GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

First off, the title. I assume that the English subtitle "Minus One" means roughly the same as the Japanese subtitle, "Zero." Both are indicators that MINUS is a reboot of the Godzilla franchise, reworking even some aspects of the original 1954 template. The most important revision is a particular thematic element constant to every other Godzilla film ever made-- but more on that later.

The film is set both in Japan during both the last years of WWII and the early years of Japan's recovery, and focuses on the turmoil-filled life of viewpoint character Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki of GREAT YOKAI WAR fame). Koichi has been ordered to attack the Allied forces in a suicidal kamikaze plane, but he diverts from his mission and lands on a flight maintenance island. There he and his fellow soldiers have a close encounter of the worst kind with a twenty-foot-tall dinosaur, whom the local islanders have dubbed "Godzilla." Koichi has a chance to attack Godzilla (though viewers will later learn such an assault would have proven futile) but freezes, so that almost all the other soldiers perish. 

Later, like thousands of other Japanese, Koichi must attempt to eke out a living in a devastated country. He acquires by accident a family made up of two other victims of the war: Noriko, an adult the same age as Koichi, and Akiko, an infant war orphan whom Noriko rescued from death. The three of them survive, an ersatz nuclear family, thanks to Koichi getting a job as a mine-sweeper, destroying mines left in the sea by both American and Japanese forces. But while all this is going on, the American government continues to make atomic tests in the Pacific. And in just a few years, the twenty-foot terror returns, but now he's as tall as twenty stories, and gifted with atomic dragon-fire. Plus which, because he's bigger now, he wants more territory-- the very epitome of lebensraum, even for a creature that implicitly feeds mostly on fish.

While Godzilla is filled with mindless rage at the puny gnats in his path, Koichi's civilian life is filled with survivors' guilt and self recriminations over his failure to perform his military duty. The King of Monsters devastates the Ginza area where Koichi lives, and not only is the Japanese government incompetent to handle the crisis, the U.S. government refuses to intervene. (I guess in this world the U.S. never stationed any forces in defeated Japan immediately after the war.) Japan's most formidable foe can only be defeated by an allegiance of Japan's disenfranchised military men-- and Koichi gets a chance to redeem himself for his past inaction.

With the possible exception of the 1954 original, Godzilla is never more terrifying than he is here, stomping humans underfoot and reducing destroyers to scrap. But even though he gets a power upgrade from atomic radiation, he no longer seems to incarnate the horrors of nuclear power. He's also altered from a near invulnerable juggernaut, whose hide can't even be injured by missiles, to a somewhat more organic creature who can be wounded yet who can regenerate most somatic damage-- which is one of the things that gives the Japanese the chance to beat him without inventing brand new super-weapons. This Godzilla seems more like a continuation of the war's chaos, since in this iteration Japan doesn't even have the chance to rebuild itself and to be seduced by the attractions of Western society. 

Though MINUS is one of the few films in which the Big G's only foes are embattled humans-- the last one being 2016's SHIN GODZILLA-- I believe it's the only one in which the humans are not represented by scientists and military organized by the power of government(s). This is the big thematic change instituted by writer-director-effects guy Takashi Yamazaki, implying that governments are utterly impotent to deal with crises, and only the Common Man can possibly put down the menace.

In a logical sense, I reject this conceit. But it's a great idea in terms of rethinking the usual implications of most stories about Earth facing down giant monsters, aliens and the like, and even the specific generative text directed and co-written by Inoshiro Honda. Numerous critics have asserted that Honda worked anti-war messages into many of his popular movies, and there's some truth to that. But it's also not hard to discern, in the Godzilla films alone, an admiration for the power of governments to muster vast forces of technology and manpower against a monumental threat. Yamazaki never expresses any admiration for the Japanese government. He doesn't specifically condemn the WWII militarists who placed the country on the path of conquest, and in this he slightly resembles a lot of Japanese pop culture that makes similar elisions. Still, the imputations of the government's impotence stands as an overall denunciation. MINUS doesn't sing the praises of anything but the average Japanese citizen trying to live his life. 

Despite this radical take on Godzilla movies, I'm not sure Yamazaki's approach could work a second time, even though the ending of MINUS sets up yet another potential sequel. I'm glad the movie's enjoyed a strong U.S. box office, but it might not be the best model for future big-monster movies.