Godzilla: Minus One

Alright. I knew nothing about this movie before I went into it. I'm a Godzilla fan but haven't really enjoyed the Western version of Godzilla movies beyond watching them as eye candy/cheap-thrill/forget-as-you-leave-cinema/switch-off-brain type movies.

Very rarely do we see GOOD movies that actually have a good plot and a storyline that sticks to quality script writing, screenplay and keeps you engaged for all the right reasons Vs Throwing a bunch of explosions, music and constant "something happening" to make up for lack of quality filmmaking.

Godzilla minus one... Is just a good movie. Japanese cinema slows things down and focuses on the quality of what's happening in the moment, in every moment. I was drawn to every part of the film and the story was about the humans with Godzilla in it, not about Godzilla.

I don't even know what to say. I don't want to say much. Don't go into it thinking "this is Godzilla a highly rated film".

Just go in, sit down and enjoy the ride.

I often watch low budget movies because the focus is on the story and not having a lot of pointless fillers to flesh out the movie.

This film does exactly that in a way that stays with you and leaves you thinking about the movie for days after you've watched it.

Highly recommended :)

Set at the end of World War 2 and Japan is defeated and in ruins. Our protagonist is Koichi, a pilot who returns to his devastated hometown in Tokyo. He is unwelcome and guilt ridden for sneaking out of a kamikaze raid in the pacific. Japan is at its lowest point and then Godzilla arrives.

This is a brilliant setup for this period story that sees a country without the military might, technology and morale to face this new enemy. The film also leans into the drama and emotion that made the first film so iconic and sets it apart from the family fun films of the 70s and 80s as well as the recent American blockbuster treatments. My Japanese is not good enough to understand all of the film so there will be lots that I didn't get. However it manages to be a strong, emotional story with a scary and ferocious Godzilla. In my mind it is far superior to Shin Godzilla which I found dull and goofy. This is the best Godzilla film in many years and perhaps the best since the 1954 original.

Without spoiling anything, this movie hit different from any other. It felt much more serious and quite a bit darker at times. The movie was amazing, the effects were great. I never thought I'd see a Godzilla movie where people were crying in the theater. It was quite the experience. Godzilla was truly an unstoppable force in this movie, whenever Godzilla would show up it was hard to feel anything but futility. Even in the rare event that Godzilla was injured he was only slowed down. This version of Godzilla might be more evil than Shin Godzilla though his motives are hard to understand where shin Godzilla it became apparent.

Godzilla Minus One is one of the best Godzilla films in recent time. It gave me everything i wanted for the first time ever I was actually invested in the human characters and their story normally you are just waiting for Godzilla to show up but not here Godzilla shows up alot and when he does he is BRUTAL. This Godzilla makes things personal by actively attacking the humans. The movie had great pacing where it doesn't feel like it's going on for too long and it was nice to have a darker story set after WW2. It really goes back to the franchise's roots. There's so much to say but it would give a lot away JUST SEE THE MOVIE ON THE BIGGEST SCREEN POSSIBLE 9/10.

This is an enjoyable film to watch, and if you're on the tail end of its theater run or considering if it's worth streaming, the short answer is it's worth seeing. I do feel like among certain fan circles the movie is slightly 'overhyped' but that doesn't make the movie bad, it is in fact quite good. I think the exploration of the main character's relationship with kamikaze piloting, and in turn both Japan's historical understanding of that phenomenon as well as the West's, is actually still more poignant and worth exploring than perhaps we might be inclined to give it credit for. It's hard to overstate how culturally significant the kamikaze pilots were during and in the immediate aftermath of World War 2; although we had Oppenheimer to remind us of the cultural impact of the bomb, for soldiers that lived during World War 2, it was the stories of the kamikaze pilots that left a huge impact, even for people not in the Pacific theater. Likewise, Japan has long struggled to articulate its historical relationship to kamikaze pilots, with the memorial there being a kind of hot-button issue for multiple decades now. This film perhaps doesn't offer a searing insight, but rather a kind of wishful alternate path to how Japan and the west feels about kamikaze pilots. I think what's particularly remarkable about this film, frankly, is the way it pushes against the grain--a lot of Japanese cinema, especially that designed for view by western audiences, tends toward a construction of victimhood due to the bomb. This film tries to grapple with the echoes of imperial desire both immediately after the war and, perhaps, now.

Honestly, come for the big cool depiction of Godzilla, but leave with a reflection of Japan's relationship to World War 2.