Last week there was a digital launch, we found out about it. In this text we tell you how the team of creators managed to wrap a banal concept with a huge monster that destroys everything in its path in a non-trivial canvas of social drama so that it was understandable for audiences in both the East and the East. West.
It’s not often said, but “Godzilla,” as a phenomenon in Japan, at one point became a kind of mass cultural therapy after World War II. The residents of the aggressor country, who survived the worst bombing in the history of humanity, almost ten years later saw on the big screen a monster that again destroyed cities, including with the help of radiation and atomic breath. Except Godzilla was more tangible than projectiles falling from the sky and ultimately subdued.
The subtitle “Minus One” in the new part of the franchise refers to the fact that the events take place not in 1954, as before, but in 1946, immediately after the end of the military conflict. Those. When the losing state was already at zero, a terrible lizard emerged from the depths of the ocean and began to drive it into the red.
The story centers on kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima. He failed in his mortal duty by lying about the plane’s malfunction, which set off a chain of events that led to the death of nearly all of his fellow soldiers in the clutches of Godzilla.
Upon returning home, he learns that his loved ones did not survive the bombing. On this basis, he gets along with the girl Noriko, who also lost her relatives and took custody of the orphan girl Akiko. The protagonist is tormented by his conscience and the nightmares associated with the war and Godzilla.
He, like all the other inhabitants of Tokyo, will have to meet the monster again: after testing a hydrogen bomb at the Bikini test site, the creature increased in size and became even angrier.
Confronting the enormous beast is only half of the movie. The second focuses on the main character’s post-traumatic stress disorder.
The authors pay close attention to this aspect and reveal the theme from unexpected angles, raising questions about the fear of death, self-sacrifice and other things you would never expect to see when the genre long ago formed the tropes that for the next few hours. You’ll have to watch a popcorn blockbuster about how a lizard. The overgrown man destroys power plants and throws himself into the train cars.
Photo: kinorium.com
Although viewers who came specifically to watch said content will not be deprived either. Furthermore, the action is organized in a very interesting and inventive way. At a time when Hollywood attacks kaiju with stealth and other modern means of combat, the proud sons of the country of samurai desperately fight a gigantic monster on a fragile wooden ship, which only has in its arsenal a heavy machine gun and a submarine mines. It looks very exciting and fresh.
Photo: kinorium.com
The image is organically framed by a musical accompaniment in which wind chimes of original melodies can be heard, some of which are more than half a century old.
There is no point in criticizing the performances; Of course, there are many “overactings” characteristic of Asian cinema, but these are rather oriental cultural characteristics.
Photo: kinorium.com
It’s worth noting here that “Minus One” has nothing to do with the American MonsterVerse with its stand with Kong: these are universes separate from each other.
In short, let’s say that the new Japanese movie about Godzilla was definitely a success. Its viewing can be recommended not only to the viewer who wants to turn off his brain while he watches, letting himself be carried away by the bright attraction of exciting but thoughtless action, but also to the wider public.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
