Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Screenplay: Takashi Yamazaki
Starring: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando and Kuranosuke Sasaki
Country: Japan
Running Time: 122 min
Year: 2023
If you asked me four years ago if I was a fan of the Godzilla franchise, I would have probably laughed. I’d seen three of the films, all American adaptations and was rarely impressed by what I had seen. Then I watched Ishirō Honda’s 1954 masterpiece that introduced Godzilla to the world and I was instantly hooked. Instead of it being a silly film about big monsters punching other big monsters, it was one of the most heart wrenching films I’d ever witnessed. A film where every casualty had impact, where the political commentary held weight all these years later and a film that was truly groundbreaking in every sense of the world. Ishirō Honda’s Godzilla is one of the greatest films ever made. The rest of the Shōwa era? Not so much.
Sure, there’s some truly entertaining films, with my favourite sequel being Godzilla vs. Hedorah, but none ever felt like they were reaching further than goofy kids movies where the big monsters fight each other. This bled into a lot of the later films, in particular the American adaptations of the iconic kaiju. Nowadays, I have a soft spot for the MonsterVerse films but they’re nothing more than junk food cinema. I enjoyed Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno’s Shin Godzilla from 2016 but had my issues with it. Then came Godzilla Minus One. A film to mark the 70th anniversary of the franchise, headed by Takashi Yamazaki, notorious for his groundbreaking visuals effects work.
I remember the moment I travelled to Manchester, to catch a double bill of the Aquaman sequel and Godzilla Minus One, two blockbusters of very different proportions. One of them was an experience unlike any I’d ever seen, and the other was the fish-man movie. No shade to James Wan, I love that first film like I love few films but Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was never going to compare to Minus One.
After a lengthy wait for the film to hit home media, All the Anime, with the help of Toho, have finally released Godzilla Minus One on physical media for the UK market and of course, I immediately jumped out at the prospect of covering it for this very site. If you can’t tell from the longer than usual introduction, this is a special review. Let’s dive into it.
Minus One follows Kōichi Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot during the end of the second World War, fleeing from his assignment and choosing not to take his life for his country. After landing on a remote island that’s ambushed by a giant, unstoppable creature, he hesitates to attack, resulting in the lost lives of almost everybody on the island. Stricken by guilt, he returns home to see his city destroyed, his parents dead and feels as if it’s his fault for failing to commit to his role as a kamikaze pilot. When a woman and a young girl she’s looking after seek shelter with Kōichi, who’s haunted by his past, he works on rebuilding his home and finds a new job as a mine disposer, alongside making friends with his colleagues. After some tragic events occur due to the reappearance of Godzilla, Kōichi and a group of civilians band together to defeat the creature once and for all.
One thing that Minus One gets right from the very first scene is its characters. Godzilla films are known for their lacklustre characters, with a few exceptions like the original, and most filmmakers attached to the franchise seem to know this. An emphasis on action, spectacle and a lighthearted tone is what makes films like Adam Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong work as well as they do. Yamazaki’s film is not aiming to deliver silly spectacle, but instead immediately hooks you in with the compelling characters. When a modern Godzilla film is moving you emotionally, you know you’re watching something truly special.
As the film goes along and we’re introduced to more characters, such as Mizushima, a young crewman who years for war, Noda (also known as Doc), a weapons engineer who spearheads the plan to destroy Godzilla or Noriko, the woman who stumbles into Kōichi’s life with the young girl Akiko, everybody is well-defined, excellently written and performed. It’s a phenomenal set of characters and during certain plot beats, I’ve found myself tearing up because of how much I care about them.
Characters and narrative are not Minus One’s only strong suit, as the direction and in particular, the visual effects are astonishing. For those who haven’t seen the film, based on the stills in this review, I want you to take a guess how much it cost to produce. I’ll give you a moment. $150 million? $100 million? $50 million? If you guessed anything like this, you’d be completely wrong. Somehow, Yamazaki was able to craft a film that looks better than 90% of blockbusters out there for a reported $10-15 million. For context, you could make 19 Godzilla Minus One’s for the budget of 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. That’s insane.
Every visual effect looks mindblowing and the film takes care not to overuse Godzilla to the point that he fails to have an impact. Instead of cheering for the big creature to come and wreak havoc, you’re nervous for him to appear. Knowing the destruction and the impending casualties, his appearances have a level of fear that’s incredibly rare for the typical film in this franchise. All in all, it handles all aspects of the production phenomenally.
It’s a film that broke new ground for the franchise critically and commercially, resulting in a box office of over $115 million, winning over the hearts of audiences and critics worldwide and even bagging itself a Visual Effects Academy Award and you know what? It’s all deserved. For all of the silly, goofy and outrageous instalments in a franchise that’s been around for seven decades, Minus One breathes new life into the world of Godzilla and proves that you can still tackle compelling, original and expertly crafted films with the big lizard who likes to punch monkeys and shoots atomic breath. All in all, it’s one of the best Godzilla films ever made and one of the decade’s best films so far.
Film: 
Godzilla Minus One released on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD December 2nd. There’s a variety of editions, such as steelbooks, standard releases, a HMV exclusive release as well as a jam-packed limited edition. I was sent a copy of the 4K UHD disc and viewed the film with the Japanese Dolby Atmos track. There’s an English dub included too for those interested. Visually, it’s a breathtaking image thanks to the native 4K transfer and its excellent Dolby Vision colour grade. High bitrates are present throughout the entire feature and there’s never a moment where the transfer didn’t floor me. A truly astonishing visual feat, and the audio is outstanding too. The Atmos mix is heavy, packs a huge punch and gave my system a full workout. On an A/V level, it’s perfect. The following information is taken directly from All the Anime’s website detailing the content in each edition.
“The Godzilla Minus One Collector’s Edition contains:
Deluxe rigid slipcase outer packaging
Four-tray Digipak
68-page booklet
Godzilla Minus One on 4K UHD Blu-ray
Godzilla Minus One on Blu-ray
Godzilla Minus Color on Blu-ray
A additional Blu-ray of English subtitled bonus content
The 68-page booklet features a message from director Takashi Yamazaki; an introduction to the film, character bios; a host of promotional artwork; and a wealth of interviews and information.
That written content includes interviews with director Takashi Yamazaki, VFX director Kiyoko Shibuya, audio recording and sound engineers Hisashi Takeuchi and Natsuko Inoue respectively. Within the confines of its pages, you’ll also find thoughts from Masahiro Ishiyama on colour-grading the film for both its original release and Godzilla Minus Color, as well as an article about the operation to bring Godzilla Minus One to the attention of an international audience, ultimately culminating in its Academy Award winning success.
The breakdown of disc content in this release is as follows:
Disc 1: The film on 4K UHD Blu-ray
Disc 2: The film on Blu-ray
Disc 3: Godzilla Minus Color on Blu-ray (exclusive to this Deluxe Edition)
Disc 4: Bonus Blu-ray packed with special features, all of which are English subtitled
Currently, the Godzilla Minus One Deluxe Edition is the only release where you can own Godzilla Minus Color on home video! Beyond that, our bonus Blu-ray – which contains all content fully subtitled – comprises a making of film feature, a making of VFX featurette, a special behind the scenes program, a whole host of event footage, and a collection of trailers for the film.
The 4K UHD Blu-ray of the film contains the film in 4K via a Dolby Vision HDR presentation, with audio presented in Dolby Atmos for the Japanese audio (with English subtitles), and 5.1 audio for the English dub.
Both the Blu-ray edition of the film and Minus Color on Blu-ray also sport Dolby Atmos Japanese audio with English subtitles, and 5.1 English audio.”
As I was only sent the 4K UHD disc, I was unable to check out any of the extras as they’re only included on the limited edition’s bonus Blu-ray. From the looks of things, it’s a solid set of extras and if you can afford it, that release is the way to go.
All the Anime, by all accounts, have done a fantastic job with the home media release of one of the decade’s best films. I wish I would have been able to cover the bonus features included, but if you’re looking for the best way to experience Godzilla Minus One, All the Anime have delivered. Absolutely recommended to fans or home media enthusiasts.
Disc/Packaging:
