MOVIE
Godzilla Minus One
Director Takashi Yamazaki
Reviewer Ray Chan
Well, this must be about the best holiday present you could get. Just as the year draws to a close, comes a movie that is quite possibly the best of 2023 … and the biggest surprise is that it’s a Godzilla film.
What makes it stand out is the production’s focus on the relationship between its human protagonists as they try to battle the threat of the titular giant monster, when it first arises from the ocean to wreak devastation on Japan.
There’s no explanation about Godzilla’s origins: he just IS. And it’s up to the citizens of the country, recently recovering in the aftermath of the atomic bomb that stirred the beast from its hibernation, to stand up or be slaughtered.
The story, from franchise owner-originator movie production company Toho, is a masterclass in action and storytelling, an absolute spectacle about humanity that provides far more compelling pathos and cerebral content than the Hollywood releases of Legendary Pictures, which tiresomely focuses on the efforts of the bureaucratic agency Monarch to keep Godzilla and his bunch of so-called Titans at bay (and for which a TV series has been created).
Godzilla Minus One is essentially a remake of the 1954 Godzilla, with inspiration (particularly in its first and third acts) from a few others in the early series. But while the production borrows their basic story structure and certain themes, it brings a great deal of original characterisation to the table, while improving upon the inspirational elements from those other chapters.
Writer-director-visual effect supervisor Takashi Yamazaki’s magnificent script is full of real, delicate, flawed people trapped in horrifying circumstances and facing impossible expectations and odds (both internal, cultural, international, while contending with a giant atomic monster).
The premise surrounds a Japan ravaged by World War II, with Godzilla’s attacks taking the country “from zero to minus one”, symbolising a shattered Japan which thought it couldn't sink any lower after the bombings. Proximity to the events of Hiroshima lends it an immediacy that permeates every scene, the complex messages and cultural mea culpa combining with overwhelming weight of grief, loss, and sense of morals about the dangers and evils of nuclear power.
In terms of the lizard itself, it hits every major story beat that any audience would expect from a Godzilla story. Urban destruction, fleeing crowds, the monster’s horrifying emergence from the waters: all executed with percussive bombast and luminous visual flair. It features several extraordinarily satisfying action scenes, which deliver thrilling moments of monster mayhem and display, through to some jaw-dropping visual effects.
But all this takes second stage to the characters brought to vivid life by a tremendous cast. Ryunosuke Kamiki plays Koichi, disgraced after failing on not just one, but two, counts of cowardice: losing his nerve as a kamikaze pilot in WWII, and then subsequently freezing when he has the chance to shoot Godzilla as it attacks and kills his crew.
Bearing this emotional weight and survivor’s guilt, he then has to contend with the unexpected intrusion of a woman named Noriko, who comes into his life with a baby who is not her own.
How he achieves redemption and helps ordinary Japanese people scratching a living in the ruins of a firebombed Tokyo, and their ultimate confrontation with Godzilla, is rendered in ways that foreground their resilience, comradeship, compassion, and hope, imbuing what could have been a maudlin and grimdark affair with warmth and personality.
And a quick thumbs up to Naoki Satō, for a score which impressively takes viewers between the gentle and haunting single-line melodies of intimate and emotional scenes, to the huge and explosive scare chords during Godzilla's rampages.
During the more triumphant scenes, Sato utilises sweeping orchestras against the characters' heroic speeches, but equally important are the moments where the ambient sounds make up the only soundtrack — lending a sense of peace and realism in the human moments.
2023 has not been a memorable one for outstanding movies, but it has been bookended by two marvellous masterpieces: Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale in January, and now this killer kaiju chronicle that out-trumps every other offering since then.
