10/10. An amazing monster movie featuring poignant human drama

Godzilla Minus One is a Japanese monster film directed by Takashi Yamazaki.

The film starts at a Japanese air base on Odo island in 1945, a fictional island featured in the original Godzilla (1954). A young kamikaze pilot, Koichi, lands his plane due to ‘technical issues’ leaving him unable to fulfil his mission. What follows is a fantastic opening sequence featuring a youthful, T-Rex resembling, Godzilla, who’s not messing around. The plot immediately delves into the premise of honour, duty and shame within historic Japanese culture, particularly on the expectations of kamikaze pilots, where being successful also meant death.

Godzilla Minus One does a difficult thing in making a monster movie not only an amazing monster spectacle, but also a human drama with likeable, flawed characters who have depth. It poignantly covers the shocking destruction and loss wrought by World War II on soldiers and civilians, following the devastation of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Main characters Noriko (Minami Hamabe), Koichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Sumiko (Sakura Ando) are excellent and depict an awkward then chosen family that rises from the ruins around them with love and care for the cutest kid ever, Akiko. Time passes, but Godzilla remains vexed …

Our angry monster is a sight to behold and hear as he levels up following Operation Crossroads nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll in 1946, with his lit up blue dorsal plates and radioactive roar breath. The minesweeper boat chase scene and Godzilla’s stomp through the Tokyo’s Ginza district were exhilarating. The authentic 1940’s World War II uniforms, planes, and practical sets are also impressive.

The film includes interesting, real aspects of post war Japan, including real IJN (Imperial Japanese Army) ship names which survived the war, being used to try to defeat Godzilla and the fact that the IJN was disbanded after the war until 1951, so the film relies on ex-soldiers and civilians to be the unlikely yet courageous heroes. The civilian scientist and veteran team’s plan to take Godzilla down, literally, makes sense and is an interesting tactic as opposed to the usual plan of walloping him with everything but the kitchen sink.

Usually, I end up rooting for Godzilla, where the plot includes him in an ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ scenario, fighting some other, even more villainous kaiju, but this guy is especially fuming, and these people have already lost so much. As always, Godzilla is a cautionary tale of the threat of nuclear war, but the very human grief explored gives this tale a different angle, where we cheer for the heroes in a spectacular final act with an outstanding soundtrack and CGI effects, leaving us with a bittersweet and open ending for a sequel …

“Is your war finally over?”