t enough to hold my interest. Thank you, Toho Studios, for rewarding myself and fellow Godzilla devotees with one of the best movies of the franchise.