If I’m being honest, I’m not a huge “Godzilla” fan. When I was walking into the theater to watch this film, I wasn’t all that excited because, like I said, not a huge fan. Yes, I like Godzilla, but the movies are a different situation. The only “Godzilla” movies that I’ve seen are the newer ones like “Godzilla” (2014), “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (2018), and “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021). They are just kind of bland and not that great. But boy, did this movie blow me away.
“Godzilla Minus One” was a Japanese film and it debuted in theaters across America on Dec. 1 with a budget of $15 million. It has already grossed a total amount of $41 million. So it’s not difficult to say that it was a triumph.
It tells the story of Kamikaze pilot, Koichi Shikishima. If you’re not familiar with what a Kamikaze pilot is, it was a position during WWII in Japan where your main goal is to crash into opposing American warships, even if it ultimately kills you. The position was considered a great honor. But Koichi did not want to die and he went to Odo Island, which has mechanics that repair broken Kamikaze planes.
Later that same day at night, a monster (Godzilla) comes to the island and kills everyone but Koichi and one other repairman. Koichi returns back to his home in Tokyo, a year later, and runs into a woman named Noriko, who has an orphaned child, Akiko, whom she got from her mother, who died tragically in the Tokyo bombings, just like Koichi’s parents.
There is a chunk of the movie that is setting in place the relationship between Koichi, Noriko and Akiko ,which makes you care about them more and what happens to them. The film deals with Koichi’s survivors’ guilt and feeling like a coward for not fulfilling what a Kamikaze pilot is supposed to do. He’s constantly asking Noriko if everything is even real or did he die back on Odo Island and Godzilla killed him. You can really see the effects that WWII had on the people involved and how it traumatized them.
They all live together and everything is great for a couple of years. Koichi gets a job out on a boat to detonate U.S. planted mines in the ocean with three other people, but Godzilla resurfaces and attacks them. They make it out alive, but they devise a plan to kill Godzilla and get rid of him.
In the end, with a cleverly devised plan, they defeat Godzilla, or so they think. If you know one thing about Godzilla, it is that he always comes back. Why else would there be 37 films about Godzilla, with a new one coming out next year. No one seems to be able to beat him, or whatever “Godzilla” is.
If you’re new to Godzilla or to Japanese films in general, this is a great place to start. You can pretty much start anywhere with the Godzilla movies because they are all over the place, and since this is a fantastic start to a new franchise, now is a good time to hop on this bandwagon.
