Godzilla Minus One (12A)

Dir: Takashi Yamazaki

Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sasaki

Amongst the death and destruction from the legendary Kaiju, is an emotionally compelling story which elevates the latest Godzilla movie to one of the best of the series.

As I waited for my much anticipated screening of the latest instalment in the iconic Toho Godzilla franchise, I was presented with a trailer for the next Warner Bros. production to star the Kaiju legend – Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. As the trailer played out, with its typical Hollywood contrivance and questionable but big budget special effects, I could not help but think the US production giant is making a mockery out of their titular movie monsters. What was once an ambitious and engaging franchise, kicking off with Gareth Edwards‘ Godzilla in 2014, is now a colossal, incoherent mess, lacking any heart or real purpose.

Godzilla will turn 70 next year, and with my raising concerns surrounding the American attempt to celebrate the anniversary, all my hopes rest with the monster’s parent company, Toho. Despite their impact on Japanese culture and world cinema as a whole, I have never really taken the time to sit down and watch many of the Japanese Godzilla productions, with the exception of the 1954 original and the excellent Shin Godzilla (2016). In fact the latest Toho production, ‘Godzilla Minus One‘, was the first Godzilla movie to be produced in his native Japan that I have had chance to catch on the big screen, and it did not disappoint.

Off the back of stellar reviews in both Japan and in the western world, as well as breaking records at the US Box Office, I could not be more excited. In a year where it appears fanfare surrounding the superhero subgenre appears to dwindling, it is refreshing to see that audiences are broadening their horizons with more internationally diverse blockbusters. On an impressively modest budget of $15 million, ‘Godzilla Minus One‘ has managed to gross $65million at the Box Office, becoming the most successful live-action Japanese film in history.

‘Godzilla Minus One’ is Toho’s way of celebrating their iconic mascots 70th birthday, and as a result writer-director Takashi Yamazaki, takes the prehistoric reptile back to his post-war roots. It is during the back end of World War II, where we are introduced to Kamikaze pilot, Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) as he feigns technical issues with his plane in an attempt to flee from his ‘life ending’ duties. It is during his lay over on the Pacific Island of Odo, where Kōichi, his lead mechanic Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) and his technical team are attacked by the dinosaur-like Godzilla. Frozen by fear, Kōichi cannot bring himself to shoot Godzilla, resulting in the deaths of everyone on the island with the exception of the finger-pointing Tachibana and Kōichi himself.

Once the war finishes, Kōichi returns home to Tokyo only to find it in ruins as a result of a citywide bombing by the Americans. Plagued with survivor’s guilt, he takes a high paying job as a minesweeper and also begins supporting a young woman named Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and an orphaned baby, Akiko. Having been further mutated from nuclear tests by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Godzilla becomes more powerful, destroying several warships and begins heading for Tokyo. Fully aware of the threat that Godzilla possesses and being one of the few living people to have encountered the creature, Kōichi, along with his fellow minesweeping crew must devise a plan from preventing the Kaiju from destroying an already poverty stricken and crumbling Japan.

Ever since his debut feature seventy years ago, ‘Godzilla’ has always been cast a metaphor, usually representing the nuclear threat and military might of the United States following on from their use of atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. That is further emphasised hear with Godzilla’s now well-established signature attack, his atomic breath, which has the capacity to reduce full cities to rubble in a manner similar to that of an atomic bomb. With the rumblings of nuclear threat, something that is still very present in the modern day, lurking in the background, ‘Godzilla Minus One’ also takes on a fresh metaphorical significance thanks to its post-war setting. Ryunosuke Kamiki’s excellently grounded central performance as the traumatised Kōichi, perfectly symbolizes the national anguish and guilt of Japan as a result of their defeat at the hands of the Americans. The fact that Kōichi managed to survive an inglorious war despite being a kamikaze pilot, a duty that pretty much had his fate sealed once he was enlisted, is a constant reminder of his failures. Overwhelmed with guilt and a sense of cowardice, which is only further emphasized when his hesitation on Odo results in the deaths of a dozen men, Kōichi is unable to move on with his life.

Like the aforementioned Godzilla (1954) and Shin Godzilla, this latest instalment works because it places its central characters and their trauma at the very centre of the story, crafting an emotionally engaging story of the human spirit. Despite its astonishingly low budget, the film still manages to showcase some breath-taking special effects and some heart pounding action set pieces of citywide destruction at the hands of the titular monster. Yamazaki has expertly balanced these more escapist, popcorn moments with the bleak human-centric scenes to create an enthralling and surprisingly emotional crowd-pleaser. Released only a couple of months later than Gareth Edwards’ equally stunning The Creator, it goes to show that in the right hands it is possible to produce large scale sci-fi epics on a modest budget, something the major studious such as Marvel should take into consideration going forward.

It may stray too far into melodrama at times but ‘Godzilla Minus One’ will be considered a huge success by Toho and is a fitting way to celebrate 70 years of one of cinemas most famous monsters.

Godzilla Minus One is now showing in UK Cinemas