On "Godzilla Minus One" for The Atlantic
I used to run like hell from Godzilla movies, not out of fear butembarrassment. As a Japanese-American teenager in diversity-poor rural NewEngland, I winced at the sight of a dude in a rubber suit stomping on cardboardcities. It looked silly and cheap, two Asian stereotypes I was trying hard tolive down, so I ran even faster from the Americans I knew who actually liked Godzilla to avoid being cast asyet another Asian American nerd.
Godzilla outran me. Japan’s nuclear lizard is now the face of the world’slongest-running film franchise, according to Guinness World Records, turning 70this year on the heels of its most successful iteration yet. Released into U.S.theaters with scant publicity, “Godzilla Minus One” is NorthAmerica’s highest-grossing Japanese-language movie ever and has surpassed the $100 million mark globally on a production budget of under $15 million. A box officeblockbuster with a price tag minus one of Hollywood’s lavish digits. It’s alsoan award-winning critical hit, nominated by the Academy for Best Visual FX andwidely praised for telling an emotionally absorbing story set in a devastatedpostwar Japan.
I first saw themovie last November when it premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival.I was less moved than impressed—not so much by the digital monster, but by theskillful sleight of hand behind the movie’s historical dissonance. While thefilm’s sets and costumes look period-based, its story, characters and emotional resonance are piercingly up-to-the-minute.
No longer aprophylactic-sheathed performer, the mightier if less endearingcomputer-generated Godzilla roars to life in the first few minutes, menacing agroup of Japanese mechanics and grounded pilot Koichi Shikishima on a barren SouthPacific island. For some reason, Shikishima can’t bring himself to pull thetrigger (it's a giant lizard, for chrissake) of the machine gunonly he can operate, and all but one of the mechanics is murdered. A failed kamikaze fighter and accidentalfamily man suffering a very contemporary crisis of masculinity, Shikishima (whose surname is also an ancient poetic term that once meant "Japan") is an action hero so paralyzed by his fear ofcommitment that he can barely take any action at all. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:0 0 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1342185562 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}span.msoIns {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-style-name:""; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; color:teal;}span.msoDel {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-style-name:""; text-decoration:line-through; color:red;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
>>More at The Atlantic.
@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:0 0 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1342185562 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}span.msoIns {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-style-name:""; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; color:teal;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:0 0 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1342185562 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}span.msoIns {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-style-name:""; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; color:teal;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
