It is widely believed that Godzilla, the giant monster that rose from the sea in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film, was a manifestation of Japan’s post-war trauma; an allegory for nuclear weapons, perhaps after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or an avatar of a vengeful and destructive US
Since then, the giant lizard has taken on many forms, some friendlier than others. But the historical link to Japan’s darkest days may have never been more apparent than in Godzilla Minus oneToho’s new live-action Japanese Godzilla movie, set to hit US theaters on December 1.
The film’s latest trailer makes that explicit. Godzilla Minus one set in the late 1940s, the creature attacks a country already brought to its knees by defeat in World War II. Explaining the film’s title in a press release, Toho said it in stark terms: “After the war, Japan’s economic condition has been reduced to zero. Godzilla appears and plunges the land into a negative state.”
As if that wasn’t enough post-war misery, the trailer moves from a Godzilla-created carnage to shots of nuclear explosions, the bodies of dead soldiers, a woman screaming, “You’re a disgrace!” to a man in uniform, and a character saying, “That monster will never forgive us.”
If Shin Godzilla was a satire on Japanese politics that sought to reframe Godzilla in light of the 2011 Fukushima tsunami and nuclear disaster. Godzilla Minus one puts the big green man right back in his original frame of reference. But it seems both movies share a desire to bring some of the monster’s elemental creepiness back to him.
Godzilla Minus one is written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki and will be Toho’s 33rd Godzilla film, and the first in live action since Shin Godzilla. The company’s deal with Legendary Pictures, which makes the American “Monsterverse” Godzilla films, prohibits it from releasing a live-action film in the same year as Legendary, which had entries in 2019 and 2021. The good news is that Toho is therefore encouraged to give Minus one a quick release this year in the US, before Legendary launches Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in 2024.
And if that’s not enough Godzilla-adjacent action for you, remember Apple TV Plus’ Monsterverse spin-off series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters debuts in November.