Quite a touching story about a soldier overcoming survivor's guilt and trauma disguised as a monster movie, with Godzilla in a sense representing his inner demons. Much more thematic and emotional than I expected.
Film Godzilla Minus One
- Thread starter RedPed
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Just got back from seeing this. Will post a bit more later when I have time. I thought it was excellent. A really, really great film. 
@Blood Mage's post above mine is a great synopsis of it. I wasn't quite prepared for the emotional side of things, but the film handled that part especially well. It's thought provoking in lots of ways. Works on a lot of levels.
@Blood Mage's post above mine is a great synopsis of it. I wasn't quite prepared for the emotional side of things, but the film handled that part especially well. It's thought provoking in lots of ways. Works on a lot of levels.
The Barbie of Godzilla films. A mess of politics ranging from extreme Japanese nationalism to progressive non traditional family building.
Godzilla is used perfectly in the first half as the symbol of the atomic bomb. This almost non animated void of a monster destroying all that stands in its way. There’s two scene featuring Godzilla which are for me the best of the year.
The film wants to give the impression of a noble post war Japan fighting to restore its humanity/dignity and overcome survivor guilty. While never mentioning it was also a society produced things like Unit 723(Which most likely one of the characters worked for)
The second half isn’t bad but very predictable.
Overall it’s worth watching but a bizarre film.
Edit - Good discussion
Godzilla is used perfectly in the first half as the symbol of the atomic bomb. This almost non animated void of a monster destroying all that stands in its way. There’s two scene featuring Godzilla which are for me the best of the year.
The film wants to give the impression of a noble post war Japan fighting to restore its humanity/dignity and overcome survivor guilty. While never mentioning it was also a society produced things like Unit 723(Which most likely one of the characters worked for)
The second half isn’t bad but very predictable.
Overall it’s worth watching but a bizarre film.
Edit - Good discussion
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I'm curious about this film, even more curious now after reading your review. I didn't know anything about Unit 731 (I guess that's the one you're referring to), and after reading up on it a bit, I kinda wish I still didn't. Awful stuff.
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Saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it.
Is Godzilla a bad guy in it or not
Hard to say. Initially Godzilla just seemed to come onto one of the islands and the lead character, Koichi Shikishima, did not shoot - he froze in the moment. As soon as the other soldiers started shooting, Godzilla retaliated.
Then Godzilla destroys some ships and makes its way to Tokyo. During the movie one of the naval scientists suggests it was acquiring and defending new territory.
In my view, it seems more "bad" than "good" but the focus is really on Koichi Shikishima and his family rather than Godzilla itself.
Then Godzilla destroys some ships and makes its way to Tokyo. During the movie one of the naval scientists suggests it was acquiring and defending new territory.
In my view, it seems more "bad" than "good" but the focus is really on Koichi Shikishima and his family rather than Godzilla itself.
And the US dished out immunity to some who researched there. Place in heĺl for those who were involved in that.
That + Paperclip Operation, the US really acted as shitbags in the aftermath of WW2.
Haven't seen it yet, but he better fight a giant mouse and Raymond Burr otherwise it's going to be a disappointment.
Cheers it’s was Unit 731. Oh sorry yep reading about the unit will definitely ruin a good day. It’s really evil stuff.
The film wants its cake and eat it too. It has the upfront nationalism typical of a lot WW2 films but without never thinking about the evils this nationalism caused. This leads to some very odd outcomes(I won’t post it yet as it would be spoilers). Which is a fault imo as Godzilla series is the retrospective monster movie.
Still I would recommend it as the strangeness of its politics is interesting to see play out. But also the first half is incredible. Watching on the big screen Godzilla fecking up everything up with with the iconic music playing is great. It’s almost comical how little of a shit he gives about the world he is destroy.
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Lot of people talking about Unit 732. Is this a fictionalised version of Japan’s Unit 731, or just a typo?
Yeah I just edited my post your right it’s Unit 731.
The Unit is never mentioned in the film just that a character says they were a former military scientist.
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Great review(Contains spoilers) -
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I've always loved Godzilla's theme. One of cinema's greats.
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Ok I saw it last night, it was a challenging watch as it was in Japanese with Portuguese subtitles (and I'm still just learning Portuguese) but it wasn't the hardest film to follow so it was ok.
What are the 2 scenes you're referring to?
I really enjoyed it - I agree with the convaluted politics of it, I don't know enough about post-war Japan, its struggles with memory of that period, coming to terms with the horrors perpetuated, etc. but it has a weird tone. The fact a film in 2023 is presenting a guy who refused to be a kamikaze pilot as full of shame is a bit strange, as is the overall tone of the poor Japanese post war. Although I guess you'd have to say most of the population just suffered like most populations do in these moments, with little knowledge or impact on the government's actions. Still, it's all a bit weird.
The only really annoying thing for me was to take such a weak actor to play the lead, and create such an antipathic hero. I really didn't care about his redemption arc, I liked pretty much all the other characters and by the end I was hoping it'd be his little "adopted" daughter that would fly his plane to kick the shit out of Godzilla.
Still, it's a really good film and a lot of fun. I've actually seen very little films from all the Godzilla mythology, I think I've only ever seen the Emmerich shit one, but I liked how monolithic and unstoppable Godzilla was. The 1st hour was particularly good even though I thought I was having a heart attack after eating too much buttery popcorn (seriously Brazil stop being so United Statesian). 2nd half as you said is very predictable and by the numbers, ticks all the boxes, but still quite enjoyable. It's a good looking film too, especially considering the budget.
Really enjoyed it, and seeing my girlfriend so excited when the Godzilla theme came on (she grew up in Japan so this is her bread and butter) was definitely worth it.
Nice! The scene with Godzilla destroying the battle ship when he is using the blue power charge thing underwater and the scene with him destroying the City. Due to as you say how monolithic and unstoppable Godzilla appears. The City scene having the contrast of a main character getting ''killed'' with Godzilla looking completely ambivalent really give the sense the monster is a god(These two scenes and the detonation scene in Oppenheimer have been my favourites. Great year for nuke guys).
Yep for me it did seem like the film didn’t know if it wanted to be a post war period piece or a modern film and in the end it's a mix of both.
Agree on the strangeness of using a failed Kamikaze fighter. I’ve seen it argue that it’s used to show under the Empire soldiers joined the war to die where as in post WW2 soldiers fight for a future. Which makes sense but very weird message for 2023. Also the lack of any american soldiers which I think post war Japan had nearly half a million Americans soldiers at the time was another odd thing. Although seeing the poverty of post war Japan and the awful living conditions was interesting. Rarely we get to see how people had to deal with surviving the atomic bombs.
Tbh I thought he was ok but I also didn't really care. My issue and it's with most monster films is I always want the monster to win. Jaws should have ended with Roy Scheider going head first into the sharks mouth and Godzilla should have grabbed that airplane and launched it into Tokyo tower.
I’ve seen a few. The original 50’s back in covid lockdown which was cool. The awful Emmerich 90’s one made me cry as a kid in the cinema when Godzilla died. And I did recently watched Shin Godzilla a few weeks back which was pretty good.
I love how it used CGI. Had a old fashioned look at times where it was very fake but done it a deliberate way. The other uses such as city explosions and Godzilla looked great(Imo it’s easily the best designed Godzilla).
Yep the second half is good crowd pleasing stuff.
That must have been such a buzz for her. I went with a few family members(I think they were hoping to see me cry again)and afterwards leaving the cinema I could hear them humming the theme tune. The music drops are pitch perfect in this.
How can I watch this? Anywhere streaming it?
All Ive seen on the grey market streams are TS versions so far so im guessing no legitimate sources have it either.
Won't be any streams until Godzilla x Kong finished it's cinema run.