I Finally Watched Godzilla: Minus One

I had some pretty high expectations going into this movie. Not necessarily as a Godzilla fan; I’ll love any Godzilla movie if it ain’t boring. But the hype behind this one could not be ignored. Everywhere I went online, people seemed to have come to an overwhelming consensus: this was the greatest Godzilla movie ever made.

I’ll be the judge of that, thank you very much! Casual movie goers seemed to love it, which is definitely a good sign. But I’ve been a die-hard Big G for as long as I can remember. I’ve got a god damn Harvard PhD for Godzilla films!

So, how does Minus One truly fare? Is it overhyped? Or is it yet another masterpiece?

Yeah, I’m not gonna play around. This might be the best Godzilla movie. Out of all of them. It really is that good.

Trust me. PhD, remember?

The film begins in the dying days of World War II. Kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima sets down for repairs. Yet the crew can’t find anything wrong with it. But the leader of the crew, Tachibana, played by Munetaka Aoki, doesn’t mind; he believes more kamikaze pilots should choose life, especially now that the war is all but lost.

That night, the alarm goes off in camp. They’re under attack! But why would the Allies attack this tiny island with nothing of value on it in the middle of the night?

No, not the allies. Godzilla. We’re five minutes into the film, and the titular monster is already here! This movie knows what you’re here for, and it isn’t wasting even a second in getting there!

This scene does a great job of establishing the tone of the film, as well as the threat of our main antagonist. Godzilla is much smaller than you’d expect; he clearly hasn’t been mutated yet. Even still, he’s terrifying! This latest iteration of the iconic monster makes an amazing first impression!

Hunkering down, Tachibana pleads with Shikishima to man his plane. The 22mm guns might just be able to take the monster down. But Shikishima is too afraid to attack. The remaining men open fire, and Godzilla wipes them out. The next morning, Shikishima wakes up, and an enraged Tachibana confronts him for his cowardice.

On the boat back to Japan, Tachibana limps over to Shikishima and forces him to take… something. We’re not sure what it is yet. Whatever it is, it causes Shikishima to panic. Yet he holds onto it.

Let’s address the elephant in the room: the human drama. In my article on human characters in Godzilla movies (read it here, it was a banger), I discussed why the regular humans are an important aspect to these movies. Yet most of the time, said characters are incredibly dull and uninteresting. With a few exceptions, they exist just to spout exposition and keep the plot moving.

Minus One does not have this issue. This movie has the best human drama out of any movie in the entire series! I’ve never been so emotionally invested in any set of Godzilla characters!

Shikishima is easily the best protagonist in Godzilla history. He’s a cowardly kamikaze pilot who ran away from his duties, struggling with depression and PTSD. Godzilla haunts him like the vengeful spirits of those men he failed. His arc actually had me tearing up! Godzilla movies never do that! Ryunosuke Kamiki delivered a jaw-dropping performance; he’s the strongest part of the movie, hands down!

Getting back to the film: Shikishima returns home to find that he has nothing left. His home is a wreck and his parents are dead. As if that weren’t bad enough, his neighbor, Sumiko, played by Sakura Ando, lashes out at him for failing to do his duty, blaming him for the deaths of her children. Not the happy homecoming he was hoping for.

Beaten down and exhausted, Shikishima heads into town, where he meets Noriko Oishi, played by Miname Hamabe, and her adopted daughter: Akiko. Noriko basically forces her way into his home, and Shikishima is too pathetic to do anything about it. But it quickly becomes clear that the pair have absolutely no idea how to raise a baby. Luckily for them, Sumiko is far less heartless than she appears, and she takes on the role of the helpful Auntie.

*Side note: I am amazed by how much I loved Sumiko. In the beginning, she’s a loathsome bitch spouting the rhetoric of death and honor prevalent in Japan during WWII. By the end, however, she’s one of the most gentle, kind, and considerate members of the cast! Her only role in the film is to be a babysitter, and even she has a compelling character arc!

Time passes. Japan begins to heal from the wounds of war, and Shikishima gets a new job clearing leftover mines in the ocean. Dangerous work, but necessary, and with good pay. Here, he meets the Captain (Yoji Akitsu, played by Kuranosuke Sasaki), the Doc (Kenji Noda, played by Hidetaka Yoshioka), and the Kid (Shiro Mizushima, played by Yuki Yamada), his crewmates and, eventually, his friends.

I love every single one of these characters! They’re brimming with depth and personality! Every single one of them has something that they are hanging on to. Their own guilts, regrets, and feelings of inadequacy. Their friendship is grounded, relatable, and heartwarming. Again: this movie has the best cast of characters in Godzilla history!

Together, they all make for a cute little found family. Saving money, Shikishima manages to build a proper home for himself, Noriko, and Akiko. Yet he still hasn’t married Noriko, and he refuses to let Akiko call him Dad. The war is still haunting him. He just can’t move on.

It’s not the only thing. Hard cut to a nuclear test. A familiar roar echoes from within the flames. Zoom in on Godzilla’s eye, the flesh around it boiling in the nuclear heat. It’s honestly pretty grotesque.

After an American warship is ripped to pieces, the Japanese government sets out to dispose of whatever was responsible. So Shikishima and the gang are sent out to sea on their little wooden boat to draw the beast out, at which time a Japanese warship can take it down. Simple enough.

What follows is one of the most intense and terrifying scenes in Godzilla history.

Godzilla pursues our characters through the sea, his eyes fixed hungrily on their little boat. Armed only with one machine gun and two recycled mines, they need to not only escape the King of the Monsters, but kill him. All the while, a low, tense musical track plays, slowly rising in intensity as Godzilla draws closer and closer.

You know Jaws? It’s that, but with Godzilla. A sentence what had my pants down in an instant, no wine ‘n dining required.

At this point, I’d like to talk about the big G himself. I love this movie’s version of Godzilla! His design is incredible and it looks even better in motion; with the way his head and eyes move around, it almost feels like he’s a real, living animal! A malicious one, too; this version doesn’t just walk through buildings, he goes out of his way to smash them! And his atomic breath scenes are amazing!!! This is one of the most sinister and frightening versions of the monster ever put to the screen!

With that said, it is pretty standard Godzilla fare. See, Shin Godzilla was terrifying and interesting because you never knew what it was going to do next. It was completely unlike any other Godzilla before or after it. Minus One plays it a bit safer, choosing instead to bring the iconic monster back to his roots.

Which is fine, just to be clear. If every Godzilla tried to be Shin Godzilla, all the magic that made that movie so interesting would bleed away. But a lot of newer Godzilla fans who started with Shin may be a bit disappointed.

Minus One is a beautiful movie. It’s a story about the importance and value of life. A fitting theme for a narrative centering around a former kamikaze pilot in the years after World War II. Terrifying, exhilarating, tragic, and uplifting, it hooked me in right from the start and it refused to let go!

Even on a visual front, it’s gorgeous! The special effects, editing, and cinematography are on a whole other level! And the music! Holy hell, all the new tracks are incredible! Which is especially impressive considering how ruthless the Japanese film industry is. It only had a budget of $15 million! To put that into perspective, Avengers: Endgame had a budget of $356 million!

Godzilla: Minus One absolutely lived up to the hype! It’s the perfect Godzilla package! Awesome monster action, fantastic character drama, gorgeous visuals, and a beautiful message every bit as important now as it would have been in 1945, it’s got it all! It had everything I wanted from a Godzilla film and more besides!

Whether you’re a casual movie goer or a die-hard Godzilla fan, I’d highly encourage you to check this movie out. If there are still showings in your local theater, check it out. If not, wait until it hits streaming platforms. Just watch this movie! It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word!

Okay America. Your turn. Hope you were cooking with that new Godzilla X Kong movie!

Who the hell am I kidding? I’m gonna love it no matter what.