In the seven decades since Ishirō Honda’s 1954 classic Godzilla kicked off the durable genre of the kaiju (or giant monster) movie, this fearsome mega-reptile, a prehistoric creature summoned from the depths of the sea by atomic radiation, has stomped, chomped, and fire-breathed his way through 38 movies, not to mention countless comic books and video games. He has battled King Kong, a three-headed dragon, and a benevolent gargantuan moth, and he has even been known to fight alongside the human race against a common enemy. In writer-director Takashi Yamazaki’s remarkable Godzilla Minus One, the venerable behemoth returns to his roots, once again serving as an embodiment of Japan’s anxiety about nuclear weapons in the aftermath of World War II. But Yamazaki also brings something new to the Godzilla-verse: a more modern understanding of, and profound sensitivity to, human psychological states like post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt, as well as a critique of the nationalist machismo that shaped Japanese soldiers’ attitude toward their role in the war. It’s the rare kaiju movie that cares this deeply about the inner lives and motivations of the people scurrying out of the way of the monster’s ginormous thudding feet.
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