You might’ve seen lately that the recent Godzilla film, Godzilla Minus One, has been earning lots of money at the box office in America and Japan. This Godzilla film is filmed by the company who made the original Godzilla films in the 1900s, Toho Co, not the Monsterverse (the American Godzilla franchise) that was made by Warner Bros. This is one of the highest rated foreign films and doesn’t even have an English dub for when it premiered in Japanese in the States. If you’re still deciding whether to watch this movie, I’ll help you decide.

The Plot of the Movies

The plot of the movie is a direct callback to the original Godzilla film made in 1954 by Ishirō Honda, where a legendary and ancient monster, Godzilla, is awoken by hydrogen bomb testing and starts to terrorize the islands of Japan. The plot was simple and yet still interesting as it follows a human who is tasked with fighting off Godzilla in order to save the ones he loves. The plot of Godzilla Minus One is almost identical to the one of the original film; set near the end of WWII, it starts with a kamikaze pilot named Kōichi Shikishima landing at an airbase at Odo Island in order to get his plane fixed. After the lead mechanic of the island, named Tachibana, says that nothing is wrong with his plane, Shikishima decides to leave in the morning. Although Tachibana believes that Shikishima is trying to escape his duty as a kamikaze pilot and survive the war, a great betrayal to the Empire of Japan. That night a giant monster rises from the sea, it looks like a giant dinosaur whom the locals of the island call Godzilla (or Gojira in Japanese). Godzilla kills all the other mechanics on the island leaving only Tachibana and Shikishima alive, Tachibana blames Shikishima for the deaths of his comrades as Shikishima didn’t have the guts to shoot Godzilla with the guns on his plane. Both then part ways, though not before Shikishima receives the family pictures of all the mechanics who died that day to remember what he could’ve prevented if he had just shot his plane guns. Soon after, Shikishima goes home and WWII ends, the US begins testing nuclear weapons on Bikini Atoll, where the monster Godzilla mutates and turns into a horrible monster capable of mass destruction. Godzilla, enraged at humanity sets its sights on the nearest populated area, the islands of Japan. If this already seems interesting then maybe this movie is for you, if you are still not sure yet, you can read my opinion on the movie below.

My Opinion

My opinion on the Godzilla Minus One movie was that it was one of the best foreign movies to hit the US in 2023. The plot is so intriguing and interesting, and is almost certainly a direct callback to the original along with a special twist for new, modern audiences. The CGI and effects were incredible and spectacular, especially considering the movie had a budget of under 15 million compared to the budget of Godzilla: King of the Monsters being over 150 million. This movie was an absolutely amazing movie, and I would say it is a must watch! The theater was such a cool experience with all the surround sound that made Godzilla’s roar feel real. If you can’t watch it in the theater, it unfortunately isn’t on any streaming services yet, though it hopefully will be soon.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, I consider Godzilla Minus One movie to be one of the greatest Godzilla movies of all time! I think that everyone should watch this movie at some point, regardless of if you’re a Godzilla fan or not. And who knows, you might just become one after watching this!

Sources:

Hemenway, Megan. “Godzilla Minus One’s Incredible Box Office Success Explained.”
ScreenRant, 2023, screenrant.com/
godzilla-minus-one-box-office-success-explained/
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nt. Accessed 21 Dec. 2023.

“Godzilla (1954 Film).” Wikipedia, 2 Jan. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Godzilla_(1954_film). Accessed 3 Jan. 2024.

Godzilla Minus One. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Toho Studios, 2023.