Review: Godzilla Minus One Rejects the Idea of a 'Noble Death' in War
Director Takashi Yamazaki brings to the screen the most dreadful version of Godzilla since the franchise began.
The beginning of Godzilla Minus One, the latest installment in the 70-year series of kaiju flicks made by the Japanese production company Toho, upends one part of the usual formula: Tokyo is already a smoldering wasteland.
That's not because of a monstrous mutant reptile. It's from the relentless firebombings carried out by the American military near the end of World War II.
Before evolving into an anti-hero in later movies who protected Japan from other monsters (and the occasional alien invasion), the original Godzilla was a fantastical metaphor for the destruction rained down on Japan's citizens during the war: terrifying, inescapable, monstrous. Minus One plumbs those same depths, and writer/director Takashi Yamazaki brings to the screen the most dreadful version of Godzilla since the franchise began.
Caught up in the horror is fighter pilot Koichi Shikishima, who returns to the bombed-out remains of Tokyo after refusing to kill himself in a kamikaze mission. Wracked by survivors' guilt, he joins others who are rebuilding their lives brick by brick, seeking some sense of normalcy—until the inevitable arrival of Godzilla blows that away.
By its final act, Godzilla Minus One delivers something else unexpected from a monster movie: a compelling rumination about the value of a single life and the emptiness of the notion of a "noble death" in war.
The final showdown with Godzilla is led by an all-volunteer force of private citizens who have used their human capacity for reason to engineer a solution. Shikishima, once ordered by the state to throw away his life pointlessly, discovers that virtue lies not in being willing to die for an abstract cause but in choosing to live for your neighbors, friends, and community.
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Dreadful as in bad movie or bad monster. Do better here.
His review is dreadful, that’s for sure.
lol guys like you must be fucking miserable 24/7 to try so hard like you do to spread your personal misery on the internet lmao.
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It’s Boehm. Did you really expect anything better than total retardation from him?
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I didn’t see a lot of diverse faces in the trailer. How can I enjoy a movie when it doesn’t look like me?
You can’t. Ergo, better skip this one. No possible way you would like it.
By its final act, Godzilla Minus One delivers something else unexpected from a monster movie: a compelling rumination about the value of a single life and the emptiness of the notion of a “noble death” in war.
That’s a really hollow summary of what it really says. It’s a stinging rebuke of Japan’s behavior in World War 2, specifically, and how it ordered men on suicide missions for a cause that was lost, and was forcing people into utter devotion to the state.
But in the end, a bunch of people volunteer to go on a very dangerous mission to fight Godzilla. They’re told it’s not a suicide mission but it’s still got a high probability of their death, and people definitely die fighting Godzilla. What it does, though, is give them a way of fighting that values life with the hope of survival against severe odds, and the main character chooses to live instead of killing himself.
It’s so much more meaningful than the shallow platitude being ascribed because sometimes people DO die heroically, saving lives. It just rejects the Japanese notion of “Death before dishonor,” which encouraged a suicidal fanaticism including kamikaze tactics and banzai charges. The Japanese refusal to surrender under any circumstances cost thousands of lives, and it drove their disdain of forces that DID surrender, which was behind many war crimes and abuses of prisoners.
I don’t think Boehm is capable of understanding nuance.
This. I thought this movie was pretty good. Movie is much better than this review.
a fantastical metaphor for the destruction rained down on Japan’s citizens during the war: terrifying, inescapable, monstrous
The Japanese were genocidal, totalitarian, fascist maniacs; that’s why destruction rained down on them. And it was fully deserved.
the emptiness of the notion of a “noble death” in war
Well, there was certainly nothing noble about the Japanese men who died in the Japanese war of aggression and conquest.
But people who voluntarily sacrifice their lives in defense of their home and their family and loved ones certainly are dying a noble death.
Calm down grandpa, the Big One is over.
More accurately: The Japanese allowed genocidal, totalitarian, fascist maniacs to rule them. We did what we had to stop them, annihilating island garrisons that had been brainwashed into suicide before surrender, raining total destruction upon Japanese cities, and finally using our second and third atomic bombs upon two Japanese cities just as soon as we could. It’s good that the A-bomb finally brought the Japanese government to surrender, because our next step would have approached Admiral Halsey’s private goal – that “The Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell”.
I guess it’s too much to hope that King Kong shows up again?
First, this was in theaters in Dec 2023 so nice timely review. I saw it with my 78yr old mother, who hates subtitles.
She loved it. I honestly thought it was one of the best movies I have ever seen. The special effects are great, not all CGI. The stories were engaging.
Much better than any of Hollywood stuff currently