Just Saw Godzilla Minus One

–> Buy Godzilla Minus One from Amazon.com!

Hey gang! I took the time today to watch my 4K BD of Godzilla Minus One in Japanese. Man, this movie is so good.

The Story, in Brief

At the end of World War II, kamikaze pilot SHIKISHIMA Kouichi lands his fighter plane for repairs on a tiny, Japanese repair base on Odo Island. Lead mechanic Tachibana figures Kouichi just didn’t follow through, but won’t rat him out. That night, a giant monster, whom the locals call Godzilla, comes ashore and destroys the base. Because Kouichi wouldn’t fire on the monster, everyone but Tachibana and Kouichi die.

Back in Japan, Kouichi finds his family’s home destroyed. He helps a young woman named Noriko, who rescued an orphaned infant, by allowing them to stay at the shack in the remains of his former home. Some time later, Kouichi takes a job on a minesweeper to destroy mines. This allows him to build a proper home for himself, Noriko, and the child Akiko. On one mission, they get sent to a wrecked, American warship. There, Godzilla attacks and they barely escape with their lives.

Kouichi lets his shipmates know about his former encounter with Godzilla. Meanwhile, Noriko takes a job in Ginza. However, Godzilla emerges and destroys the city, apparently killing Noriko. Former naval engineer NODA Kenji decides to take action since the government won’t. Kouichi volunteers to fly an abandoned, experimental fighter from the war. Tachibana reluctantly agrees to repair it.

When the plans to kill Godzilla fail, Kouichi decides to regain his honor and take out the kaiju himself. But will he carry his mission through to the bitter end? Watch the movie and find out.

Godzilla’s Actually In the Movie

In the Gareth Edwards Godzilla movie from 2014, it was frustrating that we never got to see Godzilla until the final act. And then it becomes a kaiju fight, which was pretty cool. In Godzilla Minus One, Godzilla shows up fairly early in the movie. And then he makes frequent returns. So there’s no lack of this giant kaiju.

Godzilla’s Scary

When we first see Godzilla, he’s more like a giant t-rex as he hasn’t been irradiated yet. Even so, Godzilla is still a scary presence, much in the same way the original t-rex from Jurassic Park was. As such, I could understand the sheer panic that overcame Kouichi when he failed to open fire on the kaiju.

After growing to his traditional, kaiju size, Godzilla is even scarier. When Godzilla chased the minesweeper, I couldn’t help but think of Jaws. Only this time, something infinitely more dangerous, and many times larger than the giant shark was at work here. When one of the big mines goes into its mouth and explodes, it just shakes it off and regenerates.

The one nerf given to Godzilla here is his atomic heat ray. It takes the kaiju several seconds to charge up. Then after expelling, it takes Godzilla quite a while to recharge. For purposes of drama, that works pretty well. You know you are on a ticking clock if Godzilla obliterates something, then starts looking for a new target.

Its a Human Story

The biggest reason Godzilla Minus One are the humans. I’m not Japanese, and I’m not a kamikaze pilot. Nevertheless, I could relate to Kouichi’s character right from the start. While Kouichi was afraid, he wasn’t a coward. For him, pointlessly sacrificing his life in a losing effort wasn’t the way to go. Nevertheless, he felt same at the dishonor of not doing his mission. This is further exacerbated when his fear causes the deaths of so many on Odo Island.

As such, Kouichi has survivor’s guilt as well as PTSD. Then when he allows Noriko and Akiko into his life, he feels unworthy to become her husband or a father to Akiko. Protecting Japan from Godzilla is his one chance to end the war inside him and silence the ghosts of the men who died.

You’ll notice I’m not going too much into spoilers. To that end, I’m really not doing a great job expressing how great the human story is. However, the writing and acting is so good, we care about Kouichi, Noriko, Akiko, and the other characters. To that end, this movie isn’t just a kaiju destroying Japan. It is about survivors standing up, not depending on their impotent government, and taking care of a problem and each other. I loved it!

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Godzilla Minus One is an amazing movie. While it clearly takes nods from Shin Godzilla an other Godzilla movies (and Jurassic Park), it strongly makes its own mark on the Godzilla franchise.