Starring: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Sakura Ando, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka
Distributor: Sugoi
Runtime: 124 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Post-War Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptised in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.
This 2023 addition to the Godzilla franchise, as the introduction indicates, is timed for the 70th anniversary of the first Godzilla film which was released in 1954. Since then, there have been 33 Japanese Godzilla films, four American films, including a confrontation between King Kong and Godzilla and its sequel for 2024.
Audiences have expectations of Godzilla films – the monster and the destruction it brings, especially walking through cities and destroying them, human stories as background, and the plans to confront and destroy Godzilla.
These are here but this is a prequel story, an origin story, starting at the end of World War II.
It is important to say that this film has been a commercial and critical success. And this reviewer concurs. This is a watchable Godzilla film. The narration and incidents are in the older, traditional style of storytelling. The human background story is nicely developed, audiences identifying with the characters, there is some emotion, a child, a reticent romance, a kamikaze pilot Koichi (Kamiki), wracked by guilt for not trying to destroy Godzilla and the consequent deaths of soldiers.
Another advantage is this is all presented in a ‘realistic’ way, with audiences identifying with places and dates indicated, from 1945 just before the war ends, to Tokyo after the war, the rebuilding of the city and the country, the role of General MacArthur, US-Soviet tensions and inadequacies of the Japanese government. And another advantage is the plans to destroy Godzilla are explained in detail, offering some plausibility, scientific information about ships, planes, bombs, and the strategies.
The scene is set with Godzilla appearing early in the film, terrorising the troops on an island in 1945, with the audience appreciating Godzilla’s return. The visuals are the same – and the comment was made that the sounds in the original were amplified for Godzilla sounds here.
With the human story in the rebuilding of Tokyo after the war, there is a context for Godzilla’s return and the massive destruction visualised as Godzilla treads through Tokyo. And there are some touches of tragedy.
The last part of the film offers the plans for luring Godzilla to a particular spot in the ocean, away from Tokyo, the scientific means to overcome Godzilla and to be sent to the bottom of the ocean.
As expected, the plan does not work as hoped for, a move to Plan B, and, the possibility for Koichi to redeem himself.
This is a well-told story, with audiences identifying with the human element, expectations of Godzilla sequences well fulfilled, the confrontation dramatised, some happiness in the ending but, of course, the camera going down, to the company of beating music and of strong orchestral and choral music that has accompanied Godzilla throughout the film, and, there, at the bottom of the ocean is Godzilla returning to life.
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