directed by Takeshi Yamazaki
Japan
125 minutes
5 stars out of 5
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👉BIG OL SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FILM.👈
It is taking a gargantuan amount of self-restraint for me not to type this review in all-caps. Like I did with Shin Ultraman, I'm not even considering this a "review" in any meaningful sense of the word. I just got back from this movie and I need to yell incoherently about it for a minute. I already knew this was gonna body me as my first new Godzilla movie since I became a fan, but now I've experienced heaven and it's sitting in a theater with a sound system so powerful Akira Ifukube's theme music vibrates your sternum.
I took a lot of care to remain un-spoiled going into this. I didn't want to know anything about it. I stopped watching trailers after the first one. One of the only things I saw that gave anything away at all was an interview with the director that described his approach to the film as "scary". That was in my mind when I sat down in the theater, not knowing what to expect, and it's still in my mind now, because yeah, Minus One is fucking scary. This is the most nightmarish Godzilla you've ever seen. This movie does absolutely everything in its power to make you terrified of Godzilla, and it's successful. You get to see him remarkably early on and that first encounter on Odo Island is just a total fever dream: It's nighttime, our main character was supposed to be dead and already has that guilt on his shoulders, he's surrounded by a general sense of defeat, he just wants to go home along with everyone else around him, and then there's this thing. This boogeyman, this creature out of a bad dream that the villagers call "Gojira". It's horrific, it's monstrous. Those night shots of Godzilla just picking people up and flinging them around have such staying power. I've reiterated this in multiple previous reviews, but I feel that any time Godzilla bites something, it's a powerful moment because it's pure rage. Godzilla doesn't eat people, or anything else for that matter. But the Godzilla violence in this is really personal; even though he's not eating anybody, this is probably the first time we've ever seen him target individual people. Except for maybe that one poor girl in the hospital that time. Or Hiroshi Abe. Or Yoshio Tsuchiya. Alright, maybe that happens more often than I realized, but it's never any less of an intense thing to watch.
This is the angriest Godzilla I've ever seen, barring maybe GMK, and that's a very strong "maybe". Godzilla is not a too-large animal stuck in the midst of a civilized area, causing destruction simply due to his size rather than intentional malice. This Godzilla is some kind of vengeance demon. This is the #1 thing the movie imparted to me. Godzilla is a wretched living ghost, dragging itself around fueled by pain and rage. You can feel how much he's hurting. It's visible in everything he does. That is staying with me.
One of the stills that was released before the movie came out was Godzilla looking on at what appeared to be a mushroom cloud, and I remember the speculation online that that was the military deciding to nuke Tokyo to try to get rid of Godzilla - nope, turns out that WAS Godzilla. That first atomic breath attack was just... jaw-dropping. The sheer scale of destruction in this movie is unlike anything seen in the franchise thus far and it really, really hits. I could go on and on and on about single scenes I adored in this, but another favorite was when the Takao shows up and Godzilla just obliterates it instantly, taking gunfire straight to the face and not even blinking. Also, seeing and being able to recognize all the ships was great because it made me feel better about having spent this past summer watching a bunch of WWII movies.
The human story was something I was looking forward to, because the days when viewers could be (mostly) satisfied by a movie where the human characters dial it in, knowing the monsters are what everybody wants to see, are over. When it was first announced that this movie would take place after WWII, I saw a lot of people have this kind of knee-jerk negative reaction, assuming that it was going to be some kind of apologia just based on the fact that it was set during that time. But in reality this movie is staunchly anti-war, and that stance is at the center of the storyline. The government won't help you, in fact the government is actively trying to harm you; it's using the "little people" to shift the blame off of itself: We lost the war? Obviously, it's because YOU didn't kill yourself bombing the enemy. The only hope that exists in this movie comes from people turning away from the thought that a centralized government is going to protect them and realizing that if there's anything worth fighting for, it's sure as hell not the idea of a nation, it's you and the people who you love, and who love you. I think that statement is perfectly captured by the fact that the only time warships and bomber planes are shown being used, it's outside of wartime, commandeered by civilians working basically under their own aegis. Shades of the Gotengo, there, at least to me.
Ryunosuke Kamiki does a remarkably job conveying emotion in his character. He's really good at that kind of messy uncontrollable crying that you rarely see pulled off well in cinema. I was honestly kind of surprised at how believable his performance was because I guess I'm just not used to seeing that in kaiju film. Everybody else is great as well - these are people you genuinely care for, and the movie makes it very clear that none of their lives is guaranteed. There's a dozen moments where you think everybody onscreen is going to die. I loved when it seems like the big plan failed and Godzilla is charging his atomic breath and the camera cuts from person to person and lands on this kid who looks like he's about 15 - I was just thinking, oh my god, I'm really gonna see all of these guys die. I thought that was actually going to happen. It's rare for a movie to make me feel so uncertain of the ultimate outcome.
The pacing of this thing is also really interesting because it has these scenes that are unbelievably brutal, like, "they gave this a PG-13?" brutal, but they're spaced out seemingly at random. What I would argue is the most horrific and visceral shot in the entire film and possibly in the entire Godzilla franchise (that shot of Godzilla's face blistering as he gets nuked for the first time) is immediately followed by, and I'm not exaggerating this at all, a peppy, light-hearted montage of Koichi having fun with his buddies on a boat. The transitions aren't all as jarring, but the whole film is like that, to an extent: not necessarily high highs, but some very, VERY low lows between the mellower bits.
The soundtrack is immaculate as well. Like I said, the Ifukube theme is the absolute clincher and hearing it made me tear up, but the original music composed for the film is also extremely effective. During the most tense scenes there's often nothing but high, airy, unearthly strings, or even just a single ascending tone that makes you break out in an instant sweat. The music is otherworldly at times, deeply haunting like the Shin Godzilla OST and used perfectly to make an already unbelievably good movie even more gripping. Also I actually just rewatched King Kong vs. Godzilla last night and I almost screamed when they started playing the theme from it in Minus One.
I don't know how to end this. I don't really want to end this. I didn't want the movie itself to end. In classic Godzilla fashion, things are left somewhat open-ended, and good god I hope we don't have to wait another seven years for a follow-up. There was practically nobody in the theater with me, which was disappointing, but I think this'll make good returns because I've heard elsewhere that theaters were practically sold out. I love, love, love to be alive in this era where we're still getting new Godzilla movies. I was blown away by this. I've never seen anything like it.
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