Netflix has Godzilla Minus One (PG13), a 125-minute film.
Four stars
The plot: Following World War II, a Japanese pilot named Koichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is left physically unscathed but psychologically scarred after an event on a secluded island involving a monster the locals refer to as Godzilla. When he returns, Tokyo has been destroyed by an air strike, and hunger is imminent. The thing he believed he left behind reappears to endanger everyone he loves, even as he makes an effort to move on from his past with fellow survivor Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and an orphaned infant.
After much anticipation, it is now available on Netflix.
This small Japanese movie, which came at a cost of US$12 million (S$16 million), had to make room for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (2024), a Hollywood production with ten times the budget.
Godzilla Minus One, the 2024 Academy Award winner for Best Visual Effects, adds what the American product does not: the monster’s horrible nature.
Japanese writer-director Takashi Yamazaki pulls terror from the title character’s ability to hide beneath the waters and strike out of nowhere, taking inspiration from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and Jurassic Park (1993).
The monster, which was described as being the size of a Tyrannosaurus in the first chapter, gnaws on human flesh when on land. The feet and tail crush humans like bugs as it reaches skyscraper heights. The vivid, detailed computer-generated visuals of mayhem are a welcome change from Hollywood’s current fixation with gloomy combat scenes.
The creature isn’t given any kind of motivation in the narrative. Behind their eyes is primal aggression, not thinking. In contrast, the current American adaptations attempt to adapt the plot into a Monsterverse by Marvel, which results in films that are too long and heavy on exposition, lead-ins, and spin-offs.
Furthermore, the tale could not be more Japanese or simpler.
The humiliated Koichi stands in for a Japan after the war that is still reeling from its loss. But he transforms from a sad figure to a victorious one by selflessness, resiliency, and forming alliances with like-minded others. Japanese characters become heroes because they put forth more effort than anybody else, but American heroes ascend because they are gifted.
Godzilla represents nature; he is fierce and mysterious. In the political satirical Japanese film Shin Godzilla (2016), bureaucrats prioritised preserving their careers over rescuing lives amidst an approaching natural calamity.
The phrase “the monster is our problem, we will have to save ourselves” appears many times in Godzilla Minus One.
Hot take: This film manages to provide real emotion in addition to incredible action, as it pays tribute to the common Japanese people who band together to lift their nation out of difficult times.
