Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Just in time for Godzilla's 70th Anniversary!

I’m a refugee from the time of Saturday afternoon “Creature Feature” and martial arts movies on local broadcast TV. I’ve seen many of the 38 Godzilla films. I remember them as silly fun (except for the original, which was serious). The 2014 “Monsterverse” version wasn’t bad but made a fatal mistake and gave away its best scene in the trailer.

So, I finally got around to watching Godzilla Minus One, and I have to say it blew me away. Not just a “good Godzilla movie,” or a “good monster movie,” it’s just a plain dang good movie, period. It’s a remarkable example of filmmakers making smart choices, a well-crafted story, good actors, and crew who respect their source material but have something interesting to say about it. You can tell there’s more than a little “take that” involved, aimed at the continually lackluster American adaptations of one of Japan’s great exports, a tradition going back to 1956. The most telling element here is that the film only cost $10-15M to make and yet made over $110M at the box office in its original showing, also winning an Academy Award for Best Special Effects. They shot to the budget they had, not to the budget they wished they had.

Does it deserve all the hype and accolades it’s received? Emphatically, yes.

This review is for the full color release of the film as it was originally shown in 2023, not the now-in-theaters Godzilla Minus One / Minus Color black and white version, which is an even more direct homage to the original 1954 Japanese film.

The Story

The story opens during late World War II, with a single Japanese Mitsubishi “Zero” fighter requesting to land at an austere, barebones Imperial Japanese Navy airfield on the small (fictional) Odo Island. The pilot, Ensign Kōichi Shikishima is a kamikaze, but reports that “mechanical problems” made it impossible for him to complete his mission and that he needs repairs to return to his home base. The lead mechanic in charge of the small detachment garrisoning the island suspects Shikishima isn’t telling the truth but declines to expose this. That evening, the island comes under attack by a large and legendary dinosaur-like creature the island’s natives call “Godzilla” (Gojira). While the mechanic Tachibana rallies the garrison and gets them under cover in silence, he instructs Shikishima to use the 20mm cannon on his fighter to shoot the creature, hoping they will kill, incapacitate, or at least drive off the monster. Shikishima makes it to his plane without being noticed but cannot overcome his fear to shoot, and unfortunately one of Tachibana’s men finally panics and opens fire on Godzilla, which does little more than make it mad. Godzilla destroys the base, killing the entire garrison except for Tachibana and the now-unconscious Shikishima.

The following morning, Tachibana relates what happened after Shikishima lost consciousness and blames him for the deaths of the garrison. The film flashes forward to a repatriation transport, where the despondent Tachibana leaves the shamed Shikishima with the photographs and letters of the deceased servicemen.

Shikishima returns to a burned-out Tokyo, only to learn that his parents also perished in the American attacks from his neighbor Sumiko Ōta, who lost her children in the bombing. Struggling to make a survivable living and ravaged by trauma and survivor’s guilt, Shikishima encounters a young woman named Noriko, who has also lost her own parents. She is protecting an orphaned baby girl, Akiko. He takes the two of them in and over time, begins to build a new life for this ersatz family. Desperate for work, Shikishima takes on a job onboard a civilian-operated minesweeper, tasked with clearing out Tokyo Bay and Japan’s waterways of mines left over from the war.

Meanwhile, the American atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll cause Godzilla to mutate and go on a rampage, attacking and sinking American ships and submarines as the now gigantic creature makes a beeline for the Japanese home islands.

Given the ratcheting up Cold War tensions between the US and the Soviet Union, America offers no direct assistance save the return and authorized use of decommissioned military equipment, including former Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) destroyers. The post-war Japanese government declines to act or inform the public, fearing that nationwide panic would be far worse or that decisive action will escalate the US-Soviet confrontation.

In May 1947, Shikishima’s minesweeper, the Shinsei Maru, is made part of a secret plan to attempt to delay Godzilla’s approach using recovered mines near the Ogasawara Islands (Bonin Islands). While they manage to detonate one in Godzilla’s mouth, the creature quickly regenerates. When the destroyer Takao engages the creature, Godzilla destroys it with its atomic breath. Barely escaping Godzilla with their lives, the crew of the Shinsei Maru return to Tokyo.

Shikishima finally discloses to Noriko what happened on Odo Island after a panic attack causes her to break down and question him directly. Godzilla arrives just a few days after the incident at sea, making landfall and attacking the city’s Ginza district, where Noriko works. Noriko pushes Shikishima to safety in an alleyway when Godzilla, angered by tank fire, unleashes his atomic breath on the city killing over 30,000 people, apparently Noriko as well.

Shikishima vows revenge, and one of the Shinsei Maru’s crew, a former naval engineer, develops a plan to defeat Godzilla, whether the government approves it or not. Rallying the city’s industrial leaders, veterans and civilians, the plan is to lure Godzilla back out to see and surround him with freon tanks deployed from a flotilla of former navy warships, rupture the tanks, and use the massive pressure change to sink the monster, where deep sea pressure will hopefully crush it to death. If that doesn’t work, balloons attached to the tanks will be inflated, such that the explosive decompression of a rapid rise to the surface would finish him off. Shikishima volunteers to fly a plane to attract the monster’s attention. He also secretly plans to use the plane, loaded with explosives, to ram the creature in the mouth and kill it that way. To do so, he contacts Tachibana to repair a Japanese prototype advanced fighter (the real-world J7W Shinden which flew several test flights before war’s end) for the task. Leaving Akiko in Sumiko’s care, Shikishima and Tachibana make ready.

The citizens of Tokyo put their plan into action, with Shikishima in the Shinden, attacking the creature and making it mad enough to follow him out into Sagami Bay where the small flotilla, aided by a fleet of tugboats a ’la Dunkirk, put the next phases of the plan in motion. Godzilla survives the initial phase of the plan, and despite severe injuries is forced back to the surface, where he prepares to annihilate the fleet with his heat ray. Shikishima rams the creature, detonating the plane in its mouth, destroying its head and the heat ray’s energy causes Godzilla’s body to break apart. A floating parachute reveals that Shikishima survived, thanks to Tachibana’s newest innovation: the ejection seat.

Returning home, Sumiko shows a telegram to Shikishima, stating that Noriko survived and is in hospital care. While the reunion between Shikishima, Noriko, and Akiko is happy, Noriko shows signs of severe radiation poisoning. The film ends with a shot of the sinking remains of Godzilla, which begin regenerating.

The Characters

The performances throughout the movie are excellent and portray stock characters as very believable, real people. I’ll highlight some of the standouts below.

Kōichi Shikishima, a former kamikaze pilot. Shikishima is one of only two survivors of the first encounter with the non-mutated Godzilla in 1945. He returns to the Japanese home islands wracked by survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and shame over his perceived cowardice in failing to complete his final combat mission, and over his inability to fire on Godzilla to save the garrison of Odo Island. He also lost his parents during the firebombing of Tokyo, and his neighbor attributes his failures contributing to the loss of her own family, and the defeat of Japan. He finds a new reason to live in the small, adopted family he creates with Noriko and Akiko, and in the minesweeping work he takes on, but remains wracked by guilt and shame. His battle against Godzilla is as much to reclaim his own sense of purpose and to redeem himself, as much as it is about saving his new family and his country. Actor Ryunosuke Kamiki portrays Shikishima’s traumas and his striving to overcome them exceptionally well.

Sōsaku Tachibana, a former Navy Air Service mechanic. Tachibana is the only other survivor of the Odo Island massacre. He knows there was nothing wrong with Shikishima’s plane, and he also gave Shikishima the order to use the 20mm cannon on the Zero to shoot Godzilla before the monster discovers the garrison. When everything goes completely to hell, he shames Shikishima, leaving him with the photos and letters of the dead members of the garrison. Tachibana comes back into the story when Shikishima writes to him and the families of the other Odo victims, which goads Tachibana to come back, and modify the Shinden prototype fighter for the final attack on Godzilla. Tachibana includes an ejection seat, offering Shikishima the chance to live, signifying Tachibana’s forgiveness and Shikishima’s redemption of his honor without having to kill himself to do it.

Sumiko Ōta, Shikishima's neighbor. Her family having died during the firebombing, she blames Shikishima as a stand in for the whole Japanese government and military. Nonetheless, she helps him survive and assists both Noriko and Akiko once Shikishima takes them in.

Noriko Ōishi, Shikishima's “girlfriend.” That’s not really an accurate description of their relationship. I would almost call it a “Josephite marriage,” due to its chasteness and the wall Shikishima erects between them. The best way to describe Noriko herself is as a “Miyazaki heroine brought to life.” Surviving by any means necessary while protecting Akiko, a baby not her own, because it’s the right thing to do, she becomes something of a wife to Shikishima, falling in love with him, and hurt by his distance and his refusals to open his heart to her. She only catches glimpses of his terrors, his nightmares, when he cries out in the night, but stands by him. She selflessly acts to protect him during Godzilla’s attack on Tokyo, providing the impetus for Shikishima to face his inner demons, and the literal giant demon-like monster, which haunts him.

Akiko, Ōishi and Shikishima's adopted daughter. We meet her as a baby who has lost her own parents and is in the care of Noriko. She grows into a toddler over the course of the movie. She represents the hopes of postwar Japan, the possibility of new life, and the promise of redemption for Shikishima.

Crew of the Shinsei Maru

Seiji Akitsu, captain of the Shinsei Maru. Akitsu is a veteran whose service and life have made him cynical about Japan’s culture of secrecy, and the expectations of the government, military, and ruling class for the commoners to die for them. Nonetheless, he looks after his crew like a surrogate father and is willing to face Godzilla even when the government won’t in fear of “causing a panic.”

Shirō Mizushima, a young crewman aboard the Shinsei Maru. Mizushima is little more than an adolescent boy, too young to have fought in the war, but convinced he would have been brave and heroic. His impetuous bravado angers Shikishima who chastises him for wishing that the “war had gone on longer.” His encounter with Godzilla gives him the chance to show his bravery and comradery with his crew.

Kenji Noda, a former Naval weapons engineer. Noda develops the final plan to stop Godzilla and recruits enough navy veterans and civilians to put it into action, with or without official government sanction.

The World

This film opens at the end of the real Second World War. There were kamikaze pilots who refused to complete their mission, so that part is not far-fetched. The film uses real world events to set the stage and context for Godzilla’s appearance.

The film uses historical events, settings, and well-thought-out depictions of post-war Japan to keep the film very grounded, as much as a kaiju film featuring a cube square law defying giant lizard with atomic breath can claim to be “grounded.” The musical score keeps the film connected directly to the original movie and “classic” Toho Shōwa-era Godzilla films.

The film makes smart choices regarding “how much Godzilla is enough?” Spoilers aside, you get the smaller, unmutated but still brutal Godzilla barely four minutes in, and he absolutely tools the snot out of the small Japanese base and traumatizes the already traumatized failed kamikaze Shikishima. After that, the fully grown kaiju-scale Godzilla is mostly kept offscreen, but wisely on screen just enough to keep him scary, to build dread, and to maintain his mystery. In other words, like Jaws.

If he were on screen more, it would make the film silly and campy. Any less, and you’d have a pretentious art house movie. The filmmakers nailed it exactly right. The devastation he unleashes, and the desperation in the character’s actions keep the tone perfect. I think the last movie to really get this mix right was the original Cloverfield, or the first Pacific Rim if I’m feeling generous.

Here’s a sentence I never thought I would type. I couldn’t help but think just how Hayao Miyazaki-esque it was, and Spielberg-esque. Turns out I was right.

The storyline focuses on tragedy and family, while critiquing mankind’s contempt for the natural world, by reveling in love for WWII-era aviation and airplanes, and in the theme of common people revolting against an unstoppable power. Class tensions permeate the film, in the all-too familiar betrayal by authorities and their inaction in the face of grave danger. There’s something in it very reminiscent of Princess Mononoke. Even Nausicaa.

The next section will address the world building a bit more.

Politics

Overtly, this is an anti-war film. It pulls no punches in its depiction of a firebomb devastated Tokyo, and the horrific losses endured by the Japanese people. Not being Japanese or anything remotely like an expert on Japanese culture, it’s a given there are nuances I missed or misunderstood.

One obvious note is the prototype Kyushu J7W SHINDEN in the final attack on Godzilla; the real-world plane was designed to defend Japan against American B-29 attacks. Another is the effects of Godzilla’s breath ray and especially the reactions of the panicking civilians.

The story, while not blindly nationalistic, is a paean to Japanese resiliency and bravery. It criticizes Shikishima’s cowardice but offers him something the Imperial Japanese military culture never could; redemption with the chance to live. I want to highlight here that it is most definitely NOT the Japanese government, nor the Japanese Self-Defense Forces that come to the rescue. The city of Tokyo is effectively abandoned by the authorities, leaving it to normal Japanese civilians and veterans to decide whether they want to face down the monster or run. Members of Shikishima’s minesweeper crew openly criticize the Japanese government and the country’s history of secrecy and leaving hapless uninformed civilians in the dark regarding the truth.

So, no I do not think this movie whitewashes Japan’s wartime atrocities, nor its imperialism. However, it doesn’t shine any glory on the US or USSR either. Interestingly, the film was much more harshly reviewed in Japan itself than elsewhere.

The film is set in 1947; the early Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, which is used as a pretext for the lack of significant American involvement in Japan’s defense, or any overt superpower activity against Godzilla. America’s only involvement, despite the loss of Navy vessels and significant casualties, is the authorization granted by the military governor of Japan, General of the Army MacArthur himself, for the use of former military equipment in self-defense.

For those unfamiliar with the original 1954 Gojira movie, it was very deliberately tied to Japan’s post-war existential crisis, the use of the atomic bomb against the country, and the proliferation of atomic and thermonuclear weapons. This statement is uncontroversial and well-attested to by the original film’s creators.

So, yes, there is political content in this movie, however I found the themes and messaging universal enough to enjoy the film thoroughly and handled intelligently enough to spark real discussion.

Content Warning

Go by the MPAA rating on the tin, which is PG-13. There isn’t a lot of blood, but there is mass destruction and mass death. You get to see Godzilla squashing crowds running in terror, reminiscent of this old masterpiece.

Who is it for?

If you’re a Godzilla fan who feels let down one time too many by American imitations and who can’t get past the silliness of some of the “classic” films, this is your movie. On top of that, if you like foreign language films, enjoy! You get subtitles but no dubs. If you don’t think it’s possible to combine the words “giant monster” and “good movie” in the same sentence, then give this a shot. I was a skeptic, now I’m a convert.

Why buy it?

1. It’s just a damn good movie. I held off until the digital-only copy went on sale, now I’m considering going to see it in the theater this week and buying the collector’s edition.

2. If you genuinely hate what the contemporary entertainment industry is up to, then put your money where your mouth is, support alternatives and encourage reform or collapse, I’m fine either way.

3. Reward good work: these guys did it with a $10-15M budget, deserved the Academy Award, and deserve a shot at doing it again with resources matching their ambition.