Stubs - Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color

Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color (aka G-1.0/C) (2024) Starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sasaki. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki. Screenplay by Takashi Yamazaki Produced by Minami Ichikawa, Shūji Abe, Kenji Yamada, Kazuaki Kishida, Gō Abe, Keiichirō Moriya Run time: 125 minutes. Black and White. Japan. Epic, Kaiju, Monster.

Godzilla is one of the most shopworn monster characters, having appeared in 39 films in 70 years since its first appearance, Gojira (1954). Usually, the films are cheap numbers with similar plots with Godzilla, obviously a man in a suit. More often that not, Godzilla has had to share the bill with a litany of other monsters, Mothra, Hedora, Biolantte and/or King Kong. Godzilla has become big budget in recent years with Hollywood productions and once again teaming the dinosaur-like monster with the giant ape. The emphasis is almost always on the monsters and not the people it terrorizes.

That changed, and for the better, with the November 3, 2023 release in Japan of Takashi Yamazaki's Gojira Mainasu Wan. A film with a relatively low budget, $10-15 million, it would come to the US on December 1, 2023 and win rave reviews, becoming the first Godzilla film to be nominated for an Academy Award, for Best Visual Effects, also supervised by Yamazaki. Eventually, the film would cross $100 million in worldwide boxoffice.

A black-and-white version, Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, premiered in Japan on January 12, 2024, and was distributed in the United States by Toho International on January 26 and that is the film we're reviewing here. We regrettably missed out on seeing the original color version of the film. Both are Japanese with English subtitltes.

Unlike most of the Godzilla films, rather than concentrating on the monster, G-1.0/C is a character study concentrating on Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a former World War II kamikaze pilot whose own cowardice led to the deaths of many men when first confronted by the monster.

Returning to war-torn Tokyo, Kōichi is still fighting the war, ashamed of the deaths he caused and the fact he managed to live when he was supposed to give his life for his country. While he's coming to terms with himself, he takes on the responsibilities for Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) and Akiko (Sae Nagatani), the baby she's taking care of but who is not her own. With families torn apart by the war, Kōichi, Noriko, and Akiko form an ersatz one. Despite their sharing a small house, the war is a boundary that keeps Kōichi from committing to her. Still, he does what he can to take care of her, even taking a dangerous job, working on a crew disabling unexploded sea mines.

Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) is terrorized by the monster in Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color.

The black and white version gives the film an almost documentary feel and you get the sense of the destitute conditions that the Japanese were forced to live in in the months and years following World War II. Their desperation is only made worse when Godzilla, now larger, terrorizes the sea and eventually moves in towards Tokyo.

This is a film about survival. There is a belief expressed that those who survived the war were destined to survive. Humans will do whatever they can to survive when faced with annihilation at the hands of  Godzilla. The plan they come up with is the brainchild of Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a former Naval weapons engineer and former crew member of Kōichi's on the mine detection ship. And while Kōichi is a part of the plan, he has his own ideas on redemption for himself and the people he thinks he's wronged.

Godzilla is as terrorizing as ever.

Takashi Yamazaki has done a phenomenal job with the visual effects. Godzilla is as scary as ever; it is really the humanity of the film that sets this apart.

The acting, too, is very good. Ryunosuke Kamiki does an excellent job playing Kōichi, a man who can't shake his own past or at least his own read on that past. Troubled by what he'd done, or rather didn't do, he is finally able to make amends.

Minami Hamabe plays Norika, a complex character who, with no experience, had taken responsibility for another woman's baby. She meets Kōichi and takes advantage of him for the sake of Akiko.

There are some who complain that Godzilla is not as prominent in G-1.0 and G-1.0/C as he is in most of the other 38 films, but that plays to the benefit of the film. Limited appearances don't take away from the power of the film and it helps to make Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color not just a great monster film, but also a great film on its own.