Godzilla Minus One

So we went to see Godzilla Minus One. Now this was my first Godzilla movie ever, I was going in with absolutely no context or history. I went into this movie the same way I’m sure a lot of Americans did, ready for a monster movie. The trailer also kind of hyped up that angle. So I went in ready to watch Godzilla tear some shit up. What I was not ready for was a heartfelt story about a man finding the will to live, commentary on survivor's guilt and the devastations of war and the power of forgiveness.

First things first, the way that Godzilla was showcased was great. Perfectly balanced. See the thing that I have noticed with American monster movies, the Meg for example, is that they don’t actually spend a lot of time showing the monster. Mostly because it's expensive but no one goes to a monster movie to watch the bad acting or poor storytelling that normally accompanies them. We got to see a lot of Godzilla and his destruction.

Second of all, the actual story is phenomenal. Set just after World War 2 our main character, Shikishima, experiences a devastating attack by Godzilla. He is overwhelmed by feelings of guilt and he holds himself responsible for the deaths of the people around him. After he returns home he is reminded of his failures. He meets a woman and a child that change his life. Though he has this new life and responsibilities he is suffering from PTSD from the Godzilla attack (which is clearly a metaphor for the war itself). He struggles with some pretty severe survivor's guilt calling himself someone who wasn’t supposed to live. This is intensified after he sees Godzilla a second time. After he witnesses a 3rd Godzilla attack that takes Noriko away from him, he chooses to fulfill his original purpose as a kamikaze pilot.

This movie doesn’t shy away from showing the devastations of war. When Shikishima first returns home we see that everything is destroyed. All the homes are burned, Sumiko is clearing the wreckage from her home and tells him that everyone is dead. Including his parents and her kids. She blames him for being a failed Kamikaze pilot. Then again when Godzilla attacks the city that has just been rebuilt from the war, this is clearly a metaphor for what the war did to them. The absolute destruction that these people experienced is very clearly shown to the audience.

And then of course we have the added layer of the final act. Shikishima has decided that he is going to die in order to avenge the deaths of Noriko and the men that died in Oda. The mechanic, Tachibana, is also the last survivor of the Oda attack and he installs an ejector seat in Shikishima’s plane. So we have a man that also blames Shikishima for the deaths of his friends, and gives him a way out. Tachibana forgives him, and it is so unbelievably beautiful. And then we find out that Noriko is alive. And this little family gets reunited in a moment of hope and resolve.

One thing that I noticed that was really phenomenal is that the movie didn’t reveal information to the audience until we really needed to know. The package that Tachibana hands to Shikishima wasn’t revealed until about 30 minutes later as the pictures that belonged to the men that they lost on Oda. We see Sumiko get a telegram but we don’t ever get told what it says, we just see Shikishima reunite with Noriko.

This movie was honestly and sincerely a 10/10. Seriously a perfect movie. It was heartfelt and beautiful and if it's not nominated for the foreign film Oscar I will riot. I am also super angry already that it won’t get the attention it deserves because it's a foreign film. It also deserves nominations (and wins quite frankly) for Best Film AND Best Actor. There is not a single performance from anyone this year that even gets close to matching the intensity and range that I saw from Kamiki Ryunosuke in Godzilla Minus One. There is not a single film that was released this year that is anywhere as near as good as this film was. Godzilla Minus One officially goes on the perfect movies list.