How many of the human characters can you remember from the various Godzilla movies? Godzilla Minus One gives us a stirring central figure: Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a kamikaze pilot in the waning days of World War II who abandons his suicidal mission, instead landing on remote island and claiming to the mechanics there that his plane malfunctioned. Just as they realize he’s lying, Godzilla attacks. Shikishima escapes, but most of the others don’t, giving him a double dose of survivor’s guilt when he returns to the devastated Japanese mainland. When Godzilla resurfaces, the monster embodies Shikishima’s deepest fears. Writer-director Takashi Yamazaki and his team of effects artists bring a thrilling immediacy and tactility to the monster sequences, but what I loved most about Godzilla Minus One is the way it evokes the sense of loss and mourning of the granddaddy of these pictures, 1954’s Gojira (Godzilla in the U.S.) “Is your war finally over?” Shikishima is asked near the end of the film. As long as our wars aren’t, we’ll need Godzilla movies like this.
(12/21/2023)
