Japan is already devastated by the war when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster.
Godzilla turns 70 next year, and to celebrate, his parent company Toho Studios waited until the end of this year to release the most conventional Godzilla movie in recent memory. “Godzilla Minus One” may also be the most sobering and least flamboyant Japanese-produced Godzilla movie since the original 1954 nuclear lizard disaster pic (though “Godzilla 1985” fans might disagree). Some reviews of “Godzilla Minus One” have already praised the movie as an escapist crowd-pleaser. It’s easy to see why, given the bleak but well-calibrated tone of its human-centric scenes.
Set in 1946, “Godzilla Minus One” follows a spiritually depleted group of ex-military men as they rally to vanquish everyone’s favorite kaiju antihero. Here, Godzilla’s presence is a given, as it probably should be after dozens of movies and spinoff projects. If traumatized survivors like disgraced kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) can’t stop Godzilla, he will destroy Ginza and then stomp all over Tokyo.
Koichi is motivated by survivor’s guilt. In an establishing scene on Odo Island, Koichi takes aim at Godzilla but can’t bring himself to shoot. As a result, several fellow army men die, leaving Koichi to bury their bodies. Reviving Koichi’s ultimately patriotic mojo takes priority since that sort of nationalistic passion is apparently essential to fighting Godzilla. At the same time, Koichi’s loved ones are still very dead, so now he has to take care of other survivors, most of whom have also lost their loved ones, their homes, and their will to fight. That last part is crucial, but overcoming spiritual decline is also a big part of Koichi and therefore, Big G’s story in “Godzilla Minus One.”