Review | Godzilla Minus One movie review: Japanese kaiju series’ 37th film is as much lavish period drama as spectacular monster epic
- Godzilla Minus One takes us back to the late 1940s, as the monster battles a disgraced kamikaze pilot (Ryunosuke Kamiki) before turning on Tokyo
- This film, which pays frequent tribute to Ishiro Honda’s 1954 original, includes some of the most spectacular showdowns in the genre
4/5 stars
The 37th film in the Japanese blockbuster franchise, and the 33rd produced by Toho Studios, Godzilla Minus One turns the clock back to the late 1940s as it dramatises a destructive attack from the king of the monsters on a country still reeling in the aftermath of World War II.
Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, who also oversees the film’s copious visual effects, Godzilla Minus One is as much a lavish period drama about a country rediscovering a sense of national worth as it is an epic kaiju [monster] spectacle.
Disgraced kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) has been living in shame ever since he refused to sacrifice himself and die the honourable death that his military rank dictated.
He shares his modest home with Noriko (Minami Hamabe), a young woman he saves from the authorities, together with a newborn baby she pulled from the debris of their bombed-out neighbourhood, but Koichi’s self-loathing prevents him from marrying her.
He is granted an opportunity to redeem himself, however, after landing a job on a minesweeper shortly after the end of the war. It is dangerous work, but pays well, and soon leads him into direct contact with the marauding sea monster.