Godzilla has been terrorizing our movie theaters for seven decades. It all started when, in 1954, a dinosaur-like lizard irradiated by nuclear blasts emerged from the sea to terrorize Tokyo. Godzilla. And while the original film was a response to the struggles and solidarity of a defeated, war-torn Japan, not to mention its nuclear fears, 33 less-than-successful iterations of the film later, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that it was once about this than just stomping around and scream.
Then thank God Godzilla: Minus One. An absolutely thrilling monster blockbuster from Japanese director Takashi Yamazaki. This is a smart, energetic movie based on the past of the famous kaiju (produced by Toho Studios, the creators of Godzilla). It’s also one of the funniest moments I’ve had in a movie theater this year.
It’s the final days of World War II, and Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a failed kamikaze pilot. After a bizarre incident with a monster at a remote outpost, he returns to his destroyed hometown full of sadness and shame. By chance, he meets Noriko (Minami Hamabe), a young woman with an orphan in tow, and becomes close. It’s like a classic Japanese melodrama, but then: here comes Godzilla, powered entirely by nuclear energy.
When Godzilla arrives in Ginza, the newly rebuilt area of Tokyo where Noriko works in an office, the monster stalks the city, folding a commuter train in half and hanging from its mouth like a bunch of sausages. I pressed my hands to my face every time Godzilla’s spiky spine turned radioactive blue and exploded from his jaws in a devastating burst of nuclear destruction. Featuring a devilish, spiny and snarling design, the lizard itself is very similar to the original Godzilla, with a small head and a huge, massive tail.
Somehow it was made on a surprisingly low budget for a film requiring such a level of CGI – about fifteen million dollars, compared to the hundreds of millions Hollywood spent making much worse versions of the story. Yamazaki has meticulously detailed his effects, so that even the close-ups of the monster’s claws look absolutely real.
As a mutant lizard breaks through aircraft carriers and destroys the innocent citizens of Tokyo, a group of civilians – mostly former military – work together to outsmart the monster. The result is a celebration of local courage as despondent citizens fight to protect the fragile progress of their restored lives and drive Godzilla back to the depths of the sea. These are the types of smart, emotional, crowd-pleasing actors that Hollywood hasn’t been able to handle for a long time.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.