G-1.0/C

Poster for Godzilla Minus One Minus Color

Autumn and I went to see Godzilla Minus One in black and white today. I’ve been wanting to see this movie since the initial buzz began to build after it’s initial release, but weather and life kept making it inconvenient to really put in the effort to go to a movie. I kinda hoped to hear a date it would be available for streaming, but the movie keeps doing well in the theater!

And for good reason: this may be one of the hardest hitting human stories told in a monster movie—ever? I would gladly entertain debate, don’t get me wrong. But through a story of this kamikaze pilot who keeps encountering, and surviving, Godzilla, we see through his eyes that past, present, and the potential failures of the “establishment” to help or protect society are struggles anyone can face, and for no reason.

This Godzilla is very much a horror movie. The horrors of war, the horrors of what the Japanese Empire expected of it’s soldiers and citizens during WWII specifically, the horror of an unstoppable force hellbent on just knocking shit down because it can. Godzilla again is a force of nature here, and a stand-in for the atomic bomb, but she’s (yes, I believe Godzilla is female due to a headcanon built upon Minilla, the “Son of Godzilla,” and the 1998 American Godzilla laying all those eggs so we could have a raptor scene for some reason, but that part stuck, so, the big G is a girl) a typhoon, and a big ass reminder that all our weapons and spirit aren’t anything to rely on if there’s no one around to appreciate the effort. It dares to reframe war as a concept no one should embrace or pursue, that living and surviving are worth more than taking up arms, and even if one must defend themselves, death shouldn’t be a forgone conclusion.

There are intense and horrifying scenes, dramatic and heartfelt interactions. There is a lot of love in this movie, and it’s what is worth protecting, but it’s never a romance. Some of the characters are even mad that it isn’t a romance! But that’s part of what makes it so great. These are all survivors of WWII, trusting each other is either way too easy or far too difficult. We see their lives in the wake of “the air raids.” Nagasaki and Hiroshima aren’t ever referenced. They show the Bikini Atoll explosion, insinuating it may have been an attempt to kill Godzilla. Then Godzilla shows up around Japan, anyway.

The government won’t warn the people of Tokyo of their impending doom because that’ll cause a panic, and outright fighting with boats and planes is dangerous because they’re supposed to be decommissioned and it could draw the US and Soviets into conflict right over them. It is the regular people who already know of the danger who must rise up against a threat no one will acknowledge or help with. But they are clear with each other, no one is being asked to die, they are fighting for survival. Only the monster needs to be stopped.

Here, the movie begins to take on an Evil Dead II quality, and don’t look into that too hard, I’ll explain. It doesn’t get slapstick suddenly, but this is a remake, interquel/prequel to the 1954 original. There’s a plan regarding gasses and water, but instead of killing everything in the water by depriving it of oxygen like the original, they use a mixture of gases to try and crush and decompress Godzilla to death, all the while, our original pilot and main character we have been following is set up to be our final last ditch effort if need be.

And the need arises.

Except, no one has been asked to die, and the only other survivor from the first attack in the film, makes sure there is a way to survive this, too. That living isn’t anything to be ashamed of.

That resonates with me especially, as I look upon the events of my own life with a survivor’s eye. I don’t have a Godzilla or a war in my past (and as the movie points out, never having fought in a war is something to be proud of), but there have been times I wondered what living on meant and how I could honor simply being alive.

2016’s Shin Godzilla was a response to the Fukishima accident, a creature of nuclear waste, wrecking the city because it can, with ineffectual government and corporate forces mostly just wasting time debating what they should do instead of doing anything.

Japan has a lot to be mad about when it comes to government and disaster maintenance. They say it out loud, loudly, in their Godzilla films. Minus One is no exception, and they both end with stingers that suggest Toho (the studio behind the Japanese Godzilla films) is building toward something.

Someone we think has died is not, but they are not exactly right when we meet them. Something is slightly off, even in black and white, whatever that was, it was evident. Shin Godzilla ends with what looks like Godzilla “disintegrating” into humanoid shapes. One thing we expect from Godzilla, is size. The bigger the better. In Minus One, Godzilla seems to grow in size the more it’s attacked and regenerates. But what if Toho brought Godzilla down among us? What if Godzilla was a global pandemic? A virus that changed people into monsters who wreck things just because they can?

With where the real world has been and is going in the last ten years (or 70)? I think Toho is priming Godzilla to become something we’ve never imagined, and for something that often brings to mind laughable and silly films, bringing something serious to the table is worth seeing in the theater. The black and white version gives it that old-school vibe, but it might also protect it in the future when the cgi starts to age by comparison to newer films. This is a limited run, too, and if you’re still waiting to see it at home, I’d still recommend watching it in color or black and white, the story will be the same no matter how big the screen or the monster.

Surviving is worth fighting for.

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