Takashi Yamazaki as writer/director has created a supremely entertaining, heartfelt drama within the guise of a monster film, Godzilla Minus One, certainly the finest Godzilla film ever made and the best of this genre since maybe King Kong.
As World War II ends, Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), is haunted by his failure as a Japanese, Kamikaze pilot, and is witness to a prehistoric creature, Godzilla, that decimates his airstrip crew. After the war, he returns to his home and finds his parents are gone and the residents struggling to survive. Taking in a woman, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), who is caring for an orphaned baby, the three form a makeshift family, and Shikishima gets a job with a minesweeper that discovers a more powerful, post-atomic Godzilla displaying extraordinary powers and capable of catastrophic destruction. Left to their own resources, a small group of Japanese citizens bands together to defend Tokyo against a seemingly unstoppable force.
Yamazaki understands the importance of a good story with sympathetic characters worth caring and forming a strong, emotional base that resonates for the rest of the film when Godzilla reappears. Few films in this genre develop characters and narrative to this extent, and it pays off beautifully with storylines like Shikishima’s past trauma and guilt. There is a pervasive theme of redemption and the power of the human spirit to overcome loss through sacrifice.
The
impressive, visual effects (supervised
by Yamazaki) utilized a relatively modest budget in contrast to most
blockbuster films. Despite spoken Japanese
with subtitles, the story moves along at such an engaging pace, that it hardly
matters. This sets the bar extremely
high for similar films in the future, (with a hint of more Godzilla to come).
****
½ of ***** stars (for Godzilla fans)
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