“That monster will never forgive us.”

September 6, 2023 5:46 AM

Godzilla Minus One [Trailer] “It’s widely thought that Godzilla, the giant monster who rose from the sea in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film, was a manifestation of Japan’s postwar trauma; an allegory for nuclear weapons, perhaps, after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or an avatar of a vengeful and destructive U.S.A. Since then the giant lizard has taken many forms, some kindlier than others. But its historical link to Japan’s darkest days has perhaps never been clearer than in Godzilla Minus One, the new live-action Japanese Godzilla movie from Toho, which will be released in U.S. theaters on Dec. 1. The latest trailer for the movie makes that explicit. Godzilla Minus One is set in the late 1940s, and the creature is shown attacking a country that’s already been brought to its knees by defeat in World War II. Explaining the film’s title in a press release, Toho put it in stark terms: “After the war, Japan’s economic state has been reduced to zero. Godzilla appears and plunges the country into a negative state.”” [via: Polygon]
posted by Fizz (34 comments total)

That shot of Godzilla swimming under the large warship was just....whoa.
posted by Kitteh at 5:53 AM on September 6, 2023

There is an explicit reference to Nagasaki in the original 1954 movie where one character says (paraphrasing) "I just missed being at Nagasaki and now this" so there is no perhaps about it. It may not be in the American version where they spliced in scenes with Raymond Burr.
posted by lordrunningclam at 6:08 AM on September 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

The writer / director is also getting VFX credit. I've never seen that before.
posted by grog at 6:11 AM on September 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

Godzilla as humanity's protector has always seemed like a big cop-out to me. I'm enthusiastically on board for a return to the original 'wrath of nature; steps on you' concept.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:46 AM on September 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

The Barbenheimer meme is sooooo last week. The TRUE doublebill should be: #OppenZilla
posted by 0bvious at 6:49 AM on September 6, 2023 [7 favorites]

It seems like it’s following in the gritty steps of shin Godzilla (which I have yet to see) but where shin took the sound effects and visual design from the original, this is taking the period setting.

But, if you don’t like this gritty feel Godzilla, just wait a few years and the next reboot will be here. Maybe it’s going to be a cuddly version of mecha Godzilla, or maybe it’s a grimdark version of godzuki.
posted by The River Ivel at 7:08 AM on September 6, 2023

Certain kaiju-obsessed children of my acquaintance are going to be all over this.
posted by medusa at 7:48 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

They...they left out the part of the trailer where everybody pulls on their boots and there's triumphant music and they go forth to battle. How are you supposed to have a happy ending without the triumphant music?
posted by mittens at 7:49 AM on September 6, 2023

shin Godzilla (which I have yet to see)

Yes. Yes you do.

Shin Gojira is, aside from the titular kaiju, painfully realistic about how the world would react. Japan is confused by the situation, as you'd expect. Then there is, as would be in the US, the inevitable discussions about the political issues and public perceptions of whatever they do. Things go deeper into the crapper when they promote someone completely useless to a position of power and he can't make a decision.

Meanwhile, a bunch of people who work for the government but generally would never get anywhere due to their not-quite-in-line behaviors use the chaos and their natures to work on options to save the country (and the world) by ignoring the public perceptions based on the idea of "if we don't solve this there won't be a public to perceive it".

At the same time, the Americans throw brute force at it, only to make things even worse.

Finally, the poor monster is just in constant agonizing pain, it never wanted to exist, and everything that happens just puts it in more pain.

If I had to rate it in the Great Scale of Godzilla Movies, I'd put it #2, right after the original.
posted by mephron at 8:15 AM on September 6, 2023 [18 favorites]

I think Shin Godzilla would be #1 if it didn't recycle music from Evangelion.
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:45 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

I feel like you get a pass for recycling Evangelion music if you're Hideaki Anno, though
posted by jason_steakums at 9:03 AM on September 6, 2023 [12 favorites]

I think Shin Godzilla would be #1 if it didn't recycle music from Evangelion.

I get it but on the other hand it's a rare film that wouldn't be improved with a little Decisive Battle.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:25 AM on September 6, 2023 [6 favorites]

I just listened to Decisive Battle for the first time. If you like that check out the Thunderball Underwater Battle music. Definitely being drawn on.
posted by kokaku at 9:31 AM on September 6, 2023

It needs to be #2, with #1 being Gojira, because Gojira created the franchise and deserves some respect. But where the original is a horror movie / social commentary, Shin is a horror movie wrapped in a political thriller and social commentary, and a much more complex movie, and it may be, on an absolute level, the superior of the two.
posted by mephron at 9:49 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Shin Godzilla is a kaiju film as made by Armando Iannucci.
posted by brundlefly at 10:01 AM on September 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

I love how Shin Godzilla's score breaks out the heavy guitar riffs for a montage of logistics stuff
posted by jason_steakums at 10:07 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

The TRUE doublebill should be: #OppenZilla

Psh. Barbzilla: Minus Ken

His job is just...monster.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:49 AM on September 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

> The writer / director is also getting VFX credit. I've never seen that before.

Sadly. I have: Skyline (2010). Hopefully, this movie will be better!
posted by riotnrrd at 11:03 AM on September 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

The writer / director is also getting VFX credit. I've never seen that before.

There's also Gareth Edwards for Monsters (also 2010).

It's not a perfect movie, but quite a bit better than Skyline.
posted by sevenless at 11:11 AM on September 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

Godzilla vs. Kurosawa's Stray Dog

I really want to see this.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:17 AM on September 6, 2023

It's reminiscent of 1969's Bambi Meets Godzilla
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:23 AM on September 6, 2023

Also don't sleep on Godzilla vs. Hedorah, I feel like that's a severely underrated entry in the original Showa era films
posted by jason_steakums at 11:26 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

nothing compares 2 "godzilla vs mothra"
posted by graywyvern at 11:46 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Godzilla? In the forties? Why, that reminds me of the incongruous fantasy opening scene from 2007's Always Sunset on Third Street part 2! You remember; the pitch-perfect Godzilla homage that opens the otherwise conventional period family film, complete with classic score and Toho logo! Yes, that one; possibly the best two-minute Godzilla mini-film of the decade!

Now, who directed that I wonder? Oh, it's successful writer/director/VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki! I wonder what he's working on lately...
posted by Verg at 12:09 PM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

nothing compares 2 "godzilla vs mothra"

or really any of the Mothra films
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:14 PM on September 6, 2023

I'm so excited. I just finished reading the new translation (by Jeffrey Angles) of Shigeru Kayama's novelizations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. As Angles points out in the afterword, Kayama's contribution to the creation of Godzilla is often overshadowed by those of Ishiro Honda, Eiji Ysuburaya, Tomoyuki Tanaka, etc. He wrote the story, and it's super interesting to see the symbolism he worked in and the even harder anti-nuclear line he drew than made it into the final film.

Regarding Minus Zero, I'm very curious to see how it politically tackles the occupation period. Shin Godzilla, on its surface, seems to be about Fukushima but has rather interesting politics, especially in relation to the earlier Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 12:20 PM on September 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

Godzilla as humanity's protector has always seemed like a big cop-out to me

It's pretty explicit in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster that Mothra's self sacrifice was what guilted Godzilla and Rodan to protecting humanity.
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:21 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's never not going to be so weird to me in the best way that starting with Godzilla Raids Again you're actually seeing a second identical monster named Godzilla because to write themselves out of the corner of Godzilla dying in the original they were just like, fuck it, there's two of him.
posted by jason_steakums at 12:52 PM on September 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

I just listened to Decisive Battle for the first time. If you like that check out the Thunderball Underwater Battle music. Definitely being drawn on.

The best Star Trek movie is Galaxy Quest,
The best They Might Be Giants song is Weird Al's "Everything You Know Is Wrong"
and
The best Bond-movie music is Decisive Battle
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:52 PM on September 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm enthusiastically on board for a return to the original 'wrath of nature; steps on you' concept.

As others have mentioned, the recentish Shin Godzilla also does this, to the point of making its version of Godzilla almost entirely mindless and acting out of pure instinct for the majority of the movie (it arguably gets intelligent later on, but it is deliberately ambiguous). It's not good or evil, it just is.
posted by asnider at 3:25 PM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

I think Shin Godzilla would be #1 if it didn't recycle music from Evangelion.

It was fine, except for the part where everyone stood in circle around Godzilla and applauded.
posted by betweenthebars at 3:45 PM on September 6, 2023 [9 favorites]

The other two Shin movies (Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider) are really enjoyable too, very different from Shin Godzilla but they're like a breath of fresh air as far as superhero-adjacent stuff goes
posted by jason_steakums at 4:33 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Godzilla as humanity's protector has always seemed like a big cop-out to me

I took it to be cold war commentary. The arrogant, unpredictable monster that can't be reasoned with, the one that recently destroyed most of our country, is sort of on our side now?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:19 PM on September 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

What's wild is when the movies got into the in-universe pop culture appeal of kaiju, countless deaths and massive destruction hovering unpredictably over humanity because of these giant monsters and they were making toys and building kaiju theme parks in the movies
posted by jason_steakums at 2:14 PM on September 7, 2023