By Joe Gibson
If you are unaware, I am
currently in the process of releasing a Godzilla Minus One review here and to
our YouTube page. I explain it in more depth in the previous part (https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2025/06/godzilla-minus-one-strengths-and.html), but the video will be
more complete, and the review in blog post form is unfolding this way to
advertise the video but also to give you this written option if you would
prefer to read than listen.
The Ocean Battle
Analyzed
The scene of the dossier
on the moving Godzilla seems directly inspired from Godzilla 2014 (noted
inspirations for the imagery of this movie are Gareth Edward’s 2014 film as
well as the Spielberg films that inspired that one, and the above picture is of Takashi Yamazaki with Edwards after the fact), but, once we get to the
first ocean battle against Godzilla, some shots will be almost direct
reproductions of those in Godzilla vs Kong’s ocean battle, just transplanted to
a different context with different stakes. I should mention that this Godzilla
is territorial, and the shots of his pathing as well as GvK allusions indicate
that territorial nature.
General MacArthur stops
directly short of appearing in this movie, declaring that if the U.S. were to
get involved in stopping Godzilla, that might exacerbate tensions with the
Soviets. Though it is true and acknowledged in this very film that the United
States helped Japan to rebuild after the war to the point where despite the
nuke, we have been allies for decades, the particular thematic edge to this
film lies in how those Japanese citizens affected by the war, both veteran and
civilian, have to work to rebuild. The Japanese government, as cynical Akitsu
will comment on, does not care about the people, will not stop Godzilla and
will keep Godzilla secret because information control is their specialty. The
U.S. government too does not have the interests of Japanese citizens at heart
in this film for the story it is trying to tell. And, once the film gets to May
1947, near the uninhabited Ogasawara Islands, the Japanese government has sent
Noda and his team to use the ocean mines to stall Godzilla until the Takao
arrives after Godzilla destroyed a boat in that area. (This also justifies why
our main characters are specifically the ones on the scene, which we would not
have questioned as an audience but the movie cares to show this to us.)
Both Shinsei and Kaishen
Maru look on at the destroyed ship, but Shikishima recognizes the type of
destruction and the deep sea fish, telling the others about Odo Island. As far
as everyone else is concerned, U.S. island hopping forces took out Odo’s garrison,
and this speaks to the information control Japan utilizes that Akitsu comments
on later. Noda shares his own trauma, and Shikishima tells him how scary it was
to be around Godzilla before. Shikishima and Noda try to convince Akitsu to
flee, but Akitsu steps up, saying that even though he does not like the
government order, if they do not stall for time til the Takao shows up, who
will? The destruction of the Kaishen Maru changes his mind understandably, and,
yes, there was a fifty fifty shot there Godzilla surfaces to kill our main cast
or the extras. That is just a lucky coincidence that he chose the other ship,
but coincidences happen in real life as well, so I will permit that. Nothing is
contrived here. Godzilla just chose poorly.
The Shinsei Maru has two
mines to use, and the first, landing at the dorsal fins, does nothing.
Shikishima starts trembling in the hands as he had on Odo Island, but Noda has
the idea to put the remaining mine in Godzilla’s mouth. This has the unintended
but realistic consequence that Godzilla’s teeth cut the line to the mine so
Shikishima has to shoot it for it to explode. The explosion splinters the edge
of the Shinsei Maru but more importantly explodes Godzilla’s left cheek and
eye. Unfortunately, he heals from that and stands up to roar, but the Takao has
arrived. You could argue this is coincidental timing that the Takao is right on
time to save the characters from Godzilla, but one way we can judge
coincidences and contrivances is how it affects the story if it does not
happen. If the Takao were to be 5 seconds later, Godzilla would still be
roaring. Godzilla had not started to lower himself into the water to swipe at
them yet, nor had he started to charge up his atomic breath, which would have
taken longer than another roar. The Takao could have arrived any time within
the next 30 seconds, and the scene would not change. The Takao has also been en
route for the entire scene, so there is no issue with their specific timing.
The film plays out the same regardless.
Godzilla dives beneath
the water in a shot like GvK, and starts ripping at the Takao. This is where
the main caveat on my issue with the soundtrack lies. The track, called Divine,
with the bell sound effects that comes out every time from here on that
Godzilla does something significant is quite melodious and iconic. In any case,
Godzilla changes strategy and uses his atomic breath for the first time in the
film. After the initial beam, it leaves behind a mushroom cloud.
As I mentioned before,
the ocean battle homages GvK, most especially in the way Godzilla fires his
atomic breath under a ship and then emerges to gaze at the main characters
before swimming away. The context is very different however in a way that I
find brilliant because it perfectly accounts for the resolution of this battle
in a different way than GvK. As you can see from the burning all over
Godzilla’s body after he unleashes the atomic breath, it hurts him too. It will
be a major part of the final battle that Godzilla has to heal after using it,
and that is the reason why he pulls it out rarely, also the reason why it marks
the end of his Ginza rampage later, but, even though he has won this battle and
the Shinsei Maru is at his mercy, he still has to retreat to heal his wounds.
That alone justifies the survival of the characters in this scene and makes the
stakes that much more palpable because it is possible to survive against
Godzilla in attrition. Also, consider this. Not even Godzilla can misuse
nuclear power in this movie without consequences. Godzilla, who was the first
victim in this movie of nuclear power, feels pain every time he uses it again.
Act Two
With the appearance and
retreat of full sized Godzilla, Shikishima waking up in the hospital arguably
propels us into act 2. Shikishima seems to have a concussion, Mizushima has a
broken arm, and the government of Japan has elected not to tell the mainland
about Godzilla to avoid a panic. Akitsu criticizes them for this, and Noda has
more diplomatic phrasing to explain he agrees with Akitsu and a now frantic
Shikishima but that they cannot do anything to oppose the situation at that
time.
Noriko finally asks
Shikishima about what is tormenting him. The specific timing could be construed
as coincidental, but Shikishima presumably is dealing with his trauma worse now
that Godzilla is back, so it makes sense she feels like she has to ask him now.
He confesses his backstory, including Godzilla’s role, and the soundtrack is
back to repeating chords that again do enhance the moment but also do not feel
like songs. I probably should stop harping on the soundtrack until we get to
the older tracks they brought back. I am out of my depth when it comes to music
theory. The acting is quite good consistently in this film, but I will
highlight this scene, the aforementioned one where Noriko tells Koichi that
everyone who survived the war is meant to live. Ryunosuke Kamiki as Shikishima
consistently sells the trauma and pain of this surviving kamikaze soldier, and
Minami Hamabe’s portrayal of Noriko exudes the compassion necessary for this
interpersonal dynamic and the care for each other they have. I have been
watching the original Japanese version of the film and not the dub, because dub
Shikishima sounds like a mildly less deadpan version of the adult cartoon
character Archer.
Shikishima ends the
scene by breaking down again, speculating that this new life is a dream, and
Noriko pulls him to her chest to let him feel her heartbeat again. We do not
see it, but I suspect right after this scene is where Shikishima and Noriko
have the conversation about settling down together. Later on, we learn
definitively that the care they have for each other is romantic and that they
would like to love each other except that Koichi’s war is not over yet, and,
contextually as well as elevating their intimacy and vulnerability with each
other, this scene is the latest it could have happened timeframe wise and most
open conversation they have had these last two years.
When Shikishima awakes
the next day, he sees Noriko feeding Akiko a radish, and he wants to live again
with these two as his family. Tragically, this also seems to be the day
Godzilla makes landfall in Japan for his rampage in Ginza…where Noriko works.
Any future they have, they must fight against Godzilla for. Shikishima learns
of the news when he is playing with Akiko after Noriko has left.
People run in the
streets as Godzilla throws a train down an alley and steps, with just his foot
on the screen. As best as I can determine, because it really is one to one,
that shot homages Godzilla vs Kong when his foot comes down in the Hong Kong
streets. Anyway, a section of train hurtles toward the train Noriko is on and,
unless Godzilla picked up the train car after he threw it, that means these
vignettes are happening contemporaneously. The rest of the homages in this
scene will be to the 1954 Godzilla’s attack on Ginza, as he rips apart the
buildings and Noriko’s train.
The ground breaks under
Godzilla’s feet as he plods his way over to the train and lifts it up by his
mouth. Classic Godzilla music plays as Noriko holds on for dear life and the
train car falls apart.
Now this is actually the
worst scene in the entire film. Noriko has the core strength to survive this
initial scenario, and Godzilla moves conveniently over some water she can fall
into without taking damage. That is fine; the suspense comes from the danger
she is in, so the film should maximize it, and again I allow for coincidences
for the water being there. Godzilla killing the journalists is a little less
passionate than it was in 54, but that is because this is him expanding his
territory not delivering retribution, and actually the special effects are much
better here than in 54. The track Mahara Mothra plays for some reason, and
that’s weird but not an issue. Okay what really breaks this scene is what
happens next with Noriko and Shikishima. Everything else is amazing, including
the rendition of Godzilla’s Theme that plays during the destruction.
Noriko finds herself in
the crowd of people fleeing Godzilla, knocked over by the stampede, and
Shikishima somehow finds her. I do not have an issue with this part, and
actually it was based on a true story. It is lucky that Shikishima is able to
find her, but he should know roughly where to look as they have not moved too
far from where her train actually fell. Again, I am fine with this plot point
in isolation (stacking this on top of her train survival is starting to strain
credibility), but I know my mother finds that to be the broken premise so I
will acknowledge it is debatable. However then, Shikishima and Noriko, moving
slower than the people around them, very luckily happen to narrowly be the
farthest people back out of reach of Godzilla’s tail swipe. Tanks fire on
Godzilla as the pair reach the alleyway of a couple of buildings. Godzilla
finally unveils his atomic breath dorsal plate charge (in this one, they all
push out one by one as they glow and eventually collapse inward to push out the
beam, it is very impressive.) The atomic breath has a mushroom cloud and acts
like it is a nuke dropped on Ginza, vaporizing most of the people and sending
out a shockwave to destroy every building. Noriko just narrowly pushes
Shikishima between the only two buildings that survive the shockwave. I like
what this does for the characters; she gets to save his life and demonstrate to
him that he deserves to live, but he should be dead too right now. Buildings
behind them also got levelled. If this were to play out logically, the rest of
the movie would not happen!
The conclusion of the
Ginza setpiece and apparent loss of Noriko strikes me as the structural
midpoint (huh mathematical midpoint too what do you know) of the film to push
Shikishima into his darkest moment at the end of act 2 before the climax of act
3 where he will make a choice either to live as Noriko wanted (and seemingly
gave her life for) or die as Shikishima thinks the ghosts of his past and
society as a whole want him to do, so this is not only just a scene in the
movie but one of the most important ones for how the rest of the movie plays
out. Consequently, I think this part of the film deserves closer inspection,
and it does not work, I am sorry.
Allegedly, the
novelization calls Shikishima’s survival in Ginza a miracle, and I'm sorry, but
while absolutely true, that is still a copout answer, and the only way I would
accept his survival as logical is comprehensive blast radius calculations or
perhaps exposition about those two buildings being reinforced (though it would
be still be lucky he made it to them when he and Noriko were close enough to
Godzilla to only narrowly evade the tail swipe).
Godzilla gazing on his
destruction and roaring triumphantly while Shikishima screams in the black
rain; those parts work on a deep primal level, and, once again the film has
Godzilla retreat here to heal from using the atomic breath, but Shikishima
literally should not have survived this. The story needs him to, and this is a
break from cause and effect to benefit the story when otherwise the
storytelling and cause and effect were lockstep together closer than almost any
other Godzilla film. 30,000 were killed or injured, and pieces of Godzilla’s
flesh peeled off. That is important to keep in mind as we proceed to Noriko’s
ultimate fate. She is within the number of dead AND injured, and Godzilla cells
are in play.
Noda, Mizushima and
Akitsu all join Shikishima and Sumiko at his house to take care of Akiko, and
Shikishima goes back to the pictures of the soldiers and what they represent about
his depression. Noda, to console Shikishima, tells him about the civilian
veteran force to defeat Godzilla, the special disaster countermeasure meeting.
All of the veterans salute Captain Hotta when he emerges, but he will be quick
to remind them later on that he no longer pulls any rank over them. They have
negotiated to use four naval destroyers initially intended for turnover to the
United Nations, and Noda unveils his plan to destroy Godzilla with the power of
the sea (place freon tanks around his waist and sink him to the depths to allow
the sudden pressure changes to kill him. If that fails, bring him up suddenly
with inflatable rafts to subject him to explosive decompression). The imagery
of the freon bubbles sinking Godzilla borrows from that of the Oxygen Destroyer
in 1954, but this is a fundamentally different type of attack, more down to
earth and realistic.
Some of the veterans
meet Noda’s ideas with pushback. Shikishima is actually the most passionately
adversarial and almost storms out of the room, but his respect for Noda and
want for revenge against Godzilla makes him stay. That very public display of
begrudging respect probably helped many of the veterans stay longer, but some
of them do end up leaving because Hotta does not intend to force anyone to
stay, and they have their families. Some brave extras do step up and inspire
the rest to stay.
In a discussion that
turns somewhat hostile, Shikishima suggests flying around in a plane to
distract Godzilla (this will be crucial to their ultimate victory), Mizushima
suggests using the Destroyers to pull Godzilla out of the water (weirdly
enough, this too is crucial to their victory), Akitsu shouts at Shikishima for
not appreciating Noriko, and Shikishima reveals that he actually does love
Noriko but his war is not over yet, implicitly not until he or Godzilla or both
are dead. As this is a moment of revelation and minor emotional release, I will
call that the end of act 2, but it is sometime around this point that it switches
into act 3 in any case.
Consequently, that is
where I will end for today, but if you would like to be fully caught up for
part three of this review in the next few days, I would like to encourage you
to watch this video that premiered at the start of this week, a debate between
myself and Doug Gibson about if Minus One or Godzilla 1954 is the better
film. Though the review allows me more
time to lay out my thoughts, I will reference parts of the debate in my review,
and, if you are enjoying this content so far, why not check out the debate in
the meantime?
https://youtu.be/bjGSaU7H4TE?si=tuZ5HX-j2oTnmfna
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