Like a contracted movie star loaned out by a studio in Hollywood’s heyday, Godzilla has returned to Japanese parent company Toho after doing a stint in the U.S. MonsterVerse to take center stage in “Godzilla Minus One,” a stellar entry in the world’s longest continually running film franchise. Set in a devastated post-war Japan, Takashi Yamazaki’s reboot gets back to basics in grand style, with engrossing human drama alongside spectacular mass destruction. Since opening in Japan on Nov. 3, “Minus One” has accumulated a whopping $20 million. Its American and overseas theatrical assault commences Dec. 1, with solid prospects of further expanding the legendary monster’s already massive fanbase.
Hewing closer to the spirit of Ishiro Honda’s 1954 original than other films in the 37-strong series, Toho’s first live-action entry since “Shin Godzilla” (2016) is markedly different from the creature’s recent outings. Produced at a fraction of the cost of MonsterVerse’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and “Godzilla vs. Kong,” this $15 million enterprise pays stronger emotional dividends than those films. It can’t compete with the hyperreal MonsterVerse visual effects, nor does it want to.
While still creating many dazzling action sequences with more modest resources, writer-director and visual effects supervisor Yamazaki also slyly slots in some ever-so-slightly wobbly effects, such as screaming extras running in front of what resembles old-school rear projection. Here and in passages such as Godzilla plucking a commuter train from the tracks with its teeth, this installment pays loving tribute to the film that started it all and the dozens of “guys in rubber suits destroying carboard sets of Tokyo” Godzilla movies made prior to the digital age.
The first G-movie staged as a period piece, “Minus One” arrives during a time of much discussion about Japan’s military future and is primarily concerned with the aftermath of World War II for those who served. Governments, bureaucracies and military institutions that have blundered their way through many a Godzilla adventure are barely seen here. The emphasis is squarely on civilians taking collective action in the face of seemingly certain obliteration.
Chief among the film’s everyday heroes is Koichi Shikishima (Ryonosuke Kamiki), whom we first meet as a kamikaze pilot in the war’s final days. Pretending to have engine trouble, Koichi puts in for repairs on the fictional island of Odo. No sooner has his charade been uncovered than Godzilla emerges from the depths and wipes out everyone except Koichi and the garrison’s chief mechanic, Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki).
Having frozen at the moment he might have been able to save the men and destroy the creature, Koichi returns to civilian life with survivor guilt and PTSD that registers powerfully thanks to Kamiki’s fully committed performance. It is interesting to compare Koichi with the central character of Yamazaki’s 2013 smash hit “The Eternal Zero,” about a kamikaze pilot torn between dying gloriously for the Emperor and wanting to survive for his family. The message here that kamikaze pilots who survived deserve to bear neither shame nor guilt will resonate strongly with modern audiences.
In the rubble and despair of Tokyo, which looks like Godzilla has already trampled it, Koichi meets Noriko (Minami Hamabe), a young woman who has taken an orphaned baby girl, Akiko, into her care. Helped by kindly neighbor Sumiko (Sakura Ando), the couple make a home together out of necessity, but romance is not part of the equation until deep into the proceedings. The screenplay wisely decides that survival is all that initially matters in long and dark days that begin to look brighter when Koichi lands a job on a mine-sweeping boat. In the lull before Godzilla inevitably reappears, there’s enjoyable, crowd-pleasing camaraderie between Koichi and an appealing crew of ex-servicemen, including gruff captain Akitsu (Kuranosuke Sasaki) and Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a nerdy former navy tech genius.
Such slightly better times naturally don’t last long. Courtesy of U.S. Bikini Atoll nuclear tests, a much larger and angrier Godzilla — replete with all-new, radiation charged retractable spiked scales — awakens and makes a beeline for Tokyo. With Japan’s defense forces no longer standing and the U.S. too preoccupied by Soviet military maneuvers to offer any help, it’s nothing more than a stroll in the park for Godzilla to destroy large parts of the city and become the monstrous embodiment Japanese post-war trauma. That theme plays out strongly in scenes of citizens hurriedly gathering to discuss plans to avert annihilation.
In a nod to modern sensibilites, there is no shame on anyone unwilling to participate in such a dangerous mission. But for Koichi and comrades, defeating Godzilla is the only way to overcome trauma and turmoil that have dogged them since the war ended. To that end, a scheme is hatched that’s so marvelously fanciful and wildly optimistic (involving freon gas, giant balloons, rickety tug boats and a souped-up aircraft for Koichi to pilot) that in the Godzilla movie universe we know it’s a good bet to succeed.
Despite a few lapses into lumpy melodrama, Yamazki’s thoughtful script holds firm and is dotted with delightful humor at just the right moments. Much of the personal drama is serious and heartfelt but Yamazaki always remembers we’re in B-movie monster land, just not too campy this time around. Naoki Sato’s subtle orchestral score is perfectly in tune with the film’s emotional undercurrents and leaps wonderfully to life when Big G goes on the warpath. It’s always a pleasure to hear Akira Ifukube’s original Godzilla Theme, which is nicely incorporated into the soundscape.
As the dust settles on Godzilla’s latest rampage we can marvel yet again at how a kaiju king who’s flattened Tokyo umpteen times and threatened humankind’s very existence is also able to enjoy the status of beloved cultural icon and official tourism ambassador for Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward. Though usually causing destruction and collateral damage on a gargantuan scale, this most malleable of monsters has also played the hero a few times and saved the world from dreaded foes, such as the smog monster in “Godzilla vs Hedorah” (1972). Whether viewed as simply a mighty marauding movie monster or a metaphor for fears and traumas of the times in which it awakens, Godzilla’s enduring appeal as hero or villain is a true wonder of the movies.
It is completely unnecessary though amusing nonetheless for the film to conclude with a shot suggesting — shock, horror — that Godzilla might not be vanquished after all. If we want to entertain the thought of anything being certain in this world, surely it’s the ability of this giant radioactive lizard to rise up and stomp another day.
