I watched the movie this afternoon too and I think it's my new favorite Godzilla film!

How to describe what I just saw? This is not a campy fan service movie revolving around epic monster fights and an endless stream of nostalgic self-references. This is a passionate human story that uses a giant monster as a metaphor for post-war trauma. Minus One isn't the first Godzilla movie to do that, but is clearly distinguished by its embrace of a populist ethos. In most Godzilla movies, the major human characters are government officials, businessmen, military forces, reporters, etc.; the usual movers and shakers and influence-makers of society. In this one, it's just regular people for whom the world, and even their own government, seems to care nothing. It falls to them to try and defeat Godzilla on their own somehow.

This is not a cerebral picture at all, but rather an earnest and heartfelt plea for catharsis and humanity. In a way, watching it felt a bit like watching some Clint Eastwood drama except, you know, it being Japanese and featuring a giant monster. It's dramatic, it's emotional, it's patriotic, it's straightforward, and it's got clear heroes and they're underdogs who you can't help rooting for with all your might, and little dashes of humor in all the right places. I stress the emotional part here though because I cried through like half the movie. Okay okay, people know I'm a wimp that way, but I think that anyone with a soul at all will shed at least a few tears watching.

If there was anything I disliked about Godzilla Minus One, it was the very last scene in the picture wherein it turns out that...

Part of you probably knew that was going to happen because, of course, there is more money to be made here, but it shouldn't have because it kind of undercuts the message of the film a bit. I encourage you to just pretend that this concession to commercialism isn't there, as this is otherwise a straight-up cinematic masterpiece.

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

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.

Nice. :)

I became a fan at 13 or 14; I started studying Japanese at school and my Dad started taping any Japanese movies that were on TV as a way to help me practice, and one night Godzilla vs Destoroyah was on; I was instantly hooked!

And yeah, in a series of mostly fun B movies, Minus One is really something else, a genuinely great piece of cinema.

The acting, the music, the direction, the writing, it's all great stuff. Even the effects work is astounding good for a film that cost just $15 million to make; less than 10% of the recent Hollywood Godzilla flicks due to Japan's film industry being a fraction the size of the US.

Knowing another language is impressive!

I thought Godzilla vs. Destroyah was surely the end of the franchise! Three generations of installments later...nah, Godzilla will never really die. They'll always find a way to keep him going. It's too important to too many people.

Speaking of the effects, that heat breath is what made a lot of the difference from other Godzilla movies in terms of the stakes here, I think. It's always been a staple feature of Godzilla movies (...except well that American one from '98, but let's just pretend that didn't happen), but not like this. They lengthened the build-up and like 10-upped the power of it compared to how it's normally portrayed and that made any situation where Godzilla's building up toward unleashing it feel a lot more threatening; like everything could potentially end here. That's working smarter, not harder.

I saw it, yeah, it's amazing. Some great cinematography, acting, writing, score, the mood is bleak but it keeps finding a way of giving you hope through this family that stumbled into one another. It kinda reminded me of Grave of the Fireflies, though it's not that sad. I also wasn't expecting it to feel so much like a "remake" of the 1954 original, almost note-for-note with most of its plot points, and sorry to any purists out there, but I think it's simply a much better retelling of that story in every way.

Also the CGI in this was absolutely amazing, barring one scene later on I thought everything looked basically real. It's on par with the best CGI in Hollywood's Monsterverse, which is insane given how much smaller the budget is. It certainly looks way better than the ugly game-y look of that new Godzilla v Kong trailer.

In most movies I would agree, but personally I feel like Minus One really earned

And yeah, it's crazy how good it looked considering the budget was less than 10% of the Legendary Godzilla films. Really goes to show that talent and passion goes a long way.

Did you have a favourite scene/moment?