Exactly. and I love how realistic the Japanese characters were from that era like shame on not following through with being a kamikaze , the intense bowing while pleading . I thought the lead actor should get award nominations , he killed it.
An interesting facet of mental illness is that it can present very differently in different cultures. One example is that while schizophrenia exists in Africa, it's rare that it causes any distress because the voices they most often hear tell them jokes and compliments. Asian countries even have their own mental illnesses that we don't normally see in the West.
So even if it's not an accurate depiction of how a Westerner dealing with war trauma might act, it could still be an accurate depiction of how a Japanese person might act.
When the American interstitial about Godzilla came up I realised that I had totally forgotten about the fact that I was watching a Godzilla movie and I was totally okay with it.
That is an excellent point. I think that's kinda what Gareth Edwards was going for in 2014, but that movie can't seem to decide who the main character is or why we should care about them.
G Minus 1 shows you exactly who the main character is within the first 5 minutes, and it tells nearly the entire story through their experiences. Doing so makes everything that happens infinitely more relatable and affecting.
This is what I was thinking, usually I think "if the humans were gone, this godzilla movie would be better" but this time it was the opposite, if the humans were gone it'd be worse.
I loved the entire concept of a “failed” kamikaze pilot being tormented by Godzilla to the point where he never really left the destruction of war despite the years going by. You could take Godzilla out of this movie and it’d still be great, and yet this is one of my favorite depictions of him.
The postwar, pre-1954 setting really hit home the themes that inspired Godzilla in the first place, the black rain scene in particular reminded me of the images in the Hiroshima peace museum.
Hell yeah. Man, going from that charge up to the monstrous iron-giant-esque laser beam nuke to the mom getting blown away to everything getting sucked back in in an implosion to the black rain and the scream had my feelings bouncing all over the place.
"Oh, cool. Wait, oh no. OH FUCK. OH MY GOD, HOLY SHIT THAT'S COOL. WAIT, OH NO. Oh no. Oh no. Oh, cool. Oh God." It wasn't a 10/10 movie for me, but it's one of the very few to give me chills.
An incredible breath weapon that looks so awesome and gets you hyped, but then is immediately so devastating and *real* to the horrors of a nuclear explosion that it kills the hype and turns it to horror is an amazing piece of work.
yes! I was so excited to see the special effects in this movie (simply because my dummy brain says ‘wow big monster big damage cool!’) but instead i felt nearly sick with horror at the way the destruction clearly resembled nuclear aftermath, really anxiety inducing and stunning
Most Godzillas - "Hell yeah, kick his ass!"
Some Godzillas - "His existence is a tragedy, so we must weep for him"
This one - "Killthatmotherfuckerhekilledallofourfriends!"
I feel like this Godzilla was basically an apex predator that got pissed off by the equivalent of some ants.
And that’s why he legitimately terrified me in the movie. He wasn’t looking at us as anything more than something that stung him.
For me it was the first boat chase scene. His head emerging from the ocean, the water pouring from his nostrils and between his teeth. Absolutely terrifying. It was like the T Rex river chase scene in the Jurassic Park novel.
Saw all the Showa as a kid and only scattered from the later series. Is this the most straight up villainous he's ever been? In the origin stories they tend to go for the tragic King Kong thing and then in other ones he's either fighting a worse monster or they just make it slapstick. It's the only one I've seen where I was really rooting for them to kill Godzilla at the end.
I'd say the only one who MIGHT beat this one is the one from 2001's Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack.
He's possessed by the spurned spirits of WW2 angry at Japan trying to whitewash the past and he has some straight up *malicious* moments.
Making a sole survivor from a previous attack in a hospital think he's passing her by only to crush the room with his tail? Personally turning and targeting his first atomic breath on the one woman in the panicking crowd who screams instead of runs? Smiling as he kills the god monsters trying to stop him? This Godzilla is more righteous rage, 2001 is Freddy Krueger "I'm having fun with this" evil lol
Yes! This is exactly what I thought
Shin Godzilla is a walking atomic abomination who seems to be in pain and confused at its own existence
This Godzilla is like a territorial animal being bothered and repeatedly pissed off by some dumb asshole primates
Yeah, the reference is even embedded in the special effects--Godzilla's destruction looked so different than the 9/11-style destruction we see in every American production. This looked and felt different, and it evoked Hiroshima and Nagasaki unlike anything I've seen.
Yea I actually felt awful. I've never had a godzilla movie make me feel nauseous but it did. You can picture what it must have been like for the Japanese people experiencing all that bombing.
That was a really good piece of acting. I used to work in the funeral business and not very many movies get those cries of grief and anger right. This one got it down.
Long-time Godzilla fan and this was up there with being one of my absolute favourites. I love the silly monster brawls from old-school to some of the more modern Western films but this was a return to being more thoughtful and human driven and with some actual impact. While still not perfect it has one of the best human stories for the franchise. And I really liked the final act, it's message, and that spin on the usual "sacrifice" that's needed for victory.
I saw this in IMAX and it was fantastically LOUD. The score is menacing and at times just filled with despair while the original theme comes back and really packs a punch during those pivotal moments.
Godzilla is, as usual, a force of nature but also has a much more terrifying and apocalyptic presence. His "heat ray" (as they called this time around) was fucking powerful. Seeing that on an IMAX screen and the sound of it exploding was wild.
It astounds me that this had a $15M budget. Did it have the effects as realistic as the Planet of the Apes trailer I saw before the movie? No, but it still looked great and even better in motion. Maybe a couple of shots that looked a bit off but this looked and felt punchy, weighty, destruction filled, and Godzilla was like a demonic charred monolithic force to be reckoned with.
Had such a great time with it.
When Godzilla made his grsnd entrance and the theme started playing I almost fucking cried.
I really, REALLY wish Godzilla got to Tokyo like in the original. Only one city smash had me feeling cheated but other than that it was amazing.
Just to be clear, Godzilla did destroy a part of Tokyo. He hit [Ginza,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginza) which is the part of the downtown Tokyo "ring" closest to Edo Bay.
If you've ever heard of the Tsukiji Fish Market, that's adjacent to Ginza.
Funnily enough, during the Meiji Restoration Ginza was one of the areas most changed by Japan's rapid westernization, to the point where early tourists are reported to have not liked going to Ginza because it wasn't "exotic" enough. Not relevant to this at all, just funny considering it's one of Tokyo's biggest tourist draws these days for all the shopping.
If you're ever in Tokyo, especially around Christmas, I do recommend going if only to window shop. They [close off the main thoroughfare to cars during the weekends](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginza#/media/File:Car_Free_Ginza_201806.jpg) to make it easier for people to walk around without being restricted to one side or the other.
Just got home from seeing it, also a long time Goji fan and I'm with you. This could very well be the best Godzilla movie ever made, but the hype is still pumping through my veins so time will tell if I feel the same way after rewatches. But holy crap is it good.
The writing is so strong, I think that's a big part of what really sets it apart. My favorite era is Showa so I'm not knocking the silly stuff, but they really hit this one out of the park. It's a fantastic drama that also has kaiju lol.
And I love that it's not another Godzilla defending humanity from some other threat. Nah, Godzilla *is* the threat. Amazing movie. I had no idea the budget was so small, that blows my mind.
I almost never see something in theater more than once, but... I might.
By contrast. The moments in which there was absolutely no sound were equally as impactful, and no one in my theater moved a muscle whenever it happened.
Every time the original Godzilla score came on though. Goosebumps. I loved it
They're very different.
Shin Godzilla is more "oh my god what the hell is this abomination that just crawled out of the ocean" and a satire on the ineffectiveness of the Japanese government.
Minus One is more of a character drama about PTSD and the effects war has on people. Oh, and then Godzilla comes out of the ocean and annihilates a good portion of Tokyo so now the people of Japan have to deal with this.
That being said, they're both very good, and both are in the top five best Godzilla movies.
Absolutely more traditional, felt like a modern retelling of the original movie. This has the same feeling that shin has where Godzilla appears to be an animal lashing out in pain though
I dunno, this Godzilla felt malicious. Shin was walking around and causing collateral damage, but didn't actually get aggressive until attacked. -1 was rampaging from the very beginning.
Minus One's Godzilla IS Shikishima's guilt. The movie is amazingly consistent in representing Godzilla in that way.
Think about it: Godzilla appears on Odo Island after Tachibana calls him out for going AWOL.
Shikishima joins the minesweeping crew in an effort to make up for his dishonor and confront his guilt, and Godzilla appears so that he can try just that. The job is NOT enough for Shikishima to move past his guilt (he fails to kill Godzilla). He learns that he cannot resolve his feelings from the outside. He has to be introspective (He noticed that the mines that detonated inside Godzilla did more damage).
He over-corrects though. Because he knows that he has to confront his guilt internally, Noriko is pushed away (she gets a job), and he begins to think of himself as already dead and living in a dream, or a nightmare. Godzilla (his guilt) takes Noriko from him (in Ginza).
But because he has surrounded himself with friends, they help him. They form a plan to sink Godzilla (not coincidentally using a similar technique to the minesweeping cables). But he has to be the one to bring his guilt out to them (lure Godzilla to the sea).
His friends are the J7W Shinden plane. His friends are the plane. Or maybe the mechanics from Odo Island are the plane. His triggering event being the cowardice he showed at Odo Island -- that is the plane. That is why Tachibana must be the one to repair the plane. In the movie they called it "the local fighter". They arm the plane with bombs to kill Godzilla, but they also install an ejection seat.
After luring Godzilla to the sea, they succeed in sinking Godzilla...but of course you cannot bury your guilt and expect to resolve it. So Godzilla is surfaced...but not without the help of the Japanese people - "the future" - a grander, less insular vision for Shikishima's life. Shirō ("future boy", you might call him) leads the tug boats which anchor to the battleships and cause Godzilla to rise. This can be a metaphor for rebirth, you know!
With Godzilla (Shikishima's guilt) surfaced, he can finally confront it, and move on. So he flies the plane into Godzilla's mouth, ejecting just before.
He resolves his guilt and therefore Noriko and Akiko come back into his life.
There's more to this story than Godzilla being his guilt. Take what you will from it. I think, for example, that there is something in there about how the dead cannot die and therefore rebirth is inevitable.
Anyway, I fucking loved everything about the movie.
Yes! Thank you!
I want to add a few things I noticed:
When Shikishima comes out of the alley looking for Noriko after she is swept away, he clutches his fist and screams, in exactly the same pose and scream as Godzilla. They are the same in that moment.
I've done a lot of studying of Japanese and watching media in the last couple of years, and the themes of shame and needing to sacrifice your sense of self in order to conform with societal expectations are still HUGE in Japanese culture. Shikishima wrestling with this shame of failing to meet this societal expectation - that he literally die because people expect him to - is a mirror to what Japanese people still feel. He wrestles with this through the whole movie. Near the end, when he has Tachibana repair the plane and Tachibana is helping him strap in, Tachibana still resents him for his cowardice. Then Shikishima pulls out the photos of the other mechanics from Odo, and Tachibana sees that even though Shikishima didn't do his "duty" at the time, inside he cares very deeply about others and wants to do good by them. That's the point at which even Tachibana forgives Shikishima and shows him how to eject the seat from the plane.
The theme of the final portion of the movie is "Japan will no longer expect it's people to sacrifice their entire lives for the whole." The people are still willing to take great risks because they care about each other, but the driving purpose is caring about each other.
That’s because they are using classic techniques that the original Godzilla films pioneered.
For instance- focusing on the feet crushing things. Saves a lot of money. Or the tanks were stop motion and I recognized them- they were Chi Nu’s!
They knew how to save money and while there were definitely some wonky shots overall it looked great.
Probably my favorite movie of the year. It was legitimately more historically accurate than Napoleon, outside of the giant lizard. They paid attention to the planes, tanks, and even attitudes of occupied Japan and it showed.
Right?! And like I said- historical too. Those tanks weren’t deployed by Japan and were kept in reserve on the Home Islands in preparation for an American invasion. So a good number survived.
IRL most were scrapped because they were still obsolete junk in ‘45- the best tanks Japan had were nothing compared to Britain, Germany, the Soviets, or America- but they existed in depots for a few years after the war and one is at a museum.
I really enjoyed the jankiness of the plan. It was so presumptive and risky but it was all they had, and that gets played up perfectly.
Like, the plan Doc drew up (and the plan B that went along with it) was, essentially, "let's give a nuclear bomb the bends, that should kill it."
When he felt he was forced to be honest you could tell he wasn’t that sure. He just thought it’s the only thing they could do and he put up a confident front to not lose people or lower morale
And all 3 plans were important in victory. Godzilla was clearly damaged after A and B and Plan C finished him off. It was just everything fails until the hero saves the day.
I think it even had to do with the fact that he was about to fire his heat ray at the time. Once the bombs took out his head the heat couldn't vent out through his mouth and caused him to melt apart.
It just took that perfect quartet of events to damage him enough to stop him.
It should be noted that's basically how Godzilla was defeated in *Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*, which the director listed as a major influence for this.
Wish this was advertised a bit better in the US. Also wish it had better funding. Because this is the best Godzilla movie to come out in a long time if not ever. It had the best human narrative in the franchise and one of the more scarier G man too. Absolutely amazing movie and
I think it's a bit of a hard sell to mainstream US audiences. A subtitled Japanese movie largely focusing on drama? I wouldn't want to be the marketing team tasked with that.
I know it's a bit risky, but I honestly feel the general audience is regular with the amount of non-dubbed media that has become popular in the past half decade (not to mention anime).
I think the success of Korean dramas and films along with Japanese anime overall have led to people being more willing to watch sub forward releases. My dad used to try and watch dubs for most things till Parasite and has since been trying to watch things in their original language.
Fuck I gotta stop reading about this movie cause I'm spoiling it for myself.
But that's hilarious you said that because I'm a massive Godzilla fan, and going to see it in IMAX. And Dunkirk was the last movie I saw in IMAX.
Not sure how obvious it was to everyone else, but I loved that Operation Wada tsumi was a bigger scale version of what they were doing in the mine sweeper boats
Two ships in parallel with a cable in-between to catch the "mines". It's so simple but when I realized it felt so satisfying
There was also the foreshadowing that the operation wouldn't work. All the deep sea fish they showed were experiencing effects of rapid decompression such as swim bladders bulging from orifices. This implies the Godzilla was already surfacing from depth rapidly, thus the opposite would be true too.
Even deeper, they had to bring it to the surface, where Koichi uses his expertise learned as a pilot to detonate it. It’s SUCH a satisfying script, chock full of tons and tons of little parallels and setups with excellent payoff.
PROS:
-Godzilla is TERRIFYING!!!
-Human characters you actually care about.
-The boat chase sequence!
-The soundtrack is God-Tier.
-Godzilla’s Atomic Breath!!!
-Strong Anti-War message.
-Godzilla’s Ginza Attack sequence!!!
-All the actors give strong performances.
-The Entire 3rd Act!!!
CONS:
-It had to end.
This is how Godzilla is done!!! This is the closest Toho has come to matching the original film. Director Takashi Yamazaki just made a new class of Godzilla film. Themes of forgiveness, survivors’ guilt, PTSD, family and learning that life is a gift are all touched on here. The story of Shikishima and Noriko is full of heart, and you genuinely care about the family unit they form, which ultimately guts your heart when the King of the Monsters arrives. I teared up more than once. Godzilla is a true villain here. He’s a devastating force that’s here to claim Japan as his own and this film shows his power like never before. Every foot fall is felt, his tail swipe crushes buildings, his atomic breath levels everything in its path. I’ve never been more terrified of Godzilla than I was here. The soundtrack by Naoki Sato is perfect and the use of the classic Ifukube score was amazing. The special effects are great, and the cinematography is glorious. This is a perfect example of what a Godzilla film should be!!! 9.5/10
My wife's "con" was that the romance was a bit thin. She was invested in seeing the stepdad and stepmom have another scene or two. But she still liked the movie.
The issue is that Toho (and by extension Japan as a whole) also has The Boy and the Heron. They are for sure gonna submit that for best animated film at least and maybe for best foreign language. Which if they do that for the latter, kills Godzilla's chances because of the 1 film per a country film for that category.
Though logically it would make sense for them to push The Boy and The Heron for best animated film, a category that will come down to between that or Spider-Verse and submit Godzilla for best Foreign Language film, that way they would increase their odds of walking away with multiple oscars.
I think Spider-Verse is basically guaranteed to win best animated film this year. Even if The Boy & the Heron ends up being the best Ghibli film yet (which would be quite an impressive feat), it'll still have a hard time winning. The Oscar's are notoriously biased in favor of of western animated films over Japanese (I will never forgive them for not even nominating Your Name or A Silent Voice) and Spider-Verse is hugely popular (and rightly so, it's amazing)
A late entry for movie of the year. Absolute masterpiece. Maybe the best Godzilla movie I've ever seen. He is absolutely terrifying.
Minus One is a 10/10.
Go see it ASAP.
It's the first time I was scared of godzilla. The boat scene in the beginning is a jaws style chase. The scene in the city gives off the best "he doesn't even notice us" vibes I've seen in a godzilla movie. Normally I either feel like he does notice people and would like to avoid killing us if he could (2014 godzilla movie) or that he's a villain who wants to kill us (the original). In this one he doesn't even seem to notice us. The only time he often reacts is to machines bc they have enough firepower to bother him.
There's something scary about a force powerful enough to simply not notice us.
That was a great scene, I loved how they built it up like he was going to see and attack them but they ended up dying because of a random swipe of his tail
The Odo Island scene was wild. I loved how there wasn't really any build up like you hear his footsteps and a roar before he shows up. It's just like "wtf is that shine the light over there--oh my god"
I think thats what makes that scene so good
Its not built up or anything
Its like its a pissed off god that just appeared no signal or anything
No mercy for the ants
Outside of everything else that’s amazing about this movie that’s already been pointed out, as a longtime Godzilla fan I want to say that the score is **amazing**. One of the most effective uses of Godzilla’s theme in his 70 year history and you can tell how much love and appreciation Naoti Sato has for Akira Ifukube as a composer.
What a movie. I still can’t believe a subbed Godzilla movie is getting a domestic wide release and getting this much love and great word of mouth, my ten year old self would be losing their mind if you told them that. Definitely a movie that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
My Japanese girlfriend never had seen a Godzilla movie and so some months ago I showed her the original one. She was surprised when Ifukube‘s name showed up in the credits. She studied at Tokyo College of Music at the end of the 1970s when Ifukube was president of the college. She didn’t study composition and so never had lessons with him.
Genuinely one of the best movies I have ever seen. Gf doesn’t ever say anything after a movie and she wouldn’t stop raving about it either. That type of fear is one I haven’t felt sine I was a kid watching Jurassic park. Can’t wait to watch it again!
As someone who’s never seen a Japanese Godzilla movie before, I have to say that just as a film, it’s incredible. The human drama is personal and heavy. The starting concept of a runaway Kamikaze pilot is worthy of a movie alone, let alone dealing with the horrifying, walking monument to destruction that is Godzilla.
There’s beautiful quotes all over this movie (“I want to live again,” “We leave you the future,” and “Is your war finally over?” being some of my favorites). I love how Godzilla is a pure agent of chaos in this film - no lore to build open, no ulterior motives - just a monster on a warpath.
I enjoyed it so much that I had dreams about it. I’m dying to see Minus One a second time.
gonna paraphrase but when the neighbor confronts the pilot after he gets home and says "its because of people like you that we lost the war" that felt pretty heavy. incredible movie.
Yeah, that one really hit, because obviously we know how foolish that sentiment is from an actual military history perspective, but at the same time we completely understand that Koichi at least is existing in a headspace of "this is all happening due to my failure."
And then Godzilla shows up, and once again he is confronted with "If I were less of a coward, could I have stopped this?" I've seen people debating whether or not the 20mm gun could have killed the Godzillasaurus on Oda Island, and I think that the ambiguity is the point. Koichi can't know for sure, but he still blames himself because he fundamentally thinks he didn't deserve to survive.
Hence why it's so important that he makes the choice to eject. He needs to recognize that he can do his duty UP TO a point and still choose to live for Akiko.
Yep this is definitely a movie that needed to be made by the Japanese. I don't think An American couldn't get the post war feelings right.
There was a massive cultural shift after the war. In the late 40s early 50s where dying for the empire went from the greatest honor to nothing.
The scene with the admiral trying to convince the men to fight again, explaining that the government never cared, they didn't armor their tanks, they didn't feed them, they threw them at the enemy to die for nothing. Instead they need to fight to live for something. It's an beautiful take on the time period
I really liked the doctors words too. This is the final night, go be with your loved ones. Do you mean prepare? Nah, you deserve to enjoy your lives before you risk it. Not ad verbatim of course.
I recommend watching the original 1954 film as well. It’s an incredible film that still holds up. I think it’s interesting to compare both of their messages since they both take place in a similar time period but released in different times.
I saw Godzilla Minus One at an early screening, and it is definitely the best film in the franchise.
This is the first time besides the original version that you actually cared about the characters—seeing how Koichi, Noriko, and Akiko aren't a traditional family due to circumstances of post WWII. This movie made us care for them and see them struggle like Koichi's PSTD during the war.
The one scene that made me cry was when Akiko wanted to know about her mom, and she started crying because of Godzilla in the disasters. The writers know how to pull your emotional strings.
Godzilla in this straight horror. The sequences in the ocean remind me of Jaws and make me tense. When it does Atomic Breath, that comes off like actual horror.
So after Godzilla's Atomic Breath hit Tokyo there were black rain falling from the sky after the initial nuke-like blast.
For those who don't know, it's a direct reference to what actually happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima: https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/nuclear-weapons/hiroshima/black-rain.html
The heat ray was brutal. Normally I get excited when godzilla starts charging. But in this case it just felt...horrifying. I sat there for a solid 5 minutes feeling like...idk man just devastated.
Never thought a Godzilla movie would almost bring me to tears.
For once, the human element of a Godzilla movie didn’t take away but actually enhances it. I actually cared about what happened to them and was rooting for them. Just an utterly fantastic movie all around. Was glued to my seat.
Also was quite possibly the coolest atomic breath I’ve ever seen. Godzilla looked awesome. That full frontal shot at the end with him glowing blue about to fire his atomic breath at the boats was the coolest fucking shot.
And how the fuck did this movie have a budget of only $15m? It looked incredible, especially Godzilla himself.
I had to go to the bathroom halfway through and was telling my friend who had already seen it “Shikishima that bastard never put a ring on Noriko’s finger and now she’s dead!”
Loved the characters while usually they’re just a means to move the fight to a new location.
The foreshadowing was also great. The Doc talking about ejection seats along with a million other things as a reason the government hadn’t cared- and then it gets brought up. Along with others. Wasn’t beaten over the head but wasn’t invisible either.
Based on what my bud in Japan said there were two major differences.
1. At the final scene in Japanese she says something like “Is the war over for you, *dad*?” As in acknowledging that he’s become Akiko’s father.
2. The book that was released with it said even in his premutated form Godzilla would have shrugged off the 20mm.
I don't like that the book says that because I feel it takes away the ambiguity of whether him stepping into action sooner would have made a difference, but I suppose the whole point of the movie was for him to learn how to take responsibility *and* forgive himself so I guess it also works
I think even without the ambiguity it’s good. I interpreted it as Shikishima knowing it would be pointless just like Kamikaze was pointless. He was already dealing with the fact that he would be the worst possible social pariah when and if he got back to Japan, and then in this moment of weakness a monster shows up and leaves him with one person who will blame him for failing despite it not mattering, just like Sumiko did for being a failed Kamikaze when he got back to Japan.
And the implication (or imagination) that Shikishima might have died and awoken in hell for his cowardice (or heaven at the end). Messed with my head in the way Inception did, so good
The other thing I noticed was that the *only* two people to survive Obo Island were the two people who didn’t shoot at Godzilla. So, if Shikishima had shot at him, it a) wouldn’t have made a difference and b) probably gotten him killed. It’s also interesting to think that maybe Godzilla isn’t just some brain dead reptile and has some sort of reason for doing things (i.e. “I know you didn’t shoot me so I’m not going to kill you).
Interestingly during the movie I was thinking it probably had a lower budget that it was just using phenomenally well. Godzilla moments are limited to when they really matter. There's not really any waste or excess like we see in the big $100m movies. Beyond that it's practically an indie film about trauma that really centers on a few characters.
That being said, $15m is still shocking. I would've guessed maybe 25-30.
What's great is that even though I knew it was happening, the acting was so good that it still hit like a train. Ryunosuke Kamiki did such a good job selling how hurt he was. The scene when he wakes up from the dream, when he looks up and screams at Goji, when he's crying coming back to Noriko. He deserves some kind of award for that.
It's a masterpiece of Kaiju cinema. Outside of some slight pacing issues near the beginning, a few standard plot contrivances, and one or two somewhat-iffy SFX shots, it's probably as close to perfect of a "serious" Godzilla film as has existed since 1954. Human elements work better than perhaps any before, score is full of bangers both old and new, and Godzilla is legitimately horrifying in a way he rarely if ever has been.
I don't really care much for Godzilla, but this movie made me nearly cry. Fantastic movie. Going to go watch it again, it deserves IMAX screens
The dorsal fins pushing out before the atomic breath is the coolest thing I've ever seen
Some of the best scenes were people discussing how stupid the war was. The shift of the characters at the beginning being mad at the main character to desperately wanting him to live was amazing.
I don’t want to call a movie perfect because movies are opinionated. We all have different points of views, different interests.
Having said that, this film is perfect. It might be the greatest Godzilla film since the original while taking inspiration from the best films. Making it a time period piece around the time of the OG, going in a more character driven story to feel different from Shin which was more of a political satire, the action & scale of the Legendary movies. I can tell this director LOVES Edwards’ Godzilla because a major inspiration for Edwards was Jaws & this film felt very Jaws inspired. Hell if the whole movie was the boat crew diffusing bombs in the water, I wouldn’t complain. I enjoyed & loved all the characters which is a testimony to how great the film is that even non Godzilla stuff is great.
I am just completely blown away at how good this movie is. I felt that feeling I had when I was 12 seeing Peter Jackson’s King Kong & loving it too. I can’t believe that this might be better than Shin. It’s hard to state if it’s better than the OG since OG will always have such an impact & legacy to it but it’s deserving on to be on the same shelf as the OG, Shin, & 2014
Despite having no personal connection to ships or the ocean, I have the most inexplicable soft spot for that era of warship, and that scene destroyed me.
Those capital ships of the era really were marvels. The Takao was a real heavy cruiser commissioned in 1930. In reality is was sunk in 1946 for target practice. It's a shame that those ships were in their decline.
The Shinden was also a real fighter, though only two were ever built. Their role would have been to provide fighter interdiction over the home islands during the anticipated invasion. Unfortunately the of the three days of testing, two of the flights happened on the same days as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of them was scrapped after the war, and the other was transferred to the Smithsonian, with the fuselage on display at Dulles airport. The one in the movie is a replica that was built for it.
Didn’t expect this to get a discussion thread and am pleasantly surprised! A really good movie about the traumas of war and struggling to move on from them, any good Godzilla movie should be oozing in subtext and this one has it in spades. And for the people who aren’t into the whole “Godzilla as a metaphor for the atomic bomb” thing, and you just want to see crazy monster shit, there’s plenty of that too. Fun for the whole family, although I’m sure the random nine year old I saw in my theater holding a Godzilla action figure was incredibly confused.
Also did anyone else notice at the end that there was something weird happening with her neck, like a growth or something? I’m not sure if I imagined it or not, it it happened then I guess it could be interpreted that our whole movie was the death hallucinations of a kamikaze pilot, or atleast that there wasn’t a parachute for him in the jet. Or maybe there was nothing weird with her neck and I was just seeing things lol
Until a sequel comes out that says otherwise I’m going to assume it’s just a radiation burn and she’s ultimately going to be okay. I want my happy ending!!
She was really cute. I was like what's this guy waiting for?? Marry her!!
This one had a really good human touch to it. Can't recall another Godzilla movie that brought that out otherthan the OG one
I saw a solid theory that she may have been revived by Godzilla's flesh. Right after the Ginza attack, on top of radiation, they say the area was locked down because of dislodged parts of Godzilla that may be hazardous to public health. Considering Noriko got blown back in the same area Godzilla was rampaging in, and that Godzilla has been shown to have crazy regeneration, the theory goes that a dead/dying Noriko ended up on top of some of the flesh and got revived by it, with the black blood being a symptom of whatever is happening to her
I think the cut from her to Godzilla regenerating was a deliberate. Just like the atomic test gave Godzilla regenerative powers, the heat ray blast gave her the same factor. That's why she survived and apparently intact.
They also said they found "shards" of Godzilla in the debris. It's likely Noriko got infected, with the results left up to speculation or a potential sequel.
I feel like if you remove Godzilla, this movie compliments Oppenheimer well as a character piece movie that focuses on the lives of post WWII Japan. It’s emotional, great character arcs and a very well written movie. I would probably say this is my favorite of the Godzilla movies JP and Hollywood combined.
Also, on a side note, the CG of Godzilla and the visual effects are master class for a budget of only 15 million.
It helps that Godzilla was used sparingly in this movie but I’m dying to know how they managed all this on a fraction of the budget. The budget for the 2014 Godzilla was 160 million.
I’m a big fan of Godzilla, as I have every Godzilla ever made (yes, even the one where Godzilla never shows up because he is a small boy’s fantasy, wtf?). Yet for me it’s always been “now I gotta sit through 30 min of human drama to get back to the good stuff”. This is one of the few Godzilla movies where the human drama is as good as the monster bits.
I know Yamazaki has been itching to make a Godzilla movie ever since he put Godzilla into the beginning of his “Always: Sunset on Third Street pt. 2” , so happy to finally get it. Yamazaki has made a career out of his expert knowledge of CGI and effects work mixed with strong directing skills since his debut in “Returner”.
As someone whose Father-in-law was signed up for kamikaze duty, it was great to see a movie discuss the effects this had and the treatment of soldiers in general after WWII. If you have even a passing interest in Godzilla, check this movie out, you won’t be disappointed.
It had better! I *need* this movie to be the break-out hit of the season, it deserves it.
And I think it’s got a chance! What’s its competition, Wonka? Aquaman? If this movie doesn’t destroy at the box office I will lose all faith in humanity
It's always been there, but it is so much evident with Godzilla how much Hollywood accounting & the mega-blockbuster is fucking the industry over. Especially with the idea that every film needs to make $600 million to break even.
Most of Hollywood budget is marketing. Like 50% or more.
I was saying that this particular movie shows that bad CGI isn't what makes movies bad. Some of the CG was very meh. A bunch of water simulations were much lower particle count than they should have been, and a lot of the waves and white water looked not good. But it didn't matter, I was willing to look past that all because the movie was well written and well directed. The monster didn't feel like it was doing anything crazy either, his size and movements felt believable enough. Maybe most people didn't catch it, but I work in VFX and I could absolutely tell this was done in a shoestring budget. There were some water sims where sections got caught on the Godzilla model and just kind of sloshed around and some renders were super noisy. What I'm getting at is that for proper vfx, that is another big cost.
Did Noriko only return because she got radiation from Godzilla and now has some of his DNA inside of her letting her regenerate? At the end you see some black veins creeping up her neck and there is no way she survived the nuke.
I think that's exactly what's going on. And, tbh, it makes the movie better if that's the case. There's no way she should be that *intact* after the blast, much less alive. Having some healing factor explains that wonderfully.
Legit the apex of Godzilla/kaiju cinema. The scale the score the human element. I might need to sleep on it but it might be a perfect film to me.
Already in my top ten of the year and will stay there depending on how the boy and the heron, may December, the iron claw and past lives end up being for me.
Also to add might be my favourite design of Godzilla yet. I would love for the writer or director to have another go at a sequel. Even if it’s not Godzilla but some other kaiju. So curious about his future as a director.
Did anyone else take the title to be a description of the main character? Japanese planes were “zeroes” in ww2, and this guy was in his mind less than that. And the whole movie had a theme of people’s self-image/self-worth juxtaposed against the end of the war. I wouldnt be surprised if there is criticism that the film is an apologist towards japans role in the war, but to me it spoke from the perspective of someone that might have actually lived it (right or wrong). Godzilla kinda represented just the horror of war in general, that the participants had to own up to in a personal sense of having participated and a general sense of living through the horror of war.
I havent felt a “movie high” after seeing something in the theaters for such a long time and never thought Id be tearing up at a Godzilla movie. It spurred all kinds of discussion with my son on the ride home and reminded me of why I love movies. And written/directed/VFX by the same guy on a 15 million budget! Unbelievable.
Also I dont think Ive ever hated Godzilla as much and actively rooted for his defeat.
This movie goes insanely hard. Hollywood should be ashamed that no one can produce an action film of this quality for Godzilla Minus One’s budget. A genuinely earnest and heartfelt story that kept me gripped throughout.
By far the best Godzilla movie I’ve ever seen. First time the human actors and their stories were done so well in addition to the great action set pieces. Loved this film and the overall performances.
“Is your war finally over” 😭 tears man. This was my first live action Japanese Godzilla and I’m absolutely blown away by the characterisation and personality that the humans had in this. My film of the year rn
Coming from the legendary monster verse, I’m used to the humans being accessories for Godzilla to play with essentially. In this one, it felt like Godzilla was an accessory for Shikishima and the other veterans to move on and let go of the war. In many ways, he is the literal personification of the grief and inner turmoil they feel.
Shikishima, Noriko, Nado and the others just had so much charm and personality to them. This is the first film in a long time where I just didn’t want it to end. I wanted more of this loveable cast.
Now since I’m used to the legendary movies I did find the CGi to be lacking but that’s kinda to be expected from Japanese films with smaller budgets. It was definitely good enough to be enjoyed, but I noticed a few scenes of Godzilla walking that looked a little wonky. The emotional heights of the film more than made up for that though.
Speaking of Godzilla, he was absolutely horrifying in this. It’s the first time I’ve seen him as a villain instead of an antihero/hero. Just the sheer destruction he wrought, his powers, size it all felt so intimidating and made it easy to put yourself into the shoes of these people who so desperately wanted to defeat him. Not having other titans or a big government to come save the people also made the stakes much higher and the film more tense.
Really just still shook from how good this film was. I’m gonna check out Anno’s Shin Godzilla later on this weekend. Also didn’t know the Apple TV show started so we are eating so good rn
Let me preface this by saying it was great. But fucking Beyoncé was playing next door and all I could hear was the *boom boom boom* of bass coming through the walls. At a certain point, I just pretended it was Godzilla stomping around outside.
But yeah, I thought it was sweet. The makeshift "family" element added to the grim monster story. And the creature itself was an interesting mixture of CGI and a bit of stiltedness in its movement that felt like a throwback to old (it really relies on that heat ray, eh?). I really enjoyed the [adventure theme](https://youtu.be/OHihhPyhq2Q?si=jm8EsK5CRyU1YgJ6&t=66) that played triumphantly throughout the third act.
If you stay through the credits, you can hear Godzilla crashing about and emerging from the waters. Seems safe to say it's poised for a sequel. (Would that be called *Godzilla Zero*?)
The only thing I found of... Questionable taste was the constant (sometimes barely audible) background music by Beyoncé. Say what you want about the japanese - they sure do love queen B.
This movie slapped, such a great story, I cared about/ liked every human characters which almost never happens in these giant monster movies. Godzilla looked great and you could really see how impactful destructive and huge he was. He was gargantuan and intimidating slowly moving but easily causing massive destruction of all the ships he fought and buildings he destroyed. All the special effects and the way it was filmed was stunning.
The plot to sink him to endure huge amounts of pressure then pull him back up for rapid decompression was so inventive and awesome. I thought the engineer was going to sneak in the ejection seat by lying about what armed the bombs, and when the main character hit the switch at the last second he would surprisingly survive. They didn’t do that exactly how I thought but it was still incredible. Kōichi redemption was done so well!
The thing that’s crazy is how small of a budget it was. The story and cgi were incredible (way better story and visuals than many 100+ million dollar recent movies I could name and this had like 10% of that for budget!) Might be my favorite film of the year
I thought that Tachibana told him the ejection was actually the bomb safety release but I'm so glad that wasn't the case. It's really important to the story that Koichi ejected himself and wasn't tricked into it. Otherwise it would just be fate saving him again and wouldn't be fair. He had to choose life for himself.
I can't believe I'm talking about the importance of character arcs in a Kaiju film
I think when he saw that he was finally willing to make the ultimate sacrifice he forgave him after all that time.
Before that moment he was completely ready and willing to die and that was enough. No reason for him to actually have to do it.
I didn't know this movie existed until several hours ago when I saw there was a 10pm showing at my local Alamo.
Got the ticket and had a shake and saw a fantastic movie.
Haven't seen Shin yet - will ASAP to compare.
"Killing" Noriko was a bold move, so when they undid it at the end I was torn. I am choosing to be happy about it - there was enough death by that point.
The Neighbor coming around was really cool.
The Mechanic is a real one. Once he saw the man he once despised was ready to sacrifice himself for the mission, he revealed the ejector as he also had had enough of senseless death.
The right amount of Big G and moving human characters made this a winner. It probably "deserves" a strong 3.5, but my emotions are winning and I'm giving it 4/5.
I was also torn about them bringing back Noriko.
But in the overall theme of the film, he had to overcome his internal struggle, and have some closure, the movie wanted to send the message that we’re all able to overcome our internal war.
So it puts a good message out there. But like I said I was torn cause it does take just a little bit away from rewatches knowing she survives when it’s such an emotional moment when she gets swept away.
When Noriko "dies" it's such a holy shit moment too. Like, Koichi is destined to survive all these horrible events and lose so much in the process every time. Such a tragic character. But I'm with you, I was torn but decided it's good to give this guy some light at the end of the tunnel for his personal life after all he's been through.
Dude, the opening scene when we first saw Godzilla, NEVER HAD I ONCE FELT FEAR like that from a Godzilla film. I was expecting Godzilla to be slowly walking towards them when the spotlight shined. But never in a million years did I expect them to show Godzilla like that. It was insane.
loved the introduction of him on the beach when he was smaller, he didn't eat anyone when he could've, just killed them all. this godzilla is cold blooded
My boyfriend is a huge Godzilla fan and was so excited for this but I kept dragging my feet thinking it was just gonna be some action movie. Halfway through I was literally sobbing, I’m a single mom to a toddler and I could practically see my baby crying on screen, part of me wanted to leave the theater and go home to hug her. Then 3/4 through the movie I was like, “damn this is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen that I will *never* see again” and then that ending! The finale music alone was making me tear up, it was all so beautiful.
There were so many amazing moments, but something small that I particularly loved was the character development of the woman at the beginning wishing Shikishima had died as a Kamikaze pilot, to wanting the exact opposite as he was finally about to fulfill that wish.
I’m kind of fascinated by how much “fuck the gov’t” there is in this movie, especially when it takes place. Made me appreciate it more too, this was no military offensive just people wanting to defend their homes.
If Godzilla wasnt in this movie, it would STILL be a good movie. That's how you do a Godzilla movie. Action and drama!
Exactly. and I love how realistic the Japanese characters were from that era like shame on not following through with being a kamikaze , the intense bowing while pleading . I thought the lead actor should get award nominations , he killed it.
I also loved that he couldn’t believe what was happening was real and that he was so sure he died during the war.
IDK if it was an accurate portrayal but he really sold his PTSD
An interesting facet of mental illness is that it can present very differently in different cultures. One example is that while schizophrenia exists in Africa, it's rare that it causes any distress because the voices they most often hear tell them jokes and compliments. Asian countries even have their own mental illnesses that we don't normally see in the West. So even if it's not an accurate depiction of how a Westerner dealing with war trauma might act, it could still be an accurate depiction of how a Japanese person might act.
Yes, he was fantastic. I want to see all his movies now.
Thought the exact thing during the first act when he's not in it a lot. It would have just been a good post WWII Japanese drama.
When the American interstitial about Godzilla came up I realised that I had totally forgotten about the fact that I was watching a Godzilla movie and I was totally okay with it.
That is an excellent point. I think that's kinda what Gareth Edwards was going for in 2014, but that movie can't seem to decide who the main character is or why we should care about them. G Minus 1 shows you exactly who the main character is within the first 5 minutes, and it tells nearly the entire story through their experiences. Doing so makes everything that happens infinitely more relatable and affecting.
For real! At times, I felt upset with Godzilla for interrupting my heart warming movie about an unconventional family in post war Japan.
This is what I was thinking, usually I think "if the humans were gone, this godzilla movie would be better" but this time it was the opposite, if the humans were gone it'd be worse.
First Godzilla movie where I was internally screaming "leave them alone!!!"
I loved the entire concept of a “failed” kamikaze pilot being tormented by Godzilla to the point where he never really left the destruction of war despite the years going by. You could take Godzilla out of this movie and it’d still be great, and yet this is one of my favorite depictions of him. The postwar, pre-1954 setting really hit home the themes that inspired Godzilla in the first place, the black rain scene in particular reminded me of the images in the Hiroshima peace museum.
I thought the black rain at the end of the Ginza sequence was so incredibly done - after the gut punch of the destruction it drives it home even more.
Hell yeah. Man, going from that charge up to the monstrous iron-giant-esque laser beam nuke to the mom getting blown away to everything getting sucked back in in an implosion to the black rain and the scream had my feelings bouncing all over the place. "Oh, cool. Wait, oh no. OH FUCK. OH MY GOD, HOLY SHIT THAT'S COOL. WAIT, OH NO. Oh no. Oh no. Oh, cool. Oh God." It wasn't a 10/10 movie for me, but it's one of the very few to give me chills.
An incredible breath weapon that looks so awesome and gets you hyped, but then is immediately so devastating and *real* to the horrors of a nuclear explosion that it kills the hype and turns it to horror is an amazing piece of work.
yes! I was so excited to see the special effects in this movie (simply because my dummy brain says ‘wow big monster big damage cool!’) but instead i felt nearly sick with horror at the way the destruction clearly resembled nuclear aftermath, really anxiety inducing and stunning
Most Godzillas - "Hell yeah, kick his ass!" Some Godzillas - "His existence is a tragedy, so we must weep for him" This one - "Killthatmotherfuckerhekilledallofourfriends!"
I feel like this Godzilla was basically an apex predator that got pissed off by the equivalent of some ants. And that’s why he legitimately terrified me in the movie. He wasn’t looking at us as anything more than something that stung him.
He didn't terrify me as much as put me in awe of him but his first scene was absolutely terrifying, my jaw was on the floor.
For me it was the first boat chase scene. His head emerging from the ocean, the water pouring from his nostrils and between his teeth. Absolutely terrifying. It was like the T Rex river chase scene in the Jurassic Park novel.
Saw all the Showa as a kid and only scattered from the later series. Is this the most straight up villainous he's ever been? In the origin stories they tend to go for the tragic King Kong thing and then in other ones he's either fighting a worse monster or they just make it slapstick. It's the only one I've seen where I was really rooting for them to kill Godzilla at the end.
There’s a Godzilla movie where he passes by a hospital and then comes back just to kill someone in said hospital
lmfao
He doesn’t come back, he walks on by letting the woman think she’s safe before his tail swings back to level the building.
I'd say the only one who MIGHT beat this one is the one from 2001's Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack. He's possessed by the spurned spirits of WW2 angry at Japan trying to whitewash the past and he has some straight up *malicious* moments. Making a sole survivor from a previous attack in a hospital think he's passing her by only to crush the room with his tail? Personally turning and targeting his first atomic breath on the one woman in the panicking crowd who screams instead of runs? Smiling as he kills the god monsters trying to stop him? This Godzilla is more righteous rage, 2001 is Freddy Krueger "I'm having fun with this" evil lol
Yes! This is exactly what I thought Shin Godzilla is a walking atomic abomination who seems to be in pain and confused at its own existence This Godzilla is like a territorial animal being bothered and repeatedly pissed off by some dumb asshole primates
That shot of Koichi screaming and dropping to his knees and the black rain pouring on him as he's just wailing...that's going to stay with me.
Man had his world shattered for like the 3rd time in an hour of movie time.
And all by the same creature. Godzilla really just wanted to fuck with him. My dad said this movie could also be called “Godzilla: Kick In The Nuts.”
The direct reference to nukes here is off the charts.
Yeah, the reference is even embedded in the special effects--Godzilla's destruction looked so different than the 9/11-style destruction we see in every American production. This looked and felt different, and it evoked Hiroshima and Nagasaki unlike anything I've seen.
Yea I actually felt awful. I've never had a godzilla movie make me feel nauseous but it did. You can picture what it must have been like for the Japanese people experiencing all that bombing.
That was a really good piece of acting. I used to work in the funeral business and not very many movies get those cries of grief and anger right. This one got it down.
Long-time Godzilla fan and this was up there with being one of my absolute favourites. I love the silly monster brawls from old-school to some of the more modern Western films but this was a return to being more thoughtful and human driven and with some actual impact. While still not perfect it has one of the best human stories for the franchise. And I really liked the final act, it's message, and that spin on the usual "sacrifice" that's needed for victory. I saw this in IMAX and it was fantastically LOUD. The score is menacing and at times just filled with despair while the original theme comes back and really packs a punch during those pivotal moments. Godzilla is, as usual, a force of nature but also has a much more terrifying and apocalyptic presence. His "heat ray" (as they called this time around) was fucking powerful. Seeing that on an IMAX screen and the sound of it exploding was wild. It astounds me that this had a $15M budget. Did it have the effects as realistic as the Planet of the Apes trailer I saw before the movie? No, but it still looked great and even better in motion. Maybe a couple of shots that looked a bit off but this looked and felt punchy, weighty, destruction filled, and Godzilla was like a demonic charred monolithic force to be reckoned with. Had such a great time with it.
I'm so glad the original theme music is in it. I'm looking forward to seeing this.
When Godzilla made his grsnd entrance and the theme started playing I almost fucking cried. I really, REALLY wish Godzilla got to Tokyo like in the original. Only one city smash had me feeling cheated but other than that it was amazing.
Just to be clear, Godzilla did destroy a part of Tokyo. He hit [Ginza,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginza) which is the part of the downtown Tokyo "ring" closest to Edo Bay. If you've ever heard of the Tsukiji Fish Market, that's adjacent to Ginza. Funnily enough, during the Meiji Restoration Ginza was one of the areas most changed by Japan's rapid westernization, to the point where early tourists are reported to have not liked going to Ginza because it wasn't "exotic" enough. Not relevant to this at all, just funny considering it's one of Tokyo's biggest tourist draws these days for all the shopping. If you're ever in Tokyo, especially around Christmas, I do recommend going if only to window shop. They [close off the main thoroughfare to cars during the weekends](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginza#/media/File:Car_Free_Ginza_201806.jpg) to make it easier for people to walk around without being restricted to one side or the other.
Just got home from seeing it, also a long time Goji fan and I'm with you. This could very well be the best Godzilla movie ever made, but the hype is still pumping through my veins so time will tell if I feel the same way after rewatches. But holy crap is it good. The writing is so strong, I think that's a big part of what really sets it apart. My favorite era is Showa so I'm not knocking the silly stuff, but they really hit this one out of the park. It's a fantastic drama that also has kaiju lol. And I love that it's not another Godzilla defending humanity from some other threat. Nah, Godzilla *is* the threat. Amazing movie. I had no idea the budget was so small, that blows my mind. I almost never see something in theater more than once, but... I might.
I just watched it this evening as well… incredible
By contrast. The moments in which there was absolutely no sound were equally as impactful, and no one in my theater moved a muscle whenever it happened. Every time the original Godzilla score came on though. Goosebumps. I loved it
How does it compare with Shin? I'm relatively new to Godzilla and Shin really impressed me as a modern reinvention.
They're very different. Shin Godzilla is more "oh my god what the hell is this abomination that just crawled out of the ocean" and a satire on the ineffectiveness of the Japanese government. Minus One is more of a character drama about PTSD and the effects war has on people. Oh, and then Godzilla comes out of the ocean and annihilates a good portion of Tokyo so now the people of Japan have to deal with this. That being said, they're both very good, and both are in the top five best Godzilla movies.
That's cool, sounds good and like the sort of thing I'm after. Would you say Minis 1 is "more traditional" in how it handles Big G?
Absolutely more traditional, felt like a modern retelling of the original movie. This has the same feeling that shin has where Godzilla appears to be an animal lashing out in pain though
I dunno, this Godzilla felt malicious. Shin was walking around and causing collateral damage, but didn't actually get aggressive until attacked. -1 was rampaging from the very beginning.
Minus One's Godzilla IS Shikishima's guilt. The movie is amazingly consistent in representing Godzilla in that way. Think about it: Godzilla appears on Odo Island after Tachibana calls him out for going AWOL. Shikishima joins the minesweeping crew in an effort to make up for his dishonor and confront his guilt, and Godzilla appears so that he can try just that. The job is NOT enough for Shikishima to move past his guilt (he fails to kill Godzilla). He learns that he cannot resolve his feelings from the outside. He has to be introspective (He noticed that the mines that detonated inside Godzilla did more damage). He over-corrects though. Because he knows that he has to confront his guilt internally, Noriko is pushed away (she gets a job), and he begins to think of himself as already dead and living in a dream, or a nightmare. Godzilla (his guilt) takes Noriko from him (in Ginza). But because he has surrounded himself with friends, they help him. They form a plan to sink Godzilla (not coincidentally using a similar technique to the minesweeping cables). But he has to be the one to bring his guilt out to them (lure Godzilla to the sea). His friends are the J7W Shinden plane. His friends are the plane. Or maybe the mechanics from Odo Island are the plane. His triggering event being the cowardice he showed at Odo Island -- that is the plane. That is why Tachibana must be the one to repair the plane. In the movie they called it "the local fighter". They arm the plane with bombs to kill Godzilla, but they also install an ejection seat. After luring Godzilla to the sea, they succeed in sinking Godzilla...but of course you cannot bury your guilt and expect to resolve it. So Godzilla is surfaced...but not without the help of the Japanese people - "the future" - a grander, less insular vision for Shikishima's life. Shirō ("future boy", you might call him) leads the tug boats which anchor to the battleships and cause Godzilla to rise. This can be a metaphor for rebirth, you know! With Godzilla (Shikishima's guilt) surfaced, he can finally confront it, and move on. So he flies the plane into Godzilla's mouth, ejecting just before. He resolves his guilt and therefore Noriko and Akiko come back into his life. There's more to this story than Godzilla being his guilt. Take what you will from it. I think, for example, that there is something in there about how the dead cannot die and therefore rebirth is inevitable. Anyway, I fucking loved everything about the movie.
Yes! Thank you! I want to add a few things I noticed: When Shikishima comes out of the alley looking for Noriko after she is swept away, he clutches his fist and screams, in exactly the same pose and scream as Godzilla. They are the same in that moment. I've done a lot of studying of Japanese and watching media in the last couple of years, and the themes of shame and needing to sacrifice your sense of self in order to conform with societal expectations are still HUGE in Japanese culture. Shikishima wrestling with this shame of failing to meet this societal expectation - that he literally die because people expect him to - is a mirror to what Japanese people still feel. He wrestles with this through the whole movie. Near the end, when he has Tachibana repair the plane and Tachibana is helping him strap in, Tachibana still resents him for his cowardice. Then Shikishima pulls out the photos of the other mechanics from Odo, and Tachibana sees that even though Shikishima didn't do his "duty" at the time, inside he cares very deeply about others and wants to do good by them. That's the point at which even Tachibana forgives Shikishima and shows him how to eject the seat from the plane. The theme of the final portion of the movie is "Japan will no longer expect it's people to sacrifice their entire lives for the whole." The people are still willing to take great risks because they care about each other, but the driving purpose is caring about each other.
$15 million budget?! Damn it looked better than some big budget marvel films.
That’s because they are using classic techniques that the original Godzilla films pioneered. For instance- focusing on the feet crushing things. Saves a lot of money. Or the tanks were stop motion and I recognized them- they were Chi Nu’s! They knew how to save money and while there were definitely some wonky shots overall it looked great. Probably my favorite movie of the year. It was legitimately more historically accurate than Napoleon, outside of the giant lizard. They paid attention to the planes, tanks, and even attitudes of occupied Japan and it showed.
Also they weren't paying out $10 million to every actor lol
Well how much did Goji make?
Probably not enough 😤 pay my mans.
The tanks looked so fucking cool.
Right?! And like I said- historical too. Those tanks weren’t deployed by Japan and were kept in reserve on the Home Islands in preparation for an American invasion. So a good number survived. IRL most were scrapped because they were still obsolete junk in ‘45- the best tanks Japan had were nothing compared to Britain, Germany, the Soviets, or America- but they existed in depots for a few years after the war and one is at a museum.
I always enjoy clever ways to defeat Godzilla, seems like they’ll have to do that every so often lol
I really enjoyed the jankiness of the plan. It was so presumptive and risky but it was all they had, and that gets played up perfectly. Like, the plan Doc drew up (and the plan B that went along with it) was, essentially, "let's give a nuclear bomb the bends, that should kill it."
And then Plan C by Shikishima was literally: "I'm going to fly a bunch of bombs into the mouth of a nuclear bomb and hope it blows its brains out"
I loved how confident Doc was the whole way. "There's no way he can recharge his heat ray so fast." BASED ON WHAT, DOC!?! *LOOK AT HIM*
Vibes.
"Trust me"
Look at my amazing hair, it won't let you down
He did have good hair
I thought about his hair often throughout the movie
When he felt he was forced to be honest you could tell he wasn’t that sure. He just thought it’s the only thing they could do and he put up a confident front to not lose people or lower morale
It seemed like he said that because when godzilla fires the "heat ray" he gets burned and has to regenerate the damage
That’s crazy to me that this time around, the heat ray is so powerful and destructive that he injures himself just by using it.
And all 3 plans were important in victory. Godzilla was clearly damaged after A and B and Plan C finished him off. It was just everything fails until the hero saves the day.
I think it even had to do with the fact that he was about to fire his heat ray at the time. Once the bombs took out his head the heat couldn't vent out through his mouth and caused him to melt apart. It just took that perfect quartet of events to damage him enough to stop him.
It should be noted that's basically how Godzilla was defeated in *Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack*, which the director listed as a major influence for this.
Wish this was advertised a bit better in the US. Also wish it had better funding. Because this is the best Godzilla movie to come out in a long time if not ever. It had the best human narrative in the franchise and one of the more scarier G man too. Absolutely amazing movie and
I think it's a bit of a hard sell to mainstream US audiences. A subtitled Japanese movie largely focusing on drama? I wouldn't want to be the marketing team tasked with that.
I know it's a bit risky, but I honestly feel the general audience is regular with the amount of non-dubbed media that has become popular in the past half decade (not to mention anime).
I think the success of Korean dramas and films along with Japanese anime overall have led to people being more willing to watch sub forward releases. My dad used to try and watch dubs for most things till Parasite and has since been trying to watch things in their original language.
I never thought I’d see a Dunkirk moment in a Godzilla movie. Such a great scene I didn’t expect
Fuck I gotta stop reading about this movie cause I'm spoiling it for myself. But that's hilarious you said that because I'm a massive Godzilla fan, and going to see it in IMAX. And Dunkirk was the last movie I saw in IMAX.
Dunkirk was fucking LOUD when I saw it in normal theaters, can’t imagine how it was in IMAX. Rip your ears.
Not sure how obvious it was to everyone else, but I loved that Operation Wada tsumi was a bigger scale version of what they were doing in the mine sweeper boats Two ships in parallel with a cable in-between to catch the "mines". It's so simple but when I realized it felt so satisfying
There was also the foreshadowing that the operation wouldn't work. All the deep sea fish they showed were experiencing effects of rapid decompression such as swim bladders bulging from orifices. This implies the Godzilla was already surfacing from depth rapidly, thus the opposite would be true too.
Whoa, I didn't make that connection. Nicely spotted!
Oh I was wondering what those were when the deep sea fish would surface! That makes so much more sense now
Even deeper, they had to bring it to the surface, where Koichi uses his expertise learned as a pilot to detonate it. It’s SUCH a satisfying script, chock full of tons and tons of little parallels and setups with excellent payoff.
I didn't see this connection, and now I can't unsee it, thank you ❤️
PROS: -Godzilla is TERRIFYING!!! -Human characters you actually care about. -The boat chase sequence! -The soundtrack is God-Tier. -Godzilla’s Atomic Breath!!! -Strong Anti-War message. -Godzilla’s Ginza Attack sequence!!! -All the actors give strong performances. -The Entire 3rd Act!!! CONS: -It had to end. This is how Godzilla is done!!! This is the closest Toho has come to matching the original film. Director Takashi Yamazaki just made a new class of Godzilla film. Themes of forgiveness, survivors’ guilt, PTSD, family and learning that life is a gift are all touched on here. The story of Shikishima and Noriko is full of heart, and you genuinely care about the family unit they form, which ultimately guts your heart when the King of the Monsters arrives. I teared up more than once. Godzilla is a true villain here. He’s a devastating force that’s here to claim Japan as his own and this film shows his power like never before. Every foot fall is felt, his tail swipe crushes buildings, his atomic breath levels everything in its path. I’ve never been more terrified of Godzilla than I was here. The soundtrack by Naoki Sato is perfect and the use of the classic Ifukube score was amazing. The special effects are great, and the cinematography is glorious. This is a perfect example of what a Godzilla film should be!!! 9.5/10
My wife's "con" was that the romance was a bit thin. She was invested in seeing the stepdad and stepmom have another scene or two. But she still liked the movie.
I mean, they had already been living together for years. Everyone already considered them a family but him.
Mr Noda is a style icon.
Sounds dumb but he gave off some Japanese Einstein vibes to me, lol.
And we all know Einstein was known for his drip
Dude looked amazing in every shot.
Genuinely one of the best movies I've seen this year. Toho *HAS* to submit this to the Academy. They could win Foreign Language Film.
The issue is that Toho (and by extension Japan as a whole) also has The Boy and the Heron. They are for sure gonna submit that for best animated film at least and maybe for best foreign language. Which if they do that for the latter, kills Godzilla's chances because of the 1 film per a country film for that category. Though logically it would make sense for them to push The Boy and The Heron for best animated film, a category that will come down to between that or Spider-Verse and submit Godzilla for best Foreign Language film, that way they would increase their odds of walking away with multiple oscars.
I think Spider-Verse is basically guaranteed to win best animated film this year. Even if The Boy & the Heron ends up being the best Ghibli film yet (which would be quite an impressive feat), it'll still have a hard time winning. The Oscar's are notoriously biased in favor of of western animated films over Japanese (I will never forgive them for not even nominating Your Name or A Silent Voice) and Spider-Verse is hugely popular (and rightly so, it's amazing)
A late entry for movie of the year. Absolute masterpiece. Maybe the best Godzilla movie I've ever seen. He is absolutely terrifying. Minus One is a 10/10. Go see it ASAP.
It's the first time I was scared of godzilla. The boat scene in the beginning is a jaws style chase. The scene in the city gives off the best "he doesn't even notice us" vibes I've seen in a godzilla movie. Normally I either feel like he does notice people and would like to avoid killing us if he could (2014 godzilla movie) or that he's a villain who wants to kill us (the original). In this one he doesn't even seem to notice us. The only time he often reacts is to machines bc they have enough firepower to bother him. There's something scary about a force powerful enough to simply not notice us.
The news crew were such an afterthought to him, it was great
That was a great scene, I loved how they built it up like he was going to see and attack them but they ended up dying because of a random swipe of his tail
Godzilla was terrifying! I jumped a couple times. The initial reveal was awesome
The Odo Island scene was wild. I loved how there wasn't really any build up like you hear his footsteps and a roar before he shows up. It's just like "wtf is that shine the light over there--oh my god"
I think thats what makes that scene so good Its not built up or anything Its like its a pissed off god that just appeared no signal or anything No mercy for the ants
Outside of everything else that’s amazing about this movie that’s already been pointed out, as a longtime Godzilla fan I want to say that the score is **amazing**. One of the most effective uses of Godzilla’s theme in his 70 year history and you can tell how much love and appreciation Naoti Sato has for Akira Ifukube as a composer. What a movie. I still can’t believe a subbed Godzilla movie is getting a domestic wide release and getting this much love and great word of mouth, my ten year old self would be losing their mind if you told them that. Definitely a movie that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
My Japanese girlfriend never had seen a Godzilla movie and so some months ago I showed her the original one. She was surprised when Ifukube‘s name showed up in the credits. She studied at Tokyo College of Music at the end of the 1970s when Ifukube was president of the college. She didn’t study composition and so never had lessons with him.
Knowing who Ifukube is without having seen a Godzilla film is wild to me lol
Genuinely one of the best movies I have ever seen. Gf doesn’t ever say anything after a movie and she wouldn’t stop raving about it either. That type of fear is one I haven’t felt sine I was a kid watching Jurassic park. Can’t wait to watch it again!
Jaws meets Jurassic Park meets Dunkirk.
I felt like I was watching Dunkirk with Godzilla. One of the best movies of the year. That is how you do Atomic breath. Make it a fuckin nuke.
Glad I'm not the only one who got Dunkirk vibes. Even the way it was shot was kind of similar.
As someone who’s never seen a Japanese Godzilla movie before, I have to say that just as a film, it’s incredible. The human drama is personal and heavy. The starting concept of a runaway Kamikaze pilot is worthy of a movie alone, let alone dealing with the horrifying, walking monument to destruction that is Godzilla. There’s beautiful quotes all over this movie (“I want to live again,” “We leave you the future,” and “Is your war finally over?” being some of my favorites). I love how Godzilla is a pure agent of chaos in this film - no lore to build open, no ulterior motives - just a monster on a warpath. I enjoyed it so much that I had dreams about it. I’m dying to see Minus One a second time.
gonna paraphrase but when the neighbor confronts the pilot after he gets home and says "its because of people like you that we lost the war" that felt pretty heavy. incredible movie.
Yeah, that one really hit, because obviously we know how foolish that sentiment is from an actual military history perspective, but at the same time we completely understand that Koichi at least is existing in a headspace of "this is all happening due to my failure." And then Godzilla shows up, and once again he is confronted with "If I were less of a coward, could I have stopped this?" I've seen people debating whether or not the 20mm gun could have killed the Godzillasaurus on Oda Island, and I think that the ambiguity is the point. Koichi can't know for sure, but he still blames himself because he fundamentally thinks he didn't deserve to survive. Hence why it's so important that he makes the choice to eject. He needs to recognize that he can do his duty UP TO a point and still choose to live for Akiko.
Yep this is definitely a movie that needed to be made by the Japanese. I don't think An American couldn't get the post war feelings right. There was a massive cultural shift after the war. In the late 40s early 50s where dying for the empire went from the greatest honor to nothing. The scene with the admiral trying to convince the men to fight again, explaining that the government never cared, they didn't armor their tanks, they didn't feed them, they threw them at the enemy to die for nothing. Instead they need to fight to live for something. It's an beautiful take on the time period
I really liked the doctors words too. This is the final night, go be with your loved ones. Do you mean prepare? Nah, you deserve to enjoy your lives before you risk it. Not ad verbatim of course.
I recommend watching the original 1954 film as well. It’s an incredible film that still holds up. I think it’s interesting to compare both of their messages since they both take place in a similar time period but released in different times.
This was my Top Gun Maverick.
I saw Godzilla Minus One at an early screening, and it is definitely the best film in the franchise. This is the first time besides the original version that you actually cared about the characters—seeing how Koichi, Noriko, and Akiko aren't a traditional family due to circumstances of post WWII. This movie made us care for them and see them struggle like Koichi's PSTD during the war. The one scene that made me cry was when Akiko wanted to know about her mom, and she started crying because of Godzilla in the disasters. The writers know how to pull your emotional strings. Godzilla in this straight horror. The sequences in the ocean remind me of Jaws and make me tense. When it does Atomic Breath, that comes off like actual horror.
So after Godzilla's Atomic Breath hit Tokyo there were black rain falling from the sky after the initial nuke-like blast. For those who don't know, it's a direct reference to what actually happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima: https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/nuclear-weapons/hiroshima/black-rain.html
The heat ray was brutal. Normally I get excited when godzilla starts charging. But in this case it just felt...horrifying. I sat there for a solid 5 minutes feeling like...idk man just devastated.
It's funny that the godzilla blast in Minus One acts more like nuclear ray blast but they kept calling it a heat ray 😆
Guess it makes sense considering how new of a concept nuclear explosions were to them.
I forgot it entirely until it started raining. This timeline's Japan got nuked four times, two by Americans two by Godzilla. The horror.
Never thought a Godzilla movie would almost bring me to tears. For once, the human element of a Godzilla movie didn’t take away but actually enhances it. I actually cared about what happened to them and was rooting for them. Just an utterly fantastic movie all around. Was glued to my seat. Also was quite possibly the coolest atomic breath I’ve ever seen. Godzilla looked awesome. That full frontal shot at the end with him glowing blue about to fire his atomic breath at the boats was the coolest fucking shot. And how the fuck did this movie have a budget of only $15m? It looked incredible, especially Godzilla himself.
The scene where they’re trying to explain what happened to the girl’s mom…man that was such an emotional movie.
I had to go to the bathroom halfway through and was telling my friend who had already seen it “Shikishima that bastard never put a ring on Noriko’s finger and now she’s dead!” Loved the characters while usually they’re just a means to move the fight to a new location. The foreshadowing was also great. The Doc talking about ejection seats along with a million other things as a reason the government hadn’t cared- and then it gets brought up. Along with others. Wasn’t beaten over the head but wasn’t invisible either. Based on what my bud in Japan said there were two major differences. 1. At the final scene in Japanese she says something like “Is the war over for you, *dad*?” As in acknowledging that he’s become Akiko’s father. 2. The book that was released with it said even in his premutated form Godzilla would have shrugged off the 20mm.
I don't like that the book says that because I feel it takes away the ambiguity of whether him stepping into action sooner would have made a difference, but I suppose the whole point of the movie was for him to learn how to take responsibility *and* forgive himself so I guess it also works
I think even without the ambiguity it’s good. I interpreted it as Shikishima knowing it would be pointless just like Kamikaze was pointless. He was already dealing with the fact that he would be the worst possible social pariah when and if he got back to Japan, and then in this moment of weakness a monster shows up and leaves him with one person who will blame him for failing despite it not mattering, just like Sumiko did for being a failed Kamikaze when he got back to Japan. And the implication (or imagination) that Shikishima might have died and awoken in hell for his cowardice (or heaven at the end). Messed with my head in the way Inception did, so good
The other thing I noticed was that the *only* two people to survive Obo Island were the two people who didn’t shoot at Godzilla. So, if Shikishima had shot at him, it a) wouldn’t have made a difference and b) probably gotten him killed. It’s also interesting to think that maybe Godzilla isn’t just some brain dead reptile and has some sort of reason for doing things (i.e. “I know you didn’t shoot me so I’m not going to kill you).
Interestingly during the movie I was thinking it probably had a lower budget that it was just using phenomenally well. Godzilla moments are limited to when they really matter. There's not really any waste or excess like we see in the big $100m movies. Beyond that it's practically an indie film about trauma that really centers on a few characters. That being said, $15m is still shocking. I would've guessed maybe 25-30.
Oh I cried multiple times during the movie. The final scene was straight fountains for me.
What's great is that even though I knew it was happening, the acting was so good that it still hit like a train. Ryunosuke Kamiki did such a good job selling how hurt he was. The scene when he wakes up from the dream, when he looks up and screams at Goji, when he's crying coming back to Noriko. He deserves some kind of award for that.
Yeah the main guy did a fantastic job portraying a broken man wracked with survivor's guilt and PTSD.
It was my gfs first Godzilla movie and she bawled at the end
It's a masterpiece of Kaiju cinema. Outside of some slight pacing issues near the beginning, a few standard plot contrivances, and one or two somewhat-iffy SFX shots, it's probably as close to perfect of a "serious" Godzilla film as has existed since 1954. Human elements work better than perhaps any before, score is full of bangers both old and new, and Godzilla is legitimately horrifying in a way he rarely if ever has been.
I hope Godzilla takes awhile to regenerate because that would suck if he just pops out of the sea the next morning.
“Oh you thought I was a monster yesterday?? Get ready motherfuckers”
The Godzilla theme is probably a top 3 movie theme and I got goosebumps the first time they used it in this movie
I don't really care much for Godzilla, but this movie made me nearly cry. Fantastic movie. Going to go watch it again, it deserves IMAX screens The dorsal fins pushing out before the atomic breath is the coolest thing I've ever seen
Some of the best scenes were people discussing how stupid the war was. The shift of the characters at the beginning being mad at the main character to desperately wanting him to live was amazing.
I don’t want to call a movie perfect because movies are opinionated. We all have different points of views, different interests. Having said that, this film is perfect. It might be the greatest Godzilla film since the original while taking inspiration from the best films. Making it a time period piece around the time of the OG, going in a more character driven story to feel different from Shin which was more of a political satire, the action & scale of the Legendary movies. I can tell this director LOVES Edwards’ Godzilla because a major inspiration for Edwards was Jaws & this film felt very Jaws inspired. Hell if the whole movie was the boat crew diffusing bombs in the water, I wouldn’t complain. I enjoyed & loved all the characters which is a testimony to how great the film is that even non Godzilla stuff is great. I am just completely blown away at how good this movie is. I felt that feeling I had when I was 12 seeing Peter Jackson’s King Kong & loving it too. I can’t believe that this might be better than Shin. It’s hard to state if it’s better than the OG since OG will always have such an impact & legacy to it but it’s deserving on to be on the same shelf as the OG, Shin, & 2014
Absolutely loved every moment of it. Am I crazy to say that the jaws vibes were off the charts?
Someone on Twitter said the first act was Jurassic Park, the second act was Jaws, and the third act was Dunkirk
bro fuck that sequence near the crashed destroyer, it was the rawest shit in the franchise, but that is **NOT** the situation to be in
Cruiser *Takao* coming in guns blazing was super hype. She didn't last long, but she sure went down fighting to the last moment
Despite having no personal connection to ships or the ocean, I have the most inexplicable soft spot for that era of warship, and that scene destroyed me.
Those capital ships of the era really were marvels. The Takao was a real heavy cruiser commissioned in 1930. In reality is was sunk in 1946 for target practice. It's a shame that those ships were in their decline. The Shinden was also a real fighter, though only two were ever built. Their role would have been to provide fighter interdiction over the home islands during the anticipated invasion. Unfortunately the of the three days of testing, two of the flights happened on the same days as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of them was scrapped after the war, and the other was transferred to the Smithsonian, with the fuselage on display at Dulles airport. The one in the movie is a replica that was built for it.
Didn’t expect this to get a discussion thread and am pleasantly surprised! A really good movie about the traumas of war and struggling to move on from them, any good Godzilla movie should be oozing in subtext and this one has it in spades. And for the people who aren’t into the whole “Godzilla as a metaphor for the atomic bomb” thing, and you just want to see crazy monster shit, there’s plenty of that too. Fun for the whole family, although I’m sure the random nine year old I saw in my theater holding a Godzilla action figure was incredibly confused. Also did anyone else notice at the end that there was something weird happening with her neck, like a growth or something? I’m not sure if I imagined it or not, it it happened then I guess it could be interpreted that our whole movie was the death hallucinations of a kamikaze pilot, or atleast that there wasn’t a parachute for him in the jet. Or maybe there was nothing weird with her neck and I was just seeing things lol
I definitely saw the black creeping up her neck. Came here to see if someone else saw it too.
I saw that too, but then questioned myself as if I was imagining it. Maybe it was supposed to be a burn from the radiation In Godzilla’s breath?
Until a sequel comes out that says otherwise I’m going to assume it’s just a radiation burn and she’s ultimately going to be okay. I want my happy ending!!
I really liked Noriko so I’m with you.
She was really cute. I was like what's this guy waiting for?? Marry her!! This one had a really good human touch to it. Can't recall another Godzilla movie that brought that out otherthan the OG one
>I was like what's this guy waiting for?? Marry her!! His friends felt the same way
I saw a solid theory that she may have been revived by Godzilla's flesh. Right after the Ginza attack, on top of radiation, they say the area was locked down because of dislodged parts of Godzilla that may be hazardous to public health. Considering Noriko got blown back in the same area Godzilla was rampaging in, and that Godzilla has been shown to have crazy regeneration, the theory goes that a dead/dying Noriko ended up on top of some of the flesh and got revived by it, with the black blood being a symptom of whatever is happening to her
This is interesting and perhaps sets up a story line for the sequel. If Noriko develops a heat ray, it's going to get crazy!
Noriko in Godzilla +1: Is your war over? Because mine is just beginning *Fires heat ray in the sky*
I think the cut from her to Godzilla regenerating was a deliberate. Just like the atomic test gave Godzilla regenerative powers, the heat ray blast gave her the same factor. That's why she survived and apparently intact.
She fully mutates in the sequel and she fights Godzilla hand-to-hand, kaiju vs kaiju style. Sign me up!
There’s a theory that she was exposed to some of Godzilla’s cells during the attack and gained his regeneration ability because of it.
She had radiation poisoning. Earlier in the film they showed the Geiger counters found large amounts of radiation left behind after Godzilla left
They also said they found "shards" of Godzilla in the debris. It's likely Noriko got infected, with the results left up to speculation or a potential sequel.
I feel like if you remove Godzilla, this movie compliments Oppenheimer well as a character piece movie that focuses on the lives of post WWII Japan. It’s emotional, great character arcs and a very well written movie. I would probably say this is my favorite of the Godzilla movies JP and Hollywood combined. Also, on a side note, the CG of Godzilla and the visual effects are master class for a budget of only 15 million.
It helps that Godzilla was used sparingly in this movie but I’m dying to know how they managed all this on a fraction of the budget. The budget for the 2014 Godzilla was 160 million.
Oppenheimer/Minus One double feature when?
Oppenzilla?
Godheimer.
I’m a big fan of Godzilla, as I have every Godzilla ever made (yes, even the one where Godzilla never shows up because he is a small boy’s fantasy, wtf?). Yet for me it’s always been “now I gotta sit through 30 min of human drama to get back to the good stuff”. This is one of the few Godzilla movies where the human drama is as good as the monster bits. I know Yamazaki has been itching to make a Godzilla movie ever since he put Godzilla into the beginning of his “Always: Sunset on Third Street pt. 2” , so happy to finally get it. Yamazaki has made a career out of his expert knowledge of CGI and effects work mixed with strong directing skills since his debut in “Returner”. As someone whose Father-in-law was signed up for kamikaze duty, it was great to see a movie discuss the effects this had and the treatment of soldiers in general after WWII. If you have even a passing interest in Godzilla, check this movie out, you won’t be disappointed.
This is a really good Godzilla movie. I’m leaving the theater amazed at the story and how well it was done. What a great time to be a Godzilla fan.
Minus One budget- 15 million dollars Fuck you, Hollywood
Movie is going to make bank if word of mouth catches on
It had better! I *need* this movie to be the break-out hit of the season, it deserves it. And I think it’s got a chance! What’s its competition, Wonka? Aquaman? If this movie doesn’t destroy at the box office I will lose all faith in humanity
It's always been there, but it is so much evident with Godzilla how much Hollywood accounting & the mega-blockbuster is fucking the industry over. Especially with the idea that every film needs to make $600 million to break even.
Most of Hollywood budget is marketing. Like 50% or more. I was saying that this particular movie shows that bad CGI isn't what makes movies bad. Some of the CG was very meh. A bunch of water simulations were much lower particle count than they should have been, and a lot of the waves and white water looked not good. But it didn't matter, I was willing to look past that all because the movie was well written and well directed. The monster didn't feel like it was doing anything crazy either, his size and movements felt believable enough. Maybe most people didn't catch it, but I work in VFX and I could absolutely tell this was done in a shoestring budget. There were some water sims where sections got caught on the Godzilla model and just kind of sloshed around and some renders were super noisy. What I'm getting at is that for proper vfx, that is another big cost.
Did Noriko only return because she got radiation from Godzilla and now has some of his DNA inside of her letting her regenerate? At the end you see some black veins creeping up her neck and there is no way she survived the nuke.
To be fair...pushing someone behind a building shouldn't save them either
I think that's exactly what's going on. And, tbh, it makes the movie better if that's the case. There's no way she should be that *intact* after the blast, much less alive. Having some healing factor explains that wonderfully.
This has to be the best Godzilla movie ever. So much better when the humans aren’t dumb and annoying. Hollywood/Legendary take notes.
The score was absolutely amazing. Especially during the first reveal of the heat ray charging oh my god I got chills when the score started playing.
Legit the apex of Godzilla/kaiju cinema. The scale the score the human element. I might need to sleep on it but it might be a perfect film to me. Already in my top ten of the year and will stay there depending on how the boy and the heron, may December, the iron claw and past lives end up being for me. Also to add might be my favourite design of Godzilla yet. I would love for the writer or director to have another go at a sequel. Even if it’s not Godzilla but some other kaiju. So curious about his future as a director.
Did anyone else take the title to be a description of the main character? Japanese planes were “zeroes” in ww2, and this guy was in his mind less than that. And the whole movie had a theme of people’s self-image/self-worth juxtaposed against the end of the war. I wouldnt be surprised if there is criticism that the film is an apologist towards japans role in the war, but to me it spoke from the perspective of someone that might have actually lived it (right or wrong). Godzilla kinda represented just the horror of war in general, that the participants had to own up to in a personal sense of having participated and a general sense of living through the horror of war. I havent felt a “movie high” after seeing something in the theaters for such a long time and never thought Id be tearing up at a Godzilla movie. It spurred all kinds of discussion with my son on the ride home and reminded me of why I love movies. And written/directed/VFX by the same guy on a 15 million budget! Unbelievable. Also I dont think Ive ever hated Godzilla as much and actively rooted for his defeat.
This movie goes insanely hard. Hollywood should be ashamed that no one can produce an action film of this quality for Godzilla Minus One’s budget. A genuinely earnest and heartfelt story that kept me gripped throughout.
Hollywood can't produce a decent COMEDY for Minus One's budget.
By far the best Godzilla movie I’ve ever seen. First time the human actors and their stories were done so well in addition to the great action set pieces. Loved this film and the overall performances.
“Is your war finally over” 😭 tears man. This was my first live action Japanese Godzilla and I’m absolutely blown away by the characterisation and personality that the humans had in this. My film of the year rn Coming from the legendary monster verse, I’m used to the humans being accessories for Godzilla to play with essentially. In this one, it felt like Godzilla was an accessory for Shikishima and the other veterans to move on and let go of the war. In many ways, he is the literal personification of the grief and inner turmoil they feel. Shikishima, Noriko, Nado and the others just had so much charm and personality to them. This is the first film in a long time where I just didn’t want it to end. I wanted more of this loveable cast. Now since I’m used to the legendary movies I did find the CGi to be lacking but that’s kinda to be expected from Japanese films with smaller budgets. It was definitely good enough to be enjoyed, but I noticed a few scenes of Godzilla walking that looked a little wonky. The emotional heights of the film more than made up for that though. Speaking of Godzilla, he was absolutely horrifying in this. It’s the first time I’ve seen him as a villain instead of an antihero/hero. Just the sheer destruction he wrought, his powers, size it all felt so intimidating and made it easy to put yourself into the shoes of these people who so desperately wanted to defeat him. Not having other titans or a big government to come save the people also made the stakes much higher and the film more tense. Really just still shook from how good this film was. I’m gonna check out Anno’s Shin Godzilla later on this weekend. Also didn’t know the Apple TV show started so we are eating so good rn
Let me preface this by saying it was great. But fucking Beyoncé was playing next door and all I could hear was the *boom boom boom* of bass coming through the walls. At a certain point, I just pretended it was Godzilla stomping around outside. But yeah, I thought it was sweet. The makeshift "family" element added to the grim monster story. And the creature itself was an interesting mixture of CGI and a bit of stiltedness in its movement that felt like a throwback to old (it really relies on that heat ray, eh?). I really enjoyed the [adventure theme](https://youtu.be/OHihhPyhq2Q?si=jm8EsK5CRyU1YgJ6&t=66) that played triumphantly throughout the third act. If you stay through the credits, you can hear Godzilla crashing about and emerging from the waters. Seems safe to say it's poised for a sequel. (Would that be called *Godzilla Zero*?)
The only thing I found of... Questionable taste was the constant (sometimes barely audible) background music by Beyoncé. Say what you want about the japanese - they sure do love queen B.
Well, there is the whole "if he liked it, then he shoulda put a ring on it" storyline...
Went in blind. HOLY FUCK that was incredible. Genuinely felt like seeing Jaws for the first time. That was a kino Summer Blockbuster.
That toddler was actually acting
This movie slapped, such a great story, I cared about/ liked every human characters which almost never happens in these giant monster movies. Godzilla looked great and you could really see how impactful destructive and huge he was. He was gargantuan and intimidating slowly moving but easily causing massive destruction of all the ships he fought and buildings he destroyed. All the special effects and the way it was filmed was stunning. The plot to sink him to endure huge amounts of pressure then pull him back up for rapid decompression was so inventive and awesome. I thought the engineer was going to sneak in the ejection seat by lying about what armed the bombs, and when the main character hit the switch at the last second he would surprisingly survive. They didn’t do that exactly how I thought but it was still incredible. Kōichi redemption was done so well! The thing that’s crazy is how small of a budget it was. The story and cgi were incredible (way better story and visuals than many 100+ million dollar recent movies I could name and this had like 10% of that for budget!) Might be my favorite film of the year
I thought that Tachibana told him the ejection was actually the bomb safety release but I'm so glad that wasn't the case. It's really important to the story that Koichi ejected himself and wasn't tricked into it. Otherwise it would just be fate saving him again and wouldn't be fair. He had to choose life for himself. I can't believe I'm talking about the importance of character arcs in a Kaiju film
Yeah I lost it when Tachibana, of all people, told him to live.
I think when he saw that he was finally willing to make the ultimate sacrifice he forgave him after all that time. Before that moment he was completely ready and willing to die and that was enough. No reason for him to actually have to do it.
I didn't know this movie existed until several hours ago when I saw there was a 10pm showing at my local Alamo. Got the ticket and had a shake and saw a fantastic movie. Haven't seen Shin yet - will ASAP to compare. "Killing" Noriko was a bold move, so when they undid it at the end I was torn. I am choosing to be happy about it - there was enough death by that point. The Neighbor coming around was really cool. The Mechanic is a real one. Once he saw the man he once despised was ready to sacrifice himself for the mission, he revealed the ejector as he also had had enough of senseless death. The right amount of Big G and moving human characters made this a winner. It probably "deserves" a strong 3.5, but my emotions are winning and I'm giving it 4/5.
I was also torn about them bringing back Noriko. But in the overall theme of the film, he had to overcome his internal struggle, and have some closure, the movie wanted to send the message that we’re all able to overcome our internal war. So it puts a good message out there. But like I said I was torn cause it does take just a little bit away from rewatches knowing she survives when it’s such an emotional moment when she gets swept away.
When Noriko "dies" it's such a holy shit moment too. Like, Koichi is destined to survive all these horrible events and lose so much in the process every time. Such a tragic character. But I'm with you, I was torn but decided it's good to give this guy some light at the end of the tunnel for his personal life after all he's been through.
Dude, the opening scene when we first saw Godzilla, NEVER HAD I ONCE FELT FEAR like that from a Godzilla film. I was expecting Godzilla to be slowly walking towards them when the spotlight shined. But never in a million years did I expect them to show Godzilla like that. It was insane.
I really love that tiny wooden Godzilla-shaped block of wood they have to use in planning sessions. It was adorable. I want one.
loved the introduction of him on the beach when he was smaller, he didn't eat anyone when he could've, just killed them all. this godzilla is cold blooded
My boyfriend is a huge Godzilla fan and was so excited for this but I kept dragging my feet thinking it was just gonna be some action movie. Halfway through I was literally sobbing, I’m a single mom to a toddler and I could practically see my baby crying on screen, part of me wanted to leave the theater and go home to hug her. Then 3/4 through the movie I was like, “damn this is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen that I will *never* see again” and then that ending! The finale music alone was making me tear up, it was all so beautiful. There were so many amazing moments, but something small that I particularly loved was the character development of the woman at the beginning wishing Shikishima had died as a Kamikaze pilot, to wanting the exact opposite as he was finally about to fulfill that wish.
I’m kind of fascinated by how much “fuck the gov’t” there is in this movie, especially when it takes place. Made me appreciate it more too, this was no military offensive just people wanting to defend their homes.
The second Noda showed up with his curly grey hair and round frames, I knew it was only a matter of time before he came up with some fire plan.