Godzilla Minus One | Full Length Watch Along
Added 2024-05-31 19:18:06 +0000 UTCTouted as one of the best movies of 2023, I'm stepping into the world of Godzilla for the first-time watching Godzilla: Minus One.
It's post World War II Japan, and Koichi is returning to destroyed home not only as a failed pilot, but also having witnessed the massacre of Odo Island by the monster Godzilla.
Redemption arc lovers? This is your movie. Buckle up and let's go!
Comments
Godzilla representing the fury of nature is an interesting idea! I'd be passed too!
Anna Alexander
2024-06-02 21:54:13 +0000 UTCGot a chance to sit down and re-watch this along with your reaction tonight... I liked it just as much as I did the first time, and I cried at the end yet again. A couple responses about your final thoughts (sorry for the long wall of text): Totally understand your perspective on the missing "whys". Glad you enjoyed the film despite that and could see the good parts of it, even if it wasn't your favorite thing. For me personally, this is definitely my favorite Godzilla movie, precisely because I find the human story so compelling. PTSD and survivor's guilt are powerful things, and this story not only delves deep into those things, it also depicts them on a national scale, as most of the characters we meet were in some way survivors of a devastating war and are now all trying to figure out how to move on. And that kind of gets into the "whys" that you were missing, which were alluded to a bit in this film but never really stated, though they are part of Godzilla lore dating back to the earliest movies. In short, Godzilla simultaneously represents the atomic bomb/nuclear weapons, the human hubris involved in using it, and nature's rage/the unforeseen consequences of it. As you might imagine, that's something that has real cultural weight in Japan. In the traditional films (which differ substantially from the recent American ones), Godzilla was a slumbering prehistoric creature that was woken up by the blast and mutated by radiation, causing it to grow in size and gain its atomic breath weapon. This film sort of shows that in the brief interlude that kicks off with the Bikini Atoll detonation and continues with newsreels describing the creature moving through the pacific - the implication being that continued nuclear testing has caused it to continue growing to enormous size and given it that breath. But it's subtle and all done in inference - a call-out to Godzilla lore more than anything. But keep in mind that on Odo island, it was much smaller and we didn't see a breath weapon of any sort. Anyway, as far as Godzilla's motivation - it doesn't really have one, because at the end of the day Godzilla is an allegory and not a real character. It's a force of nature, violent and bent on destruction, but without much more intention than a tornado. It's just something to be survived or an obstacle to be overcome. Though in later films they started giving Godzilla a personality and motivations and started turning it into a real character. This film, though, goes back to those original roots instead. Maybe that plays into the "minus one"? I'm not really sure where that comes from though, to be honest. Those are just some thoughts that I wanted to share as a long-time Godzilla fan that hopefully help provide some extra context. Thanks for giving this one a try despite it being outside your wheelhouse! I really enjoyed seeing your reactions to it. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!
Neil Silverman
2024-06-02 04:19:46 +0000 UTCOooh, I was meaning to recommend this one, so I'm glad you're checking it out! My wife and I saw it in the theaters, and we were really blown away by it. I've been a Godzilla fan since I was a kid, but this is by far the best of them IMO. Going to try watch this watch-along over this weekend!
Neil Silverman
2024-05-31 20:27:40 +0000 UTC
