Movie review: Godzilla Minus One

Monster film provides compelling human drama

A country already rocked by war faces a new threat in “Godzilla Minus One,” Toho’s return to the enormous sea monster. 

Godzilla has appeared in films from other studios, but the original reclaims the monster and his storyline in this movie set in Japan just post-World War II. 

Takashi Yamazaki is the film’s director, writer, and VFX supervisor.

He sought a return to the style of the original Godzilla monster from the 1954 film.  

In this film, Godzilla isn’t a funny ally to Japan – he’s a stampeding force of nature with his eyes on Tokyo. 

The film begins as kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) has abandoned his suicide mission in the waning days of World War II by faking mechanical failure on his plane. 

Landing on Odo Island, mechanics can’t find a problem – but their problems soon increase as Godzilla finds the island. Shikishima can’t pull the trigger on the monster, but finds he has somehow survived. 

Making his way back to his hometown, he is facing PTSD and disdain from villagers who don’t think he should have returned alive. 

He begins to find his way as best he can, as a displaced woman and baby become his makeshift family in his now-deceased parents’ bombed-out home. Over the next few years, he finds work and tries to adjust, though the war, and the Godzilla attack, remain with him. The woman, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), and Shikishima grow close, but he has trouble making a commitment to any kind of future. 

When signals indicate Godzilla is reappearing, and making his way to Japan, Shikishima may find a way to come to terms with his previous hesitation. 

The action is plentiful and well-directed, but what viewers will remember just as much is the human drama about a man and a country facing the aftermath of a traumatic war. 

The community rebuilding and coming together in a crisis, even when the government or the world seems unwilling to help, makes for a positive message about doing what you can when you can to make your world better.