| curl-6 said: I always love reading your detailed and well thought out posts, and I never knew you into Godzilla! I teared up a few times as well, the human story, which is usually a sideshow in kaiju flicks, was very strong here. A few scenes really got to me like Spoiler!
Shikishima thinking he has lost Noriko after Ginza is nuked, the civilian boats all showing up to help at the end, and the veterans telling the younger crew member not to come with them and that "not having been to war is something to be proud of."
I also loved its exploration of the legacy of WW2 in Japan, of ordinary people trying to pick up the pieces and rebuild their country and their identity after such a massive trauma, but also its insistence that the war's wrongs must be learned from. I know its a very controversial topic in Japan so kudos to the filmmakers for being brave enough to address it. |
You're very kind. 
I discovered Godzilla back in first grade, in 1988, when a Japanese-American kid named Art who happened to be in my class told me about it after I mentioned that I liked dinosaurs. He made Godzill sound so cool. My mom got me a Godzilla vs. Megalon from the local video store just as a random pick after I shared my interest with her, which turned out to be the perfect entry for someone my age. It's one of the dumbest entries in the whole franchise and the dubbing in English is comically bad, but I was too young to notice. 
It had lots of super-cool kaiju action and that's what mattered to me, lol, although I do remember being upset when poor Godzilla got bloodied by Gigan. That scared me. Nonetheless I got over it and soon wound up pressuring my best friend at the time, Casey, into pretending to be Jet Jaguar as I play-acted the role of Godzilla whilst we did repeat viewings. I think my heat breath imitation was pretty spot-on if I do say so myself. 
(I was such a girly-girl, no? 
) From there it was on to the more recent and serious picture, Godzilla 1985 (as The Return of Godzilla was known Stateside). Definitely a scarier movie that made me like Godzilla himself less since he wasn't the good guy this time around, but I got used to it in time and stopped caring whether he was good or not in these films, ha! When you're a little kid, you're shorter than most everybody and you don't have much control over your life. One can very much yearn to be taller and powerful.
Eventually I accrued all but I think four of the movies on VHS, but it was the DVD re-releases in the early 2000s that made it possible for me to finally finish out my collection and get fully up to speed. Re-watching everything at that point in life gave me a different perspective on the franchise. I started noticing the social commentary in the films more and relating to the human characters in some of the more serious movies more. I would say that my interest in some of the kiddier entries from the late '60s and '70s especially diminished a lot, but y'know, childhood nostalgia is still a thing after all.
Anyway yeah, I've followed the Godzilla movies now for just about my whole life. That kinda began as an extension of my childhood interest in dinosaurs and ultimately transformed into an interest in what this creature has meant to the people of Japan. This is a B-movie franchise for the most part, let's face it, but Godzilla Minus One is not. This is the kind of movie that has real award-winning potential, I would go as far as to say. Frankly, all the actors in this movie do an incredible job, but Ryunosuke Kamiki in particular brought an exceptional and highly convincing passion to his role as Koichi, I thought. Just the way he cries and howls and crawls around on the ground at different points in the film have a raw emotional power that transferred the magnitude of his suffering directly to my heart. "My war is not over yet" was one of the most truthful and affecting lines in the film. There was a moment toward the end of the picture where...
Also, Akiko is just ridiculously cute. Honestly, hearing babies cry normally somewhat annoys me, but not here somehow. The context and the downright unfair adorableness of Akiko broke my built-up immunity and made me tear up too.
Many accolades are deserved here.
Last edited by Jaicee - on 03 December 2023
