Godzilla Minus One

Gojira Warfare

Godzilla Minus One
Directed by Takashi Yamazaki
Japan 2023
Toho
UK Cinema Print

You know, I’m at that age where I don’t go out to the cinema on week nights anymore. I get up at 5am for work the next day so I tend to restrict my cinema time to the weekends if possible. But then Cineworld had an Unlimited cardholders preview of the new Japanese Godzilla film, just in time for next year’s 70th Anniversary of the character and, well, regular readers will know this would not be something I could resist. So I braved it out last night to the preview and... wow.

I’m not a fan of the usual hyperbole that enthusiastic audience members use to describe new films in a franchise just because it’s new and shiny. So please don’t take it lightly when I say that Godzilla Minus One is, probably the greatest Godzilla movie ever made (to date). Taking its cues from the original 1954 Ishiro Honda classic movie, this one... in my humble estimation... actually manages to pay homage to that version while somehow surpassing it.

Now, it is a reboot, so to speak and in some ways I’m sure some people will see this as just a remake from the original material but, no, it’s not. It shares some similar traits (quite deliberately and rightly so) but it is its own beast of a movie and it’s actually set just after the Second World War, as seen from the Japanese perspective. Starting towards the end of the war, the main protagonist Koichi (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikazi pilot who can’t see the sense in carrying out his mission now the outcome of the war is obvious. So he lands it on the fictional Odo Island (which is an island featured in the original Godzilla movie) and the mechanic team there try to figure out what’s wrong with his plane when, actually in many ways, it’s the pilot who needs fixing.

Then the creature talked about by the locals, Godzilla, shows up and leaves all but Koichi and one mechanic dead, in a truly frightening sequence. The remaining mechanic blames Koichi for not using his aircraft guns against the beast in the hopes of saving the lives of those colleagues who were either stomped, thrown or eaten and this continues the strand of emotion running through the whole film... guilt. Especially survivor’s guilt... of the chaos of war and the new terror of Godzilla. 

When Koichi returns to a war flattened Tokyo, finding both his parents dead, he befriends a woman (played by Minami Hamabe) who has ‘stolen’ a baby and is being pursued as a thief when she tries to steal it food to keep it alive. The baby is not stolen... it’s left in her care by a dying parent and Koichi’s life becomes inextricably entwined with her and the child... not to mention the presence of Godzilla who, after the Bikini Atoll test bombs, is irradiated and changed, growing larger and gaining the ability to emit a nuclear death ray from it’s mouth. And that’s mostly what I’ll say about the plot but it’s a film which is all about personal redemption and ultimately doing the right thing in the face of lethal and overwhelming odds.

Like the original film, so many decades ago, the director wisely sticks to keeping Godzilla’s screen presence to a minimum. The creature only gets about 11 minutes of screen time in a 125 minute film. Instead, the focus is on the human drama at the heart of the story and also creating many characters that the audience can really get close to. So we have a director who understands that by keeping The Big G’s appearances to a minimum, the scenes of spectacular devastation when he does put in an appearance every so often, become intensely magnified in contrast to the heartwarming, grittiness of the drama of an American occupied, post-war Japan.

And there are some wonderful nods to the franchise too, especially the original film. For instance, there’s a device which appears to me to be a version of the famous Oxygen Destroyer from the first movie and in one sequence of gripping rampage, the iconic shot where Godzilla starts chewing on the train carriages is replicated but given a new spin too, as one of the main protagonists is aboard the train and finds a way to narrowly survive that experience.

And it’s just brilliant. The film has a lot of heart and the human drama and the story of the various characters is, as I said, the main focus here, punctuated with appearances of the title monster when appropriate. Godzilla is not a character you’ll be rooting for here either. Like in the very first couple of movies, he’s very much the villain of the piece and you will want to see him stopped by whatever means possible.

And the musical score by Naoli Satô is brilliant too. I am hoping this gets a CD release because it’s phenomenal, not just in the nods back to the original franchise... although speaking of that...

By about three quarters of an hour into the movie, I was assuming we wouldn’t be hearing any of original Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube’s music interwoven into the film which, I was almost disappointed by but, honestly, the film was working so well without it, I really didn’t mind. Except, no it’s here, they just make you wait for it with some cunningly spotted sequences, bringing in the first of Ifukube’s themes for a big Godzilla moment and then, later, bringing in the full Godzilla march during a climactic action sequence. Talking of which... the leitmotif for the march seems almost twisted around this time. It’s not so much scoring the majesty of the creature... more it’s scoring the rag tag band of humans who have come out to fight Godzilla and it becomes their heroic fanfare, of a sorts. But it works very well in this capacity, I must say.

One last thing... given the trials and struggles of the lead characters leading up to the end of the film, I was surprised that the finish of the story was quite so optimistic. Two things happened which, well I won’t say I didn’t see them coming, they were always a possibility and certainly didn’t surprise me... but they did almost disappoint me in their fall back on Hollywood style optimism and hope for the future. That being said, I don’t begrudge the audience the almost impossibly happy ending the film has and, yeah, it’s not really a complaint either.

Bottom line is, I absolutely loved Godzilla Minus One and, as I said, I think it’s the best one yet. I hope this gets a sequel set in the same period following some of the same characters, for sure. Go and see this one at a cinema, is my advice. Kaiju Eiga fans will not want to miss this one on a big screen.