Monster Movie Mayhem: ‘Godzilla Minus One’

By CONNOR KEATING

Tiger Media Network

“Godzilla Minus One” is the newest Godzilla film from the folks over at Toho. The film was originally released in Japan on November 3 for Godzilla’s anniversary, and recently made it over the Pacific and got a fairly wide US release. This is kind of a big deal because normally, these types of films get a one-night showing at maybe one theater in the entire state. This was the case with the Shin films (“Shin Godzilla,” “Shin Ultraman,” and “Shin Kamen Rider”). The last time a Japanese Godzilla movie got a wide release like this was over 20 years ago with “Godzilla 2000”, and that didn’t go so well. This time, though, “Godzilla Minus One” is doing much better than expected. 

I have seen a lot of confusion around this movie, so as a hardcore Godzilla fan allow me to explain. One of the biggest things people are probably wondering is, “Is this connected to the Monsterverse?” The Monsterverse is the recent Hollywood Godzilla and Kong movies. The answer to that is, no. Right now, we are in an interesting time where we have two different Godzilla series running alongside each other. Toho has what is referred to as the Reiwa Series, which consists of “Shin Godzilla,” the Godzilla anime trilogy, and now “Minus One,” there’s also a pair of anime shows, “Godzilla Singular Point” and the pinnacle of the franchise: “Chibi Godzilla Raids Again.” Meanwhile, Legendary has the Monsterverse, which has “Godzilla” from 2014, “Kong Skull Island,” “Godzilla King of the Monsters,” “Godzilla vs. Kong,” and just recently got the Apple+ show “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.” I’ve also seen people asking if “Minus One” is replacing the Monsterverse; that’s also a no. In fact, the next film for that series, “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire,” just got its first trailer and it doesn’t look good, but we will see. You may also wonder if “Minus One” is connected to any of the other Reiwa Godzilla films and that’s another no. Pretty much, this film is its own thing. Nothing else connects to it, so if you’ve never seen a Godzilla film, then this is a great place to start.

Now let’s look at the film. The plot follows Koichi Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot during WWII who flees from his duty, pretending that his plane has issues. He lands on the nearby Odo Island, and after an attack on the island later that night, only he and a mechanic named Tachibana survive. Tachibana blames Shikishima for the deaths of the others. Shikishima returns home to a family that was wiped out by a bombing run, and neighbors who see him as a disgrace for not doing his duty. One day, he runs into a mysterious woman named Noriko Oishi, who has an orphaned baby named Akiko. Together, they end up forming an odd little family, and while they both want to get married, Shikishima is suffering from PTSD and survivor’s guilt, and doesn’t see himself as worthy. He eventually gets a job disarming sea mines on a crappy wooden boat where he makes some friends, but everything takes a turn when Godzilla appears. Now, the people of Japan have to come together in a daring plan to defeat Godzilla.

One of the big talking points around this film is just how good the story and characters are. Monster movies have always been plagued by the stigma that they don’t have good characters, and that that’s fine because they don’t matter anyways. However, the best of the best monster movies are the ones with great characters. They may not always be the most dynamic characters that have some big arc over the course of the film, but a fun cast of characters are always in the best monster movies. “Godzilla Minus One” however, has those dynamic characters. 

Shikishima is a great protagonist. He has a pretty strong character arc that, honestly, I wasn’t sure they’d go all the way through, creating some great suspense. He has his edgy moments, but it works well for the film and it’s understandable why. He feels guilty for the deaths of the Odo Island attack and for not doing his duty as a kamikaze pilot, however he manages to find a new family and friends and gradually gets out of this stoop, but he sees Godzilla as his final obstacle to overcome. The other characters are all great as well. Akitsu, Noda, and Mizushima, the boat boys, are a fun trio that play off of each other and Shikishima well. 

Noriko and Akiko are fantastic as well, and it’s because of these two that I legitimately had a river coming out of each eye by the end. Then there’s the mechanic, Tachibana, who I at first didn’t like all that much, but he gets some nice redemption at the end of the film. “Godzilla Minus One” succeeds in having one of the strongest casts of any Godzilla movie, and who could have predicted that having characters you actually care about would improve the film drastically?

And its story is just as good. The film is a drama about Japan trying to recover after its defeat in WWII, just as much as it is a monster movie. You really get a sense of what it must be like to live in a city that has been destroyed by war. There’s an overarching theme about coming together in times of difficulty throughout and this message is really hit home when the people of Japan come together to enact a crazy plan to stop Godzilla. They can’t rely on the government and have to do something in the face of danger, and the plan they come up with is very interesting and unique. I also appreciate that it’s foreshadowed throughout the film. The film also has strong themes of life and family. It’s the sort of stuff that will have you tearing up by the end. These themes help “Minus One” stand out since, for once, it’s not just “nuclear weapons bad.” 

The characters and story are both phenomenal, but of course, you can’t have Godzilla without the man himself. Godzilla in this is fantastic, and with time, he may easily become one of my favorite versions. This is one of the very few versions of Godzilla that is actually terrifying, and truthfully this is mostly due to the characters. This is not a Godzilla you cheer for. He’s the villain, and you want to see the characters survive. There are lots of very suspenseful moments, and this is one of the few Godzillas that actively goes after people. This guy is mad. The time period also helps with this as these guys don’t have modern weaponry. Heck, what they do have isn’t even the best for the time, and this Godzilla is tough. There’s one scene around the middle that made me go, “oh crap” when the realization hits that this is a powerful Godzilla and that Japan is screwed. 

The destruction scenes in this are great as well, and I like that each of Godzilla’s appearances has very different circumstances, allowing for a variety of action set pieces. Godzilla’s attacks have a lot of power and weight behind them, buildings crumble in a terrifying yet also satisfying way, boats and trains get tossed around, and this film shows “Oppenheimer” how you make a big explosion. The action scenes are accompanied by a beautiful score that has a mix of old remade tracks from “Gojira” and “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” along with some spectacular new music that works wonderfully with the film.

The effects are also very beautiful. I will always be a practical effects man at heart, but when a film looks this good, I have to appreciate it. There are some effects that don’t look quite as good, particularly a few tanks and some of the tiny CGI people, but this is very minor stuff that’s only in the film for a brief moment, but for only $15 million, this movie looks great. Especially when you start to compare it to a lot of the recent big-budget Hollywood films that cost around $200 million, and don’t look nearly as good! This is a very pretty film.

So yeah, “Godzilla Minus One” is fantastic. In fact, out of the 37 Godzilla movies, it is now my second favorite, just behind the original. It has great characters, a beautiful story, breathtaking music, and brutal action scenes. These days, it seems like there are two kinds of movies. Big dumb action movies that are fun, but don’t have much substance, and then there are the artsy films that may be objectively better but can be terribly boring. “Godzilla Minus One” manages to take the best of both kinds of films and seamlessly stitches them together to create what may be one of the best films of the decade. I give this film 10 “Kyūshū J7W Shindens” out of 10!