Godzilla Minus One (Yamazaki, 2023)
There was considerable excitement among social media film fans when it was discovered that Netflix had posted the brilliant Japanese monster movie Godzilla Minus One to the service this weekend. There was no announcement, no buildup. It just appeared, as if it was no big deal.
Well, it is quite a big deal as you won’t find a more satisfying blockbuster anywhere.
The arrival was a surprise because Toho – the company that owns Godzilla – has a deal that keeps their productions out of the way of the versions that are licensed to Warner Bros. for their “Monarch” stories. They include the recent big screen outing, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire and the AppleTV+ series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
Nobody appears to know the exact terms of that exclusivity arrangement but there was a lot of distress that Godzilla Minus One was not allowed a return run in cinemas after deservedly winning the Oscar for best visual effects earlier this year.
Anyway, now anyone with a Netflix sub can see what all the fuss was about.
I gushed about the film when it got a brief cinema release back in December last year:
As WWII draws to a close, kamikaze pilot Koichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is saved from going on a suicide bombing run by the arrival on the small pacific island on which he is stationed of a giant hacked-off lizard. Back in Japan, he is wracked with survivor guilt but manages to rebuild his life with a young woman and a baby girl, both of whom had lost everything in the bombing of Tokyo.
The 1946 U.S. nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll wake the monster up once again and Godzilla destroys much of the previously untouched Ginza district. To protect the people of Japan from a future attack, all aspects of society must join forces to find a technological – and engineering – solution to the Godzilla problem. Maybe this will also provide an opportunity for Koichi to discover some kind of redemption, a redemption that he probably does not even need.
While there is the usual amount of inventive destruction on offer, Godzilla Minus One is also a proper film about guilt, loss, heartbreak and how to navigate those things inside a Japanese society which finds it hard to talk about them.
The recreation of 1940s Tokyo is simply spectacular – you know you are watching a massive amount of CGI (because you simply must be) but it’s impossible to see the seams.
By the way, also included in that ‘new releases’ newsletter from 1 December are Ken Loach’s final masterpiece The Old Oak, Trolls Band Together and Apple’s family Christmas short The Velveteen Rabbit.
Where to watch Godzilla Minus One
Worldwide: Streaming on Netflix (4K, Atmos, the works)
Further listening
I chatted with Todd Zaner on RNZ Nights last Friday as Emile was off sick. Todd and I talked about Freud’s Last Session, Tokyo Vice and Great Photo, Lovely Life.
