Godzilla Minus One

Shortly before the end of World War II, a Kamikaze pilot lands on Odo Island claiming his plane is experiencing issues, although the island mechanics can’t find anything wrong with his plane. During the night, a giant monster that the locals call Godzilla; suddenly appears, and wipes out most of the men stationed on the island. Having survived the night, the pilot returns to his devastated home, and meets a young girl, and a baby. Over the next couple of years, the pilot struggles with survivor’s guilt, unaware that a former terror is swiftly approaching Japan!

Released in 2023, and directed by Takashi Yamazaki; Godzilla Minus One (or Minus Colour if you’re watching the black and white version) is a Japanese Monster Movie, and the 37th film in the Godzilla Series. The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Sakura Andô, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sae Nagatani, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, and Miou Tanaka. It is also the first live action Japanese Godzilla film since the Epic Shin Godzilla, which was released back in 2016. Funnily enough, whilst this is the first full length Godzilla film to be directed by Yamazaki, it’s not the first film he has directed with Godzilla in it, as Godzilla techincally does make a cameo appearance in the film Always: Sunset on Third Street 2.

It should also be noted that this is was also the first Godzilla film to win an Academy Award. Sadly not for best picture, or even best director (and even more sadly not even nominated for either), but for ‘Best Visual Effects‘…take that Hollywood!

Now before I go any further into this post, I can already hear people asking what that title means: Godzilla Minus One? Well honestly, I don’t think anyone can really pinpoint the full understanding of that title, as there are several possible reasons. And as I don’t want to spoil too much (WARNING), I can’t fully go into it. OK, the Minus Colour title is pretty obvious, as it’s a black and white release of the film, so Minus One, minus the colour. But as for Minus One…well, the release material for the film suggested that the tilte comes from it’s setting. It’s set at the end of WWII, and Japan, as a defeated nation is in what could be considered a zero state; i.e. they had virtually nothing! So, when a giant monster appears, they lose even that status, so are now in a minus state as a result. Happy? Personally I think it has more to do with how the film concludes!

Summing up a film in just one word, is a question that is often passed around from critics, to ordinary people, and it can be very hard to sum up a film in just one single word. You could jump to how you felt about it, how much you enjoyed it, disliked it, and others, with words like:

• Great,
• Fantastic,
• Terrible,
• Dissapointing,
• Mediocre,
• and others.

But summing up Godzilla Minus One in one word, is amazingly easy. The word I choose to sum up this film is: Powerful!

Godzilla Minus One is a very powerful film, and it achieves this status, by being the very opposite to what you would expect. Not just from a Godzilla film, but all monster movies as a general rule. But in order to describe what this looks like, I’m going to need to reference many other Godzilla films (and perhaps one or two others). For instance:

Godzilla 2014 (released in 2014, simply titled Godzilla) was an American Godzilla film; that film received a considerable amount of criticism, from many notable critics, at the aparent lack of the film’s lead star. It was a film called Godzilla, and yet, he ‘barely appears’. Now there are reasons for his slow reveal, but, in fairness, it’s a reasonable argument, as Godzilla has appeared more often/more frequently in other films, and for a film about a giant monster called Godzilla, you’d expect to see him, right?

Well, in Minus One’s case, you could argue he is also barely in it! He appears very early one, but then his appearances are more fleeting. Yes his city attacks, boat attack, and conclusion are epic in scale, but other than that, he’s rarely seen at all! But that’s sort of the point here. He’s a situational catalyst. Confused? His part in the film is to setup some of it’s more dramatic scenes, and give the human characters drive. Give them further reasoning to either go through emotional turmoil, or set about achieving a goal/sacrifice. He sets up many of the film’s potently powerful scenes, but also feeds the desire for revenge in the human cast, wishing to achieve a sense of closure from their psychological traumas.

Then there’s how the film is told. Now whilst you could vaguely suggest that all Godzilla film’s do this next point, I am going to use Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah as my example. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah tells a story of a group of people from the future, who come back in time to prevent disaster falling on the nation of Japan. So who does the government invite to discuss and assist with this? A journalist, a science professor, and a psychic! Now whilst the story quickly highlights the reasoning for their appoinment; it does feel a little weird how in-depth these three characters, from implausible backgrounds, are involved in a situation regarding national security. It’s just like Armageddon. In Armageddon there’s a meteor threatening to destroy the world, and so the United States government appoints a group of oil platform workers to destroy it, as they know how to drill?

This approach to film does serve an important purpose, as it makes the story of the situation a lot easier to connect with, the idea being the hero could be absolutely anybody; just like in most stories within the Fantasy genre. But, it’s still very implausible, and is something that is unlikely to happen in a real situation.

And that’s what we get mostly with Minus One. From previous Godzilla film’s, you’d expect the lead human to be heavily involved in the governmental approach to the situation from the very beginning. But that doesn’t happen at all. Instead we see the trauma of what it’s like for ordinary people caught up in the situation. From the end of WWII, through rebuilding, and beyond, only for it to get a whole lot worse, due to the sudden arrival of a giant monster. And this in turn leads to the film’s most powerful moment! OK, from this point in, our hero does join the fight back, but that does feed in to his drive, his drive for a fitting conclusion to his pain, and creating a desire for revenge/forgiveness!

There is a lot to unpack in this film, and I could mention a lot more movies to explain things (much like how I deleted a section talking about the 2005 War of the Worlds, to explain more in the previous paragraph).  But possibly the best example I can give for this film as a whole, is Colossal.

In a nutshell, Minus One and Colossal are at a bare bones level, virtually the same film. They both feature a decent level of storytelling either be it comedy for Colossal, or drama for Minus One, and both just happen to have Giant Monsters in them as well. But the point with Minus One, is that Godzilla is merely the catalyst to get the film going, and increase tension. He’s not even the kickstarter to the film’s heavy dose of drama, that comes in the form of a Kamikaze pilot choosing to live, than die for his country, but then dealing with that emotional pain, a pain which gets worse as Godzilla appears, and feels guilty for not doing something about it.

And that’s what the film is! It’s a Drama! Plain and simple. It’s about the emotional and mental struggles of the film’s lead human, and how when everything seems to suddenly work out, it’s all taken from him. It’s not really a monster movie! And that’s why it’s unexpected. You expect lots of monster action, scenes of cities being flattened, perhaps even a fight between two monsters. But that barely happens here, if at all. There are other things going on, and they take up most of the film. But in reality, that’s what makes this film so powerful, and it makes it so easy to connect with the characters, going through these issues, and highlights the importance of appreciating what you have now, as tomorrow it could all be gone! It just so happens, that the reason for all this, involves a giant monster, nothing more…

Godzilla Minus One is a very heavily detailed movie, with a lot more packed into it, than I could get into a post without me ditching this, and writing a book on the subject instead. There’s a whole book of things in here. And there’s many other things to talk about; from the increased emotional weight delivered in the Minus Colour version, to the detail in the Academy Award winning visual effects, to of course; the soundtrack that features new pieces, and some amazing classical ones too. Theres soo much good stuff packed into this one film. But above all else, is this incredible sense of psychological power that’s surging through it’s veins, that will leave you emotionally exhausted as the credits roll. No wonder then, for this reason, and many others; is why it’s widely considered to be the Best Godzilla Film…EVER (or for now at least)!