Godzilla Minus One: A Review (Review #1963)

GODZILLA MINUS ONE

For better or worse, Godzilla at times has turned into a joke, this big lizard roaring and stomping his way through Tokyo. It does not help that recent American productions focus more on spectacle and CGI destruction than plot. Now, this iconic figure goes back to his roots with Godzilla Minus One. The film manages to balance what people expect in a monster movie with an intelligent and moving human story. 

In the waning days of the Second World War, kamikaze pilot Kiochi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is on a small island with a group of other Imperial Japanese soldiers. There, they find a giant lizard has risen from the waters and attacks the garrison. Kiochi, who does not want to perform his divine mission for Emperor and country, becomes paralyzed with fear at everything going on around him. Sadly, only he and another man survive, but Kiochi is shamed and ashamed of his lack of action.

Things are no better when the war finally ends, and he returns to a devastated Tokyo. His family is gone. His countrymen look on him with shame. He finds life, hard as it is to bear, must be kept going. Circumstances bring him into contact with Noriko Oishi (Minami Hamabe), a young woman who has also survived the war. Noriko has been caring for an orphan whom they name Akiko, and despite themselves have formed an unofficial family.

Kiochi's expertise eventually help him find work as a minesweeper, where he soon starts bonding with the motley crew of cynical older men and naive young men too young to have fought in the war. The ship, however, finds an old acquaintance of Kiochi: the lizard known as Godzilla. He now is stronger and more dangerous due to the atomic testing at the Bikini Atoll, and he now starts targeting the nearby ships. Kiochi, still traumatized both by the war itself and his lack of action, continues struggling with both guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually, Godzilla lands in mainland Japan itself, putting everything and everyone that Kiochi loves in danger. 

There is apparent loss, but also now a determination to stop this monster from destroying all of Japan. How to do so when it comes to Godzilla? It will take a metaphorical and literal all-hands-on-deck method to bring about Godzilla's downfall. Will Kiochi finally find his peace as Operation Wada Tsumi begins? Who will live and who may die to fight Godzilla to the death? Will Godzilla finally be taken down? Will those battered by the war find resolution?

In many current Godzilla movies, particularly American ones, the focus has been on the massive level of destruction. Looking at recent Godzilla films like Godzilla vs. Kong and 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the mindset among those involved in these films is that people want nothing but total destruction. Godzilla Minus One takes a different tack. Here, we do get some major action pieces. However, in a surprising and welcome turn, we also focus on the human element. 

Godzilla Minus One (I believe that the title comes from how the Japanese see World War II's end as "Year Zero" and the added destruction from Godzilla pushes it to "Year Minus One") takes its time to let us get to know the people involved. Slowly, we know Koichi and Noriko, these two survivors who are attempting to build not just their own lives but the world around them. In some ways, Godzilla Minus One is about Japan's early post-war years, where there was a realization and determination to survive what would have decimated other peoples.  

We see Koichi and Noriko's basic goodness, the slow bonds that they build not just with each other but with Akiko, who is really no kin to either but with whom they create that family unit. A lot of Godzilla Minus One is driven by Koichi's guilt about surviving the war. By taking on Godzilla, Koichi believes that he can restore not so much his honor but his sense of self. He is protector: of Noriko and Akiko, of his fellow minesweepers, of his nation. While Noriko is closer to nurturer, she is not a weak woman. It takes great personal courage to care for a child not your own, even willing to raise her alone. 

I think Godzilla Minus One is uniquely Japanese with its ideas of shared responsibility. Here, everyone collaborates, working together to confront a joint menace. There are many moments when one is moved by the performances and the willingness to sacrifice themselves for others. Mizushima (Yuki Yamada) is the youngest of the minesweeper crew, too young to have fought in the war and treated as something like a child. He balks at being left behind while the other, older men go to face off against Godzilla. I believe he asks what does that leave him? "We leave you the future," he is told. I admit to finding this scene quite quiet and moving.

The focus on the human characters is not meant to imply or suggest that Godzilla Minus One skimps on the spectacle. Far from it. The film rightly won Best Visual Effects for bringing the giant lizard to life. Godzilla's attack on Ginza is an astonishing set piece, blending the humans and the monster so effectively that it is pretty much impossible to know what is real and what is not. This and two sea battles between Godzilla and the Japanese are astonishing visual moments that will leave the viewer almost breathless. 

Each of the performances work extremely well. The film allows for moments of bonding between the men and even between the men and Kiochi's informal family. We get to know them, and as such, we end up caring about their plight and whether or not they live or die.

That is perhaps one of Godzilla Minus One's few flaws: it pulls out the rug from under us not once but twice when it comes to characters. I think that the film's runtime, which is a little over two hours, might be a bit punishing. The second is a minor issue, the first is a little harder to bear. 

On the whole however, Godzilla Minus One is a thrilling film that blends intimacy with spectacle. Everyone gets something out of it: there are human moments, there is Godzilla stomping over Tokyo. An excellent addition to the overall Godzilla mythos, Godzilla Minus One shows why he can claim to be King of the Monsters. 

DECISION: B+