GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023 - Japanese)

Studio:   Toho
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Writer:   Takashi Yamazaki
Producer: Go Abe, Kazuaki Kishida, Keiichiro Moriya, Kenji Yamada
Stars:    Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sasaki

Review Score:

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Summary:

In the aftermath of WWII, a guilt-ridden kamikaze pilot sees an opportunity for redemption by undertaking a dangerous mission to defeat Godzilla.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

During the final days of World War Two in 1945, kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima lands his plane for repairs at the Odo Island Airfield. Mechanic Sosaku Tachibana of the Tsukuba Naval Air Corps suspects Koichi of abandoning his duty when he observes Koichi's plane does not have any actual mechanical defects.

That night, Godzilla unexpectedly attacks Odo Island. As panicking men are trampled all around them, Tachibana instructs Koichi to fight back against the monster by using his plane's mounted machine gun. Koichi makes it to the weapon, but he freezes out of fear and is knocked unconscious.

Koichi wakes the next morning to discover he and Tachibana are the only survivors of Godzilla's attack. Tachibana blames Koichi's inaction for getting the other men killed. To remind him of his guilt, Tachibana gives Koichi a stack of photographs of the dead men before the two of them go their separate ways.

Koichi returns to Tokyo in December of 1945 to find his neighborhood destroyed and his parents dead. Koichi's neighbor Sumiko Ota calls Koichi a disgrace whose cowardice as a kamikaze pilot indirectly caused the death of her children.

Koichi meets an odd woman named Noriko Oishi who took it upon herself to adopt an orphaned infant named Akiko. Due to their similarly desperate situations, Koichi and Noriko begin living together in an unusual domestic partnership to raise Akiko. Sumiko warms toward Koichi when she takes a liking to Akiko.

In March of 1946, Koichi takes a dangerous job clearing landmines out of the ocean to raise money for Akiko. Koichi joins a crew that consists of boat captain Seiji Akitsu, Akitsu's young companion Shiro Mizushima, and Dr. Kenji Noda, an expert in naval weapon development.

In July of 1946, nuclear weapons detonated as part of Operation: Crossroads at Bikini Atoll mutate Godzilla. In March of 1947, Noriko takes a job in the city of Ginza, so Sumiko increases her part-time care for Akiko while Koichi and Noriko are working.

In May of 1947, Koichi's minesweeping crew is sent on a covert assignment to stall Godzilla's advancement near the Ogasawara Islands. After destroying their sister ship, Godzilla pursues the boat carrying Koichi, Noda, Akitsu, and Mizushima. The men use recovered mines to attack Godzilla, but exploded parts of Godzilla's body merely regenerate. The heavy cruiser Takao arrives to combat the creature, but Godzilla powers up a massive radioactive heat ray that obliterates the ship.

Koichi recovers from the attack in a hospital where he learns all of the ships were destroyed and Godzilla disappeared amid the chaos. Koichi suggests evacuating Tokyo, but Noda reveals the government is keeping Godzilla's latest emergence a secret to prevent public panic. Koichi privately confides in Noriko about how people keep dying because of his failure to fight.

Godzilla resurfaces for a destructive rampage in Ginza. Realizing Noriko is in danger, Koichi rushes to the city to help her evacuate. When Godzilla powers up for another devastating radioactive blast, Noriko pushes Koichi out of the way to protect him from building debris. However, Noriko gets swept away in the rubble and is subsequently presumed dead.

Feeling responsible for Noriko's apparent death and wanting retribution, Koichi agrees to Noda's proposal to join an assembly of private citizens and war veterans organizing a counterattack against Godzilla. At the group's meeting, Captain Tatsuo Hotta announces they have secured four naval destroyers to use in combatting the creature. Noda also unveils his plan to sink Godzilla with freon gas bubbles and then rapidly raise the monster so the pressure change will crush it.

Seeing an opportunity to sacrifice his life like he was intended to during the war, Koichi volunteers to pilot a plane for luring Godzilla into the Sagami Bay and flying into its mouth with an explosive payload. Noda secures a prototype fighter plane named Shinden, but Koichi is told he will need a mechanic to fix it.

Koichi tracks down Sosaku Tachibana. After Koichi convinces him that he is finally willing to give up his life and honor the deaths on Odo Island, Tachibana agrees to work on the plane.

Prior to the mission, Koichi has private moments with Sumiko and Akiko as he leaves behind all of his money for the child's care. Koichi also reconciles with Tachibana, who surprises Koichi by revealing he installed an ejector seat in the fighter plane so Koichi can forgive himself and continue living.

Godzilla surfaces in the ocean. Koichi uses his fighter plane to lure Godzilla into the trap. The battleships manage to sink Godzilla, but they are unable to pull the creature back up to the surface until Mizushima, who had previously been told by Akitsu that he was too young to participate in the plan, arrives with a fleet of tugboats.

Upon returning to the water's surface, Godzilla begins powering up another radioactive heat ray. Before Godzilla can fire its energy beam, Koichi points his plane toward Godzilla's mouth and ejects. The bomb aboard the Shinden causes Godzilla's head to explode. Koichi parachutes to safety as Godzilla's body crumbles from excessive radiation while sinking into the sea.

Now recognized as a daring hero, Koichi returns to shore where he reunites with Sumiko. Sumiko delivers a telegram that reveals Noriko survived the Ginza attack. With Akiko in his arms, Koichi rushes to the hospital to be with Noriko. Meanwhile, Godzilla's carcass is seen regenerating underwater.

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Review:

From fighting off alien invasions and body-slamming colossal creatures to adopting a green-skinned son and taking on the Fantastic Four, virtually no frontier of fantasy has gone unexplored during Godzilla's eight-decade history. Whether Godzilla has been portrayed as a misunderstood monster, a fearsome force of nature, or as a metaphor for incisive social commentary, audiences have clapped, cheered, chuckled, and sighed at a carousel of imaginative ideas and crazy scenarios that have kept those scaly feet stomping through a gamut of drama, comedy, and sci-fi spectacle across every medium imaginable.

And yet, despite dozens of adventures spanning over 70 years of film, television, cartoons, comics, and games, "Godzilla Minus One" delivers an experience no other kaiju project has to such an indelible degree. For the first time ever, a Godzilla film moved me to well up with tears, and also inspired me to tremble by presenting a truly terrifying vision of Godzilla that is absolutely awesome to behold.

Kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima offers a conceptually simple yet emotionally complex human for anchoring a refreshingly grounded plot involving Godzilla. During the last days of WWII, Koichi brings in his plane for repairs at Odo Island Airfield. The main mechanic there, Sosaku Tachibana, doesn't find anything wrong with Koichi's plane though, leading Tachibana to wonder if the pilot lied to avoid fulfilling his dangerous duty.

Koichi's cowardice gets confirmed when Godzilla unexpectedly attacks the island. Koichi freezes out of fear, unable to man a machine gun that might have saved many soldiers from gruesome fates. Instead, he and Tachibana emerge as the sole survivors. In this sequence, Godzilla unleashes vicious violence with a ferocious fury that seems willfully cruel. After growing accustomed to seeing Toho's signature titan as a crowd-pleasing antihero wrestling with winged beasts in FX-driven blockbusters, it's legitimately shocking to be reminded of Godzilla's frightening power as we watch its teeth tear into people or casually fling them to horrible deaths hundreds of yards away.

Koichi's guilt continues to be compounded when he returns to a Tokyo ruined by bombs. His parents dead and his home destroyed, a neighbor also accuses Koichi of indirectly killing her children by failing to carry out his mission. What's so intriguing about this element is that, through a contemporary lens, we're conditioned to consider kamikazes as a foolish perversion of bravery. Suicide should not be seen as heroic. But when the alternative is illustrated as innocent civilians dying in droves because of one man's instinct for self-preservation, a conflict comes in that turns black and white morals into a less distinctive color of grey. Koichi ties his disgrace to the role he chose to abandon, so now he believes self-sacrifice is the logical path for redemption. Thrust into this heavy dilemma, giving himself up to Godzilla becomes the best way to unburden his blame.

It's relatively easy to see Koichi as an unfairly manipulated tool of the government, blinded by a culture that places a high value on perceived honor. Yet you can't help but contemplate that those wagging fingers of fault have a point. Should Koichi be forgiven by virtue of being assigned an untenable duty, or does he need to earn that clemency by exhibiting real heroism?

Driven by Koichi's journey of learning to accept difficult responsibilities, which include forming an untraditional family with another displaced person and an adopted orphan, "Godzilla Minus One" gains a level of gravity normally reserved for the earliest kaiju films, when Godzilla was still a symbol of Atomic Era concerns rather than a cartoonish icon kicking papier mache boulders at giant moths. "Godzilla Minus One" possesses a narrative maturity befitting the old-school feel that's absent from Legendary's MonsterVerse movies. Its seriousness as a period piece combined with the retro thrills of a classic creature feature make the movie a bit of a remake as well as a prequel to the original 1954 epic all in one.

The other essential piece that makes the movie so stunning is the realistic rawness of Godzilla's animalistic savagery. If there's one quibble about "Godzilla Minus One" that's more noticeable than any others, it's that Godzilla doesn't have as many minutes onscreen as one might want. That kind of works to the movie's benefit, however. For one thing, the human drama hits compelling beats that don't provide pauses to notice how long it's been since Godzilla's tail whipped a Japanese landmark. For another thing, the creature's limited usage makes Godzilla's appearances that much more meaningful.

The finale takes Godzilla off of land and into the sea for a climax you'd never anticipate being as suspenseful as it is for something involving a few ships and a lot of water. But the needle drop of Godzilla's classic theme hits like a sledgehammer as tensile wires snap, bubbles form around the beast, and balloons explode into inflatable rafts. If you had told me such setups would bring me to the edge of my seat more than busted buildings, cannon-firing tanks, and landmines exploding in Godzilla's mouth, all of which the movie also has, I never would have believed you.

"Godzilla Minus One" is a rare breed of Godzilla film. Sizable in scope while operating a scaled-back story, its human characters authentically interact with a Godzilla whose mere existence irrevocably impacts personalities, events, and relationships. These people aren't pointing at computer screens or undergoing arcs that are more concurrent rather than intertwined with Godzilla's side of the story. The script teeters into sentimentality, especially with a serendipitously happy ending, but this is a movie that reaches high notes of drama as well as action. Affecting for its thoughtful context and entertaining for its gripping thrills, "Godzilla Minus One" is just about as good as Godzilla gets.

Review Score: 85

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