This has been the summer of the nuclear bomb. The success of Oppenheimer has shown that there is interest in nuclear bombs, and many people have demanded that the movie tell the other side of the story. What happened in Japan. Something that Nolan’s film doesn’t address, nor does it intend to. But in Japan, nuclear bombs and their consequences are something that is always present in their culture. Including their movies. And also in what is probably their greatest cinematic icon: the ever-magnificent Godzilla.
Without a live-action Godzilla film since 2016, the excellent Shin Godzilla by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, 2023 is the year when the King of the Monsters returns to star in a movie. As we previously mentioned when the teaser was released, the movie is called Godzilla Minus One. But now, its first trailer has been released, and we have a handful of new details.
The first and most obvious detail is that the tone follows a very similar path to Shin Godzilla. With a bureaucratic tone and a visual and auditory aesthetic very close to the previous Godzilla film, the connection between the two is evident, even though they are narratively disconnected. This Godzilla Minus One is a reboot that will serve as the foundation for a shared universe of Toho monsters, in the style of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Godzilla Minus One, the thirty-third Godzilla film, is set in post-war Japan. After the nuclear bombings and surrender to the United States, Japan is slowly recovering economically and socially. Then, a new threat emerges to further shatter their already broken spirit: a giant lizard named Godzilla.
Directed and written by Takashi Yamazaki, known for works like Stand by Me Doraemon and Dragon Quest: Your Story, Godzilla Minus One promises to follow in the footsteps of Shin Godzilla. That means a dark tone, a focus on the impact on humans, and an evident political undertone. Something that has never been foreign to the franchise since it originated as a metaphor for the U.S. nuclear attacks but is easy to forget is in the DNA of our favorite Japanese monster.
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