Godzilla returns and gives battle to another kaiju monster as humans scramble to survive. The film is stirring and impressive, and there are emotional messages of self-sacrifice and clinging to loved ones during crisis. But there’s lots of massive destruction and some unexpected “body horror” in the mix.
It’s 1949.
Japan has been attempting to pull itself up from all the devastation that has assaulted its people in recent years. In 1945, there was the American nuclear attack that ended years of brutal war. Then, a mere two years later, there was the attack by a mysterious monster—a radioactive mutated creature dubbed Godzilla!
But now, just a few short years after finally destroying that scaley colossus, a new threat has hit the country’s shores. Is it … a dragon? Yes, it’s a monstrous, flying creature, ripping buildings into chunks of stone and kindling, sending crowds screaming in horror.
News of this monster, this kaiju’s arrival flashes to the Disaster Response Bureau in Tokyo. And Kenji “Doc” Noda leaps into action. But what can they actually do? Their people, their pilots, their forces are all still in shambles or dealing with the physical and emotional scars of the recent past.
Fortunately, the American military is still close enough to give a bit of help. They have some new prototype planes to offer, and a “Fuel-Air” bomb that can, reportedly, create a massive 5400-degree fireball when detonated. Of course, there is one caveat: No American pilots will be a part of the attack. If the Japanese want the weaponry, they’ll have to fly it themselves.
That’s a problem. Kôichi Shikishima is the only truly capable pilot they have. And Kôichi has chosen to lead a quiet life with his wife, Noriko, and their daughter, Akiko. Doc Noda can only hope that he might somehow convince Kôichi to at least advise lessor pilots in the assault.
In the meantime, there is a possible plan B that Doc can try. A meteorology expert by the name of Makoto has recently joined their team. And she believes that with the right application of math and the weather itself, they might stage an incredibly powerful attack from the skies with lightning.
Fortunately, their target, this new massive creature, has … gone to sleep? Yes! The monster has laid down in a nearby valley and become dormant after its string of catastrophic attacks. This is their chance to prepare their underdog forces and throw their plans into effect. Perhaps, with the right turn of good fortune, Japan will be able to rid itself of yet another great menace!
Then …
Godzilla—the one they thought they destroyed—rises up out of the ocean.
Kôichi and Noriko are both incredibly focused on living a safe, quiet homelife with their beloved, adopted daughter Akiko. They love one another completely. And they decide to leave Tokyo to find a place where they can be isolated and raise their family.
However, Noriko is also very concerned with helping others. And she realizes that she and her husband both have needed gifts and skills. “Japan is full of children like Akiko,” she tells Kôichi. (In fact, Noriko used to work in an orphanage filled with such children.) So she convinces Kôichi that they must sacrifice to serve a larger cause.
Likewise, all of the central characters run into the face of danger to help protect people and battle against incredible odds. Some run into impossible situations knowing they will likely die in the attempt.
Someone suggests the attack by the new creature is “divine providence.” Human defenders devise a new form of attack on a weakened monster that someone suggests is, “Another moral boundary that mankind shouldn’t cross.” Someone else states, “The sinfulness of it gives me pause.”
When Kôichi must leave home to help the battle efforts, Noriko tells their young daughter that saying “Have a safe trip” is like a magic spell: It wishes the traveler well and compels them to hurry back safely.
People pause at times, eyes closed in a prayer-like, silent stance before a large attack.
Kôichi and Noriko embrace and kiss.
As might be expected, there are huge scenes of structural damage on display. Cityscapes are crushed, massive blocks of buildings are levitated up and smashed down, and it’s all rendered with very realistic-looking physics and detailed graphics. In the midst of that chaotic destruction, we see people screaming, running in terror, being scooped up, snatched out of the air and smashed.
In one scene, for instance, a pilot sees a woman and her young daughter on the balcony of a levitated house, both screaming for help, before the building is smashed to the ground. In another, a parachuting pilot is attacked mid-air and sent hurtling to his death. Vehicles are hit with lightning blasts.
Both Godzilla and the dragon-like creature (“Ghidorah”) shoot blazing blast attacks—Godzilla, a nuclear gust; Ghidorah, a massive lightning burst. Bombs are dropped on these beasties that erupt in gigantic bursts of fire. Large traps filled with nitrogen gas and gasoline alternately freeze and ignite a trapped creature. A large lighting rod is dropped from a plane, lodging into Ghidorah’s scaley back. Lightning then rips into the creature, sending it crashing to the ground.
The creatures attack each other, too, ripping one another open with massive teeth and tearing limbs off. The camera gazes closely at gory wounds and limbs.
We see the corrupting effects of nuclear bombs and kaiju attacks on human flesh. People are stopped in their tracks, their skin shriveling and searing from deadly blasts. We see the crisped human remains left behind by the World War II nuclear attack in Hiroshima. A flashback shows a hospital packed with bleeding people wrapped in quickly placed bandages. Bloody smears are everywhere in the overflowing hallways.
[Released in Japanese with English subtitles.]
There’s one exclamation of “frickin” in the dialogue, along with six uses of “d–n,” several uses of “h—” and one use each of “a–” and “crap.”
Many people smoke. In fact, planning meetings often take place beneath a cloud of cigarette smoke.
The U.S. government and its military are not seen through a positive lens. In fact, Americans are depicted as duplicitous and power-hungry. One man who was devastated by the deaths of his loved ones harbors an intense hatred and thirst for revenge. We see him imagine the horrible deaths of many, clenching his fists and ranting with dark elation, before catching his expression in a mirror and blanching.
There have been Godzilla films for more than 70 years now. And all of them, through their giant-monster destruction, have symbolically depicted mankind’s collective anxieties. Initially, the films figuratively contemplated the horrible devastation and aftereffects of atomic war. But through the years, they’ve denoted everything from ecological dread to geopolitical angst.
Writer-director Takashi Yamazaki, however, has pulled the massive, radioactive monster back to its roots.
Godzilla Minus One (released in 2023) focused on a post-World War II, 1947 Japan that was battered down from a state of atomic-bombed “zero” by a nuclear-mutated Godzilla. Tokyo was leveled, and the people were driven into a “minus one” crisis.
Yamazaki’s latest, Godzilla Minus Zero picks things up in 1949 with a new city-demolishing threat. What can that title possibly mean? Well, let’s just say that fans should consider an old Godzilla foe called “Monster Zero.” That might give you a clue.
However, all potential spoilers aside, I can say that Godzilla Minus Zero feels, amazingly, like an old Toho Co., Ltd. release of yore mixed with the most theater-shaking sound and realistic graphic images you can imagine. In fact, this is the first live Toho production shot with 70 mm film on IMAX-certified cameras. And the results are dynamic.
More importantly, though, Yamazaki and crew are able to draw us deeper into the passions that drive the humans in this kaiju-populated world. Sure, buildings are devastated and beasties rage, but it’s the people wresting with fears, desires for revenge and consuming love that help us connect with the film.
The movie asks us to consider what we value most and what we cling to when everything is crumbling in our lives. It doesn’t open the door to thoughts of faith, per se, but it does state that family is a core part of our hope for the future.
Oh, but what about that R rating?
Well, Yamazaki leans more into what might be seen as “body horror”—on both the human and monster front. We see creature dismemberment in battles. But worse, we’re shown images of crisped and radiation-corrupted human flesh. We see a hospital hall lined with the bloody carnage of war. And that’s on top of the usual Godzilla decimation that you might come in already expecting.
Is this fleshy mess shockingly gory? No. But it’s definitely bloody and unsettling, and you won’t want to drag sensitive tykes into that mix. Unlike those old Toho productions, this is not a film with a guy in a big rubber suit.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
