Describe This Movie In One Jaws Quote:
BRODY: You're gonna need a bigger boat.Brief Plot Synopsis: Luminescent lizard levels luckless locales.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 4 "Ewww, Girl, Ewwws" out of 5.
Tagline: "Postwar Japan. From zero to minus."
Better Tagline: "Oh no, there goes Tokyo...again."
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Guilt is a horrible thing, and few in postwar Japan know the feeling more than Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a one-time kamikaze pilot who couldn't bring himself to take that final (and arguably most important) step. He reluctantly finds himself living with Noriko (Minami Hamabe), an orphaned young woman, and Akiko, another orphan adopted by Noriko. And as if picking up the pieces of their lives following an apocalyptic war wasn't enough, nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll have mutated and pissed off a giant undersea dinosaur.
"Critical" Analysis: Monster movies don't necessarily *have* to be horror movies. Granted, when we think of the former, we tend to lump them in with things like the classic Universal Monsters lineup from the '30s and '40s, the nuclear scare flicks of the '50s, or the Hammer movies of the hippie era. In short, there's a definite trend to lining the Venn diagram uniformly up between the two.
And there's no argument the first Godzilla (1954) was straight up horror. This is especially apparent if you skip the Raymond Burr version, which — while it captured plenty of the spirit of Ishirō Honda's original — still missed gut punch moments like the woman and her children cowering in a doorway children as Godzilla approaches and reassuring the kids they'd all "be with father soon."
Subsequent efforts have waffled back and forth between portraying Godzilla as a protector of humanity (most of the Showa Era, the Legendary films) and a real asshole (just about everything else). The most recent of the films produced by original G studio Toho, Shin Godzilla, shares Minus One's commitment to developing its human characters, something the American movies have never really accomplished.
But the horror, or evil, in Godzilla Minus One isn't limited to the Big G's rampages. Indeed, Takashi Yamazaki's (he wrote as well as directed) monster is a secondary source of trauma, and the attendant destruction is dwarfed by the war which immediately preceded his attacks. The Tokyo that Kōichi returns to is already in ruins, and his honor has already been erased, at least among anyone he knew.
Yamazaki doesn't do a lot of finger pointing, with regard to ... anything, really. Sure, U.S. atomic tests awakened the monster, but MacArthur does what he can to assist, given rising tensions with the Soviets (the movie practically breaks its own back giving America a pass in that regard). More importantly, Godzilla's appearance opens the window for Kōichi's redemption arc. Why, if only there was a Kyushu J7W Shinden prototype aircraft lying around somewhere to help with its completion.
Japan, or its government anyway, has been less than enthusiastic in owing up to the crimes committed during the Second World War. Godzilla Minus One doesn't go that far either, but still allows for some belated national reflection. Kōichi isn't the only one who gets to reconcile with their past, as the effort to stop Godzilla comes down to a mostly civilian (well, ex-military) effort. Even his old mechanic buddy Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) gets the chance to mend fences with his former comrade.
It's the human factor that elevates Godzilla Minus Zero beyond the usual man-in-suit theatrics. Having said that, Yamazaki almost swings too far that way. Less is always more when it comes to the G-reveal, but Kōichi's angst occasionally drags, though it isn't on the "when are they getting to fireworks factory?" level. Godzilla's rampages are still harrowing (with a little extra Emeril-style "bam" on his fire breath), and there are a number of shout-outs to the 1954 original that should be well received by kaiju nerds. Not that I know any of those.
Godzilla Minus One is in theaters today.
