Godzilla Minus One: A Powerful, Moving Tale

Godzilla has been a cinematic icon for almost 70 years now. From the somber, anti-nuclear message of 1954's original Gojira (released in the US two years later as Godzilla, King of the Monsters, featuring additional footage with Raymond Burr as a reporter who witnesses Godzilla's rampage) to the enjoyable, light-hearted silliness of later entries like Monster Zero (1965) and Son of Godzilla (1967), the Big G has remained a fan favorite through various sequels, reboots and re-imaginings. Both Toho Studios in Japan, who originated the series, and Legendary Pictures in the US have released Godzilla films in recent years, including Toho's Shin Godzilla (2016) and Legendary's Godzilla, King of the Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021).

Godzilla Minus One, the latest entry in the Toho series, returns to the somber tone of Ishiro Honda's Gojira, and it's a terrific movie, one of the best in the Godzilla canon. The story opens in the final days of World War II, and follows a kamikaze pilot named Koichi, who chooses to land at a repair base on Odo Island (a location familiar to long-time fans) rather than sacrifice himself in battle. When the base is attacked by a prehistoric monster the locals call Godzilla, all of the personnel are killed, except Koichi and the head mechanic, Tachibana, who blames Koichi for the deaths of the crew because the nervous pilot failed to fire his plane's guns at the creature. Due to his failure to act, Koichi suffers a spiritual crisis, and suffers nightmares about his experiences.

When Koichi returns to Japan, he finds the country has been devastated due to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. He ends up sheltering a young woman named Noriko, as well as an orphaned child whose parents were killed in the bombings. Still haunted by guilt due to his inaction at Odo Island, Koichi gets a job on a ship that locates and detonates discarded mines from the war. While working on the minesweeper, he once again crosses paths with Godzilla, who has been mutated by postwar atom bomb tests conducted by the Unites States, and is stronger than ever. Godzilla attacks Japan, causing further death and destruction to an already broken and shattered country. When the governments of Japan and the US fail to act for fear of panicking the public, Koichi and a group of former military personnel come up with a unique plan to destroy Godzilla.

Godzilla Minus One is an exciting, powerful and moving tale. Because we see the story through Koichi's eyes, we share in his journey, and empathize with his feelings of doubt, guilt, fear and ultimately, redemption. The movie is the most character based entry in the Godzilla series since Gojira, and the human story is never overtaken by the monster action. This creature is not the friendly, Earth-defending Big G of the 1960s or 1970s films in the series. In Godzilla Minus One, the monster is a menacing, unstoppable force of nature that's symbolic of mankind's own destructive tendencies. The Godzilla attack sequences are visually striking, dramatic and well-staged by director Takashi Yamazaki, who also wrote the screenplay, and helped design and create the excellent special effects for the film.

In addition to the terrific work behind the scenes by Yamazaki and his talented crew, the cast is excellent. Ryunosake Kamiki as Koichi, Hidetaka Yoshioka as Kenji (a member of the minesweeper crew who's the architect of the plan to defeat Godzilla) and Munetaka Aoki as Tachibana, the Odo Island mechanic with a grudge against Koichi, are particular standouts. There are some nice callbacks to Akira Ifukube's classic Godzilla themes in the score for the film. If you're a long-time Godzilla fan, I highly recommended Godzilla Minus One. It's a fantastic movie, and it brings the story of Godzilla back to its darker origins as a cautionary tale, and also tells a compelling human story with a lot of heart. Here's a link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvSrHIX5a-0.