Godzilla Minus One - The Horror of having no Future

At the beginning o the initial credits, we are reminded that the movie in question is celebrating the 70th birthday of Godzilla as character and movie franchise, and all I could think of was: 70th? Jesus, the old nuclear lizard got this far?! What else can he cook up next in a vastness of near 40 movies and counting… Well, how about one of its supreme best titles if not the best?!

I know I know, the 50th person to state this on the current hype train of another non-Hollywood ‘foreign’ release making western critics and casual audiences losing their minds with something that is this compelling inside what’s a spectacle-oriented blockbuster, but nailing a pulsating heart at its center that makes you involved with the human characters and their personal dramas, IN A GODZILLA MOVIE, and in the same measure completely satisfied with the screen time devoted to monster mayhem, with the added bittersweet taste to what’s a spectacle of human tragedy.

In the same film that delivers a journey of heroism and bravery so simplistic in its elements and execution, and so stunningly well done that it makes you wonder how desperate today's audiences really are for a little old-fashioned traditionalism in their stories. Then well, leave it to Godzilla Minus One to be the other non-traditional blockbuster of this year to satisfy the need that a dead on the water modern Hollywood has become almost completely incapable of delivering!

Acting both as a remake – with quite similar plot and thematic beats from Ishirô Honda’s original; and a reimagining of the titular ‘character’ from scratch, Minus One wastes no time in making lore introductions and just presents the beast at its full folkloric-horror form: a big ass ancient dinosaur wreaking havoc in physical devastation and leaving scars buried deep in the soul of those who witness him. If big G was created as the incarnated terror of the nuclear age, we are made to feel that right away by seeing ‘Gojira’ acting on his destructible nature and what he mirrors in those who survived to tell the story.

Set in post-war Japan still suffering the trauma left by Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the existential impact it had on society, the 'back to basics' scenario that writer/director Takashi Yamazaki sets the big kaiju king back into, sees its characters engulfed in a nationwide psychological and emotional post-war trauma. From the macro scope of generational guilt left in the scaring legacy stained in their history; to the individual one in a living ‘survivor's guilt’ state carried by our leading hero Koichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki).

Having to endure a period mindset where giving one (or more) deaths for the greater good was the honorable thing to do, and he’s forever deemed and left ashamed for wanting to live. Judged by those who couldn’t salvage what they had, inhabiting the idea of the ‘honorable sacrifice’ as something that could give a reason for all that they lost, at the cost of countless lives being thrown to purposeless waste amidst the ruble of all that they are.

One could easily read how this speaks strongly to the political and social landscape of modern Japan and its low birth rate. But the existential despair set by the narrative feels most importantly authentically historical for its depicted period, as well as creating the desolated atmosphere of where Koichi and the assemble of other (great) characters are trying to rebuild their very existence, whose sole foil threat to it is the emergence of a giant nuclear dinosaur. And if the final result feels so rightly merged and conveyed, then it did something absolutely right!

I won’t say it matches the same sharp satire, or even the CREEPY horror effects from Shin Godzilla, the too recent and sadly forgotten Godzilla flick, whom Yamazaki’s movie disputes tightly strong as the pride miracle of the long running franchise brought to the 21st century; but his film nevertheless shows what ‘Godzilla / kaiju cinema’ is at its finest: as serious as Ishirô Honda's original, as corningly old-fashioned, taken from classic novelty adventures. Is an anti-war melodrama and a classic adventure with the echoing spirit that ranges from classic Star-War heroics and ballzy as early 2000s blockbusters, but made into something entirely new and still steeped strong in the Godzilla mythos!

It basically does everything right that the two last solo Godzilla movies from Warner’s Monsterverse weren’t able to do. Not just in making what’s actual tangible character drama, but also evenly matching in the blockbuster spectacle of the highest order without having to overdo its empty visual pollution, nor sacrifice anything in the monster action! Is even more ironic when you remember that Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla approach to the mythos was by capturing the nature-event of Godzilla emergence heavily inspired in this awe-like miracle from Jurassic Park and the human eye level witnessing nature’s gods awakening that got lost in completely hollow far-stretched build-ups.

Ironic because Yamazaki to goes full Spielberg when he makes the boat sequence that marks Gojira's first encounter in his final form being lift directly from Jaws, including a mouth-shattering shot, literally! With the boat combat-tension ride taking some practical palpable-thrills from Dunkirk; something doubly replicated in the climax that’s the original Godzilla climax meets Dunkirk naval battle tension spectacle. And is to be impressed the remarkably excellent sense of geography that Yamazaki has, that puts today's directors of American blockbusters to shame.

The blocking within the big sets and scope of the sequences is near flawless, the pacing is tightly framed in perfectionist handling. It feels like a young James Cameron in knowing exactly what to give what the audience is expecting at the economically calibrated moments. Seen especially in how he saves Akira Ifukube’s iconic theme to a punctual moment in the climax that broke the audience into applause, solidifying Minus One as an earnest crowd-pleaser directed with real mastery!

Less than a 15 million budget and the result of the big G on screen remains impeccable. The CGI doll is not only digitally and visually excellently designed, as Yamazaki explicitly wants to retain some of that charm from Honda’s classics and the good old method: ‘a guy in a suit’. Created by nuclear mutation as a direct result from the real life Operation Crossroads, involving nuclear tests by the Americans; it adds a semi 'end of the world-event' tone for the unfolding action and weight to Gojira's presence, never mind if he’s in the screen less than the human characters, his appearances are enough and always present in the character’s minds.

Making this type of comparison seems exaggerated, especially within a franchise that is so multifaceted and has already gone through several different incarnations/interpretations of its legacy on the big screen; but if you take for example how Godzilla vs Kong so arbitrarily sadistically treats the destruction and civilians casualties, in Minus One every piece of destruction left behind by the heavy and destructive steps from Gojira, carries its deadly weight that makes us feel the horror of the chaos that he creates, and of course, what it also represents.

His stomps are massive mini destructions and his atomic breath is a literal nuclear explosion; he walks slowly like Jason and has psycho-killer stare in his eyes at all times, his hunger is for death! Leaving every soul tormented by its sheer presence, because he’s the acknowledgment of all their suffrage and all that they lost; the living and breading curse that still destroys their sole hope of living again, and where their fight becomes about burying the horror that haunted their existence.

In what’s the most crowd-pleaser aspect of the film, and what is probably driving most of the audience praise, is found in how the narrative basis itself strongly in traditional hero's-journey archetypes and makes a averagely compelling character-driven tale of a man returning to the ashes of his former life, carrying the shame of not being the hero his country and nation demanded of him to be by his honorable death as a kamikaze pilot.

One might wonder how that a film that’s just doing the pure basics of character development plot-beats is leaving so many enthralled by it. Call it the great acting by Kamiki, or the heavy den of cynicism surrounding several current stories that people consume as content instead of having fun and seeing themselves invested in engaging charismatic and multifaceted characters even though they are clear archetypes; as we see in Minus One.

It seems like beating a dead horse, but the fact that this film cost less than an episode of She Hulk and has more charisma and dramatic development than Ashoka's entire cast, really makes you rethink what the hell you're currently consuming and satisfying yourself with SO little. Minus One doesn't seem like much for the basics it makes, but it's like eating a delicious, well-made dish from the restaurant on the corner that won't be as tasty as your mother made, but it will satisfy your hunger!

Oh ok, I get that the family drama here may feel ‘too conservative’ for modern sensibilities, but the struggles found in what it is to be a real man and have real dignity, the pressure to be brave and also a family provider, or the sparkling relationship with Minami Hamabe’s Noriko; being directly contrasted with the giant post-war trauma incarnation threatening he build for himself, forms the encapsulating intimate scenario of pressuring anxieties, the plaint suicidal push, the impossibility of reaching that comfort of peace;

Minus One is a modern story, a life affirming one! Of someone discovering the will to live even through guilt, choosing love instead of chasing the end. Forgiveness is not something to be demanded or gained; is conquered through our growth, as an individual, as a nation. Is all so well developed in synergic conception around the situation, forming strong and tangent sense of collectivity and community is awakened. From a small group of characters forming a family, to an entire country community, uniting to fight the treath to their lives! The entire movie is embedded in this resonant strong human warmth and earnest hopeful pathos that simply makes it irresistible!

Perhaps the ending alluding to the post-nuclear bomb radiation sickness, evolving to something far worse, may damage a bit of what was being constructed up until them, but given the quality of the material, it leaves you eager to see where it might lead next. Some of the drama might get soapy and overall too formulaic, but the emotional sensibility behind it is sincere, and the acting is superb; so when you see someone praising this as way above average, take it as an absolute triumph, exactly what Minus One feels like!