directed by Shusuke Kaneko
Japan
105 minutes
5 stars out of 5
----
I rewatched this recently and as is often the case I don't know why I didn't just rate it five stars the first time I saw it. This is basically a perfect movie. I don't agree with everything I wrote in my initial review anymore, so I guess I have to update it to be a more current reflection of my feelings about this, one of the best and arguably an outlier of the Godzilla series.
As often happens, this is a "no Godzilla since 1954" scenario. There has been peace for a long time, but unlike other examples from the franchise that take place in this situation, people don't seem quite as flippant. Maybe it's only the central characters who are alert, intelligent people instead of the inept bureaucrats we often see, but it seems like the awareness of the possibility of a second Godzilla (or the first, returned) is not lost on most people. This is the tone that the film sets from the beginning: A feeling that something has been building for fifty years, that although no giant monsters have menaced the world since that time (unless Gorgo is canon in this timeline, you never know), the fact that one has, ever, removes the ability for most of Japan's citizenry to sleep easily. This movie draws very clear parallels between the existence of Godzilla and the use of nuclear weapons in war. It is not shy about it whatsoever and this is just one of many things that make me appreciate it so much.
But the peace is not to last. We're told that Godzilla sightings are starting up again after the accidental (?) sinking of a nuclear-equipped ship. At first Godzilla is reported as having attacked America, and this starts up a sense that it's now only a matter of time before he finds his way to Japan again. At the same time, other strange events linked to other monsters are happening with increasing frequency across the country. Like I said, the tone for this entire film up until it reaches peak action is a sense of building, of things in progress, of a cyclical, unstoppable process that can only end once the forces of destruction, in this case embodied by Godzilla, have been put to rest... but it will always start up again, eventually. As a sidenote, I love Hideyo Amamoto as the only character who knows what's going on, but no one believes him. He's one of my favorite actors who pops up from time to time in pretty much any tokusatsu series you can think of and his role in this is a great one. I love the mystery around his character, how his appearance is left as kind of an unsolvable mystery, something a little bit more explicitly supernatural than the franchise typically gets. And it had to be Amamoto in this role, it couldn't have been anybody else; it had to be somebody who you would see and immediately think of all the other times you'd seen him in tokusatsu going back 40 years.
(There are also a lot of easter eggs in this movie that call back not only to the Godzilla series' history but to other Toho/Tsuburaya productions. The main character being a reporter named Yuri, like Yuri Edogawa from Ultra Q, and working at a newspaper called "Digital Q" is the biggest one. But my absolute favorite is that during the recreated flashback to the first Godzilla's attack in 1954, for a split second you can see a poster on a wall for Farewell Rabaul, another Ishirō Honda film that came out the same year. I highly recommend it, by the way.)
This is really different from any other Godzilla movie I can think of. I'm positive that this is down to it being in the hands of Shusuke Kaneko, who lends an extremely distinctive, refreshing, and original spin to a series which has re-invented itself countless times already. For some reason this was his only Godzilla film, though he has of course made the best Gamera films of all time (you can fight me on this) and also written and directed for the Ultra series. This idea of kaiju that we, the audience, already know about getting re-invented as "guardian monsters" is such a new concept that for the 20-plus years since this film first came out everybody has been wishing for a sequel that revisits it. Many fans know that, behind the scenes, Varan was originally slated to be one of the guardian monsters, and some maquettes were made that show his updated design would have been absolutely beautiful, but he got the boot in favor of more recognizable kaiju.
I said in my first review that this was "almost heinously early-2000s in aesthetic", but I take that back because upon second viewing I believe this is honestly one of the least dated Godzilla films. The internet definitely still feels new and the idea of digital reporting and livestreaming is treated as an unusual novelty, but overall, when I think of this in comparison to movies that were coming out even just five years previously, the difference is really stark. Despite the swift transition into a digital age, there remain warning signs from the past in this film, and I think it's interesting that the core concept of Godzilla as a representation of nuclear power can go from being espoused as a known truth by everyone involved (the way it is in the original film) to a fading memory that survivors are trying and failing to pass on to their children. The idea of what Godzilla is is still here, but it's nested within what seems to be a differing worldview, because so many of the main characters are young people who grew up well after Godzilla had "died".
And Godzilla himself takes on a bit of a different role than usual here, which is incredibly compelling. I've kind of specifically chosen the most terrifying screencap of him I could get for the header photo just to show how really unique he looks here. Again, this is pretty much the only time I've seen him depicted from this specific angle, and it's just begging for a sequel or some other expansion. Godzilla is MEAN in this one, and it's for good reason. In this film he represents a literal amalgamation of all the souls of all the people who, regardless of nationality, were killed as a result of WWII. He is a walking embodiment of hatred and vengeance, motivated largely by a desire to burn humanity down, but moreover to not let us forget - which, in this film, people are starting to do. Even his body language is markedly different here. Mizuho Yoshida is in the suit this time, and you will not recognize that name as one of the "big three" Godzilla suit actors, but if I told you he's the guy who plays Zeiram in Zeiram, if you know what I'm talking about, you'd be like "oh yeah, that's why Godzilla is like that". Even though he's never returned to this specific role, he brings something to Godzilla that I am really just in awe of because of its subtlety; an expression of calculated rage that we usually never see. Godzilla is noticeably faster when he really gets mad than we ever see him, and there's a specific moment that is so small but so fascinating to me that I need to mention it. When Baragon, the first of the guardian monsters, goes up against Godzilla and gets absolutely creamed, right when Godzilla delivers the coup de grâce, he doesn't just blast Baragon point-blank with atomic breath; there's this thing he does where he starts blasting a little bit in front of Baragon and then moves upward towards him, so this is not a quick finish, this is drawn-out, done with relish. His stance afterwards is not one of a monster but a very human look of having just done something strenuous. There is just so much rage in him and you can absolutely feel that. Right down to him clenching his fists. The fact that Yoshida as a suit actor has mostly played humanoid characters might have a lot to do with Godzilla's very different portrayal here.
Even though Godzilla is the antagonist in this film, he is not "the bad guy", and this fact alone is why I love this movie so much. It has the brains and nuance to show us that even though this is not a Godzilla you can root for, it is still one you sympathize with. You understand that his motivation is incomprehensible pain and agony, a pain and agony that is endless and recurring. This isn't a good vs. evil story. Even the guardian monsters aren't fighting explicitly for humanity, they're fighting on the side of the land that they inhabit, and whether or not humanity has built our skyscrapers and warehouses and factories on that land is irrelevant. This is a story of forces much, much, much bigger than us, but that we have nevertheless had a hand in creating. Again, Kaneko's direction and writing brings a depth to this film that I really don't see from Godzilla that often. The destruction in this one is also a lot more personal, we see multiple individual people getting killed, not just wide shots of cities burning where we have to assume people are dying but cannot see them. This choice to bring the violence down to a personal level was deliberate, and I understand why it isn't done more often, but it's so good when it's used sparingly.
I'm sorry to be so hyped about it but this is, I'll say it again, basically a perfect film to me. I've gotten used to a rhythm when I watch Godzilla movies: Usually something big will happen at the beginning, then things will go quiet and we'll get stuck with a human story for the majority of the film until a big battle at the climax. This is completely different in tone from that. It only builds and builds, never stopping for a second and - crucially, and unusually - never having the human side of things feel like it drags, or is imbalanced against the monster stuff. I just love this one, everything about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment