Godzilla Minus One Review

“Godzilla looks really ticked off” – Yoji Akitsu

Everything about this Godzilla movie has left me bewildered and in a state of disbelief. It’s something that happened that I can’t believe. Had you asked me a few months ago what the next Godzilla movie was, I’d undoubtedly have said the next one in the Monarch series from Hollywood, and yes, that’s due for release next year. Somehow, it had completely escaped my notice that Toho Studios in Japan, the home of Godzilla, were busily filming a brand-new movie. Though, to be fair – I was anticipating a follow up to Shin Godzilla (2016), which finished with Godzilla frozen, but should he reawaken, an immediate nuclear strike was ready, and there were of course signs that he would reawaken.

I was caught by surprise when a trailer for Godzilla Minus One was released. I was further surprised when a worldwide release was announced, which included a showing at my usual multiplex. (The Japanese Godzilla movies never get a U.K. release.) Even better, in the original Japanese, with English subtitles. I’m a purist – I like to watch the Toho series in their original form, without the jokey re-editing and clumsy comedic dubbing that was inflicted by Hollywood for cheap laughs in the sixties and seventies.

So, anticipation was as high as Godzilla’s forehead as Steve and I made the trek to the multiplex. (With the original soundtrack CDs of the sixties Godzilla movies thundering on the car’s sound system. Hey, you’re watching a Toho Godzilla on the big screen, you go all-out – right? And yes, we WERE wearing Godzilla t-shirts. We dress appropriately.)

Further surprises were ahead – when the tickets were booked, both Steve and I were under the impression that this screening was a limited one-day deal, but it soon expanded as the film’s popularity exploded world-wide. The thing is, I guess, I thought Godzilla had a very limited viewership because a few years ago, hunting down all the Toho Godzillas became a major project. No one country had all of them available on DVD, so the collection, although complete, is a mixture of American, Australian, Japanese and French releases, with only one at the time being available in the UK. (Hunting down these movies in their original language was the first thing I did when I got my hands on a multi-region DVD player.) With this in mind, and the certainty that the movies themselves are very much the Marmite of the film world, you either love them or you hate them, I thought for sure we’d be the only ones present at the screening. Nope, wrong again – it was pretty busy. And there were a lot of Godzilla t-shirts on display.

The biggest surprise of all was the film itself. It’s not what I thought it’d be. I wasn’t even close.

It celebrates the 70th anniversary of the first Gojira by being both a prequel to, and a loose remake of the original. It has nothing to do with Shin Godzilla (so hopefully, we can still expect another film to resolve that impending crisis). Did I feel cheated at all by this turn of events?

Not at all.

Frankly, I was swept away by this majestic behemoth of a monster movie right from the opening studio logo. The story is strong, the performances are pitch perfect. We start off on Odo Island, close to the end of WW2, where Koichi Shikishima (Ryonusuke Kamiki) a Kamikaze pilot has landed at a base, claiming that his fighter has a malfunction. No problem can be found by the mechanics, Shikishima has deserted his duty. One evening, he has an opportunity to redeem himself when a dinosaur-like creature attacks the base. Despite getting in his plane, he finds he can’t bring himself to shoot this creature called Godzilla and save everyone. Only he and the chief mechanic survive.

After the war, Shikishima goes home to a devastated Tokyo, his parents have been killed in the American bombings, his home destroyed – and he faces the shame of being a Kamikaze pilot who failed to carry out his duty to sacrifice himself for his country.

It’s a tale of redemption, a regaining of honour, set against the post-war despair as Japan was trying to rebuild, while the American military was testing ever greater weapons of mass destruction in the Pacific, with no real knowledge of how the nuclear fallout would affect the ecosystem. The immediate effect here, of course (because this is a monster movie, not a documentary, though Godzilla is a metaphor for nuclear destruction) is that the monster from Odo Island mutates to giant size and develops the ability to fire a nuclear blast from its mouth. Worse, it can regenerate tissue destroyed by weapons used against it, and it heads for Tokyo.

The U.S. military can’t help because of escalating tensions with the former U.S.S.R.

That’s the setup.

The execution is flawless. Shikishima encounters a young woman Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hibabe) who has a young baby with her. Becoming a family, they struggle to survive in a small hut in the devastated city, eking out a living in the wrecked economy. All the while, Godzilla isn’t far away, ready to make things much, much worse for a country that can barely defend itself.

The scenes of destruction as the monster lumbers clumsily through the city, causing cataclysmic damage are astounding. Moreso when the budget is taken into consideration. The budget for this movie was only 10% of the budget of the last Monarch Godzilla film from Hollywood – and to be completely honest, it’s head and shoulders above the Monarch continuity. This is Godzilla taken back to his roots, before every film needed a new Kaiju monster as a foe. He’s a threat, he’s unpredictable and seems unstoppable. If this is a reboot, count me in.

But more than that, the biggest surprise was yet to hit me until the final credits rolled – to the original Gojira score, I must add – and I realised that I had to re-think my film of the year list. It’s THAT good.

I have literally no option but to give this film the full ten points in my rating because it’s flawless.

Long live the King!

Rob Rating = 10.