“Godzilla Minus One” Review
A team of minesweepers in post-WWII Japan try to evade the monstrous Godzilla in “Godzilla Minus One”, the latest film in the decades-long Japanese franchise.
When I was a child, I watched my first Godzilla film. Not the American “Godzilla” film from 2014 that has started a whole universe of modern kaiju films nor the maligned 1998 film starring Matthew Broderick. When I first got Netflix, I watched the original “Godzilla” from 1954 that first depicted the monster attacking Japan without mercy. Specifically, it was the reedited American release, retitled “Godzilla, King of the Monsters!” that mixed the original Ishirō Honda film with new American footage starring actor Raymond Burr. While it took me many years to watch the original Japanese film with no American footage, I was already hooked by the dread and horror of classic science fiction.
I’m by no means a massive Godzilla expert but I prefer the earlier films because they didn’t have as much camp as later entries in the long running franchise. This is what drew me so much to “Godzilla Minus One” which is not just the best Godzilla film that I’ve seen in a long time, it’s one of the best action films that was released in 2023. With an exceptional sense of spectacle mixed with powerful drama, this is the kind of film that will, no doubt, inspire a new wave of fandom for the destructive monster.
Shortly after the end of WWII, a pilot named Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kaiki) tries to rebuild his life and put his demons behind him as the nation of Japan lies in a state of ruins. Along with other survivors and veterans of the war, Shikishima’s uneasy existence is turned upside down with the arrival of Godzilla, who threatens to destroy all that remains. With no help in sight, Shikishima and his allies mount an extremely dangerous defense of Japan in the fight for their lives.
With “Godzilla Minus One”, director/writer Takashi Yamazaki understands that the monstrous element should be the least interesting element of the film. In this story, you could have removed the giant lizard monster and it still would have been a great film. The film’s drama is so riveting and I felt so invested with these characters. In “Godzilla Minus One”, you get an incredibly strong familiarity with Shikishima and the life that slowly materializes after the end of WWII. He befriends a woman named Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and, together, they raise a baby girl named Akiko (Sae Nagatani) who was orphaned in the bombings of Tokyo. Shikishima also gets a job sweeping mines and forms a strong bond with the crew of the boat he’s working on. This life is so interesting and Ryunosuke Kaiki’s performance is marvelous as he tries to build something from the rubble of his life but finds that he can’t enjoy it because of regrets that he has from his time in combat. Minami Hamabe’s acting is also terrific with the relationship that develops between Noriko and Shikishima being my biggest point of investment for the film’s story.
The most important part of this film is that you give a shit about the people that are running away from Godzilla. While I enjoy the American Monsterverse films and think that they’re fun blockbusters, I never really see fleshed out characters in those movies. I just see big Hollywood names like Byran Cranston, Millie Bobby Brown, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and Bryan Tyree Henry. With “Godzilla Minus One”, I wasn’t just curious about how many buildings Godzilla was going to smash. I was on the edge of my seat, worrying that the film would kill off my favorite characters.
Post-war Japan was stunning in its depiction because you truly feel that sense of dread and defeat from the Japanese people at the beginning of the film. It’s a rich environment that digs up a side of history that we in America have overlooked and showcases the humanity that can be found by broken people. When that humanity is threatened once again by Godzilla, it’s devastating and it’s hard not to think of the allegories that this film and the original “Godzilla” film presented. After all, what better metaphor for an atomic bomb than a gigantic monster that destroys your city and kills men, women and children with no remorse?
With the monster itself, the film’s action sequences are fantastic with a strong feeling of suspense. Even when Godzilla disappears from the film for a while, you still have an uneasy feeling that he could strike at any time. The middle of the film relies heavily on this ill-feeling with slow-burning, ocean-set scenes that are especially reminiscent of “Jaws” where the build-up to the attack takes a minute but then bursts into this frenzy of activity. As for the climax, it’s nail-biting as you find yourself in a constant state of worry for these people since you know that most of them have a good chance of dying. Helping to create this feeling is Naoki Satō’s score, which is just incredible to listen to. The ways that this music can inspire love, fear and thrills all work perfectly with the film and enhance everything that Yamazaki was trying to achieve.
It's almost unreal that the film’s effects look so good given the fact that this film had a budget of less than $15 million. That kind of money is nothing for an American blockbuster based on a popular character yet the look of “Godzilla Minus One” is absolutely wonderful. Even when Godzilla looks fake, which you’d expect from the franchise at this point, he’s always doing something terrifying and creative so that the spell is never broken. This version of the monster also has exceptionally animalistic and chilling eyes. This is not the Godzilla that fights giant monsters on behalf of humanity. This monster wants to kill to claim territory and doesn’t care how many people he steps on to do it.
With “Godzilla Minus One”, there are a few plot points, mainly those from the climax, whose conclusions you can probably guess. However, not only are they what I wanted to happen with the story but the execution was so phenomenal that it could afford to be a bit predictable. After all, if you figure out the twists of “The Sixth Sense” or “Fight Club”, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it. It just means you caught on to the film’s clues earlier than expected.
“Godzilla Minus One” is one of those films that I think is going to have extensive appeal among audiences. This is certainly the Godzilla film for people who love the franchise, who have no interest in it whatsoever and for those who are a bit tired of seeing Godzilla fighting as a good guy. Despite the film being spoken entirely in Japanese and with subtitles, something Americans are deathly afraid of, my country didn’t feel the need to cannibalize this film with new scenes featuring an American actor like with the original film. Instead, “Godzilla Minus One” has been doing great with American audiences in its original form. The fact that this film is doing so well in America says something great about our country’s increased engagement with foreign cinema and, hopefully, we can see even more foreign action films that are as well-crafted as this most recent Godzilla picture.
