Godzilla Minus One
Composite Score: 86.77
Starring: Minami Hamabe, Munetaka Aoki, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Sakura Andô, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yûya Endô, and Sae Nagatani
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Writer: Takashi Yamazaki
Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for creature violence and action
Box Office: $115.86 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Godzilla Minus One is Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla film, set after World War II that follows a small group of Japanese citizens as they work to save their country from the looming threat of the titular kaiju. The film is the 37th in the overall Godzilla franchise, and it stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as a surviving kamikaze pilot from World War II, Koichi Shikishima, who now works as part of a minesweeping crew while battling his own PTSD and survivor’s guilt from surviving both the war and an attack by Godzilla on an island base where he had stopped to land his plane. Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki fill out the remainder of the film’s cast as Shikishima’s girlfriend, fellow crewmen, and neighbor, all of whom find themselves in the fight for survival as Godzilla threatens the mainland of Japan after growing and mutating as a result of American nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll. In addition to winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, the film continues to be celebrated as one of the greatest kaiju and monster films ever made, with particular praise directed toward Kamiki’s performance and Yamazaki’s direction.
To that note, Godzilla Minus One truly feels like a kaiju film that gets at what these films can be. On the one hand, you have stunning visuals and plenty of high-energy, high-tension action sequences with humans facing down the existential threat of this giant sea monster that exhales small nuclear bombs seemingly at will. At the same time, you get this compelling human drama that reminds us of the horrors and folly of war and the tragedy of holding onto hurt and allowing it to dictate our lives. The two factors are woven together beautifully in this iteration of the Godzilla films in a way that many others have tried to capture but have seemingly missed out on in one way or another, with some straying too far into one ditch or the other and others missing the mark entirely (looking at you Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla). While the ending of the film does feel perhaps a bit too clean and saccharine, the rest of the film, literally up to the last minute of the film, is just about flawless in its execution.
Godzilla Minus One isn’t just one of the best monster/kaiju movies ever made, but simply one of the best films ever made thanks in large part to its great visuals and compelling story that blends excellently the two factors that make such films so popular. While it has a conclusion that almost feels too perfect, the real perfection lies in the rest of the film that reminds us of the horrors of war, the fleeting nature of life, and the importance of loving those around us while we have the chance all while delivering one of the most terrifying portrayals of Godzilla in recent memory. Currently, this film is available to stream on Netflix if you’d like to check it out, but it’s also set to re-release in theaters in the coming weeks if you’d like to see it on the big screen instead.
