Godzilla Minus One (Japanese: ゴジラ-1.0, Hepburn: Gojira Mainasu Wan) is a 2023 Japanese epic[a] kaiju film directed, written, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. Produced by Toho Studios and Robot Communications and distributed by Toho,[8] it is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, Toho's 33rd Godzilla film, and the fifth film in the franchise's Reiwa era.[b] The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki. In the film, postwar Japan deals with the emergence of Godzilla.
After the release of his film The Great War of Archimedes (2019), Yamazaki was selected to make a Godzilla film. He subsequently wrote the script over the course of three years, taking influence from the original 1954 Godzilla film and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah (2001), Jaws (1975), and the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Yamazaki had previously depicted Godzilla in Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (2007) and a 2021 amusement-park ride at Seibu-en. In February 2022, Robot publicized that Yamazaki was soon to begin directing a kaiju film via a casting call on their website. Filming occurred primarily in Kantō and Chūbu from March to June 2022. Shirogumi handled the visual effects at their studio in Chōfu from April 2022 to May 2023.
The film premiered at the Shinjuku Toho Building on October 18, 2023, and was the closing film at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival on November 1. Toho released it theatrically in Japan on November 3, the same date as the first Godzilla film's release in 1954, to celebrate the franchise's 70th anniversary.[c] The film has grossed $65 million worldwide against an under $15 million budget and received critical acclaim. American critics praised its visual effects, direction, story, characters, musical score, and social commentary, and compared it favorably to recent Hollywood films.[12] It received four nominations at the 48th Hochi Film Awards, with Yamazaki winning Best Director, and is a finalist for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards.[13]
In 1945, near the end of World War II, kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima lands on a Japanese base on Odo Island. Lead mechanic Tachibana deduces that Shikishima had fled from his duty by feigning technical issues. That night, Godzilla, a dinosaur-like creature, attacks. Shikishima cannot bring himself to shoot the monster from his plane and is knocked unconscious. Tachibana, the only other survivor of the attack, blames Shikishima for failing to act.
In 1946, Shikishima returns home to find his parents dead in the bombing of Tokyo. Plagued by survivor's guilt, he works as a minesweeper and begins supporting a woman, Noriko Ōishi, whose parents also died in the bombing, and an orphaned baby, Akiko, whom Noriko rescued. Later that year, Godzilla is mutated and empowered by the United States' nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll; it destroys several American warships before heading for Japan. Owing to tensions with the Soviet Union, the U.S. offers no help save for a few decommissioned Imperial Japanese Navy vessels approved by General Douglas MacArthur. The Japanese government, concerned about inducing panic, does not notify the public about the danger.
In May 1947, Shikishima and his minesweeper crew are tasked with stalling Godzilla's approach to Japan. They release a mine into Godzilla's mouth and detonate it, causing significant damage, but it quickly regenerates. The heavy cruiser Takao then engages Godzilla, but is subsequently destroyed when Godzilla unleashes its heat ray. After returning to Tokyo, Shikishima opens up to Noriko about his encounters with Godzilla. Days later, Godzilla makes landfall in Japan and attacks Ginza, where Noriko works. Noriko narrowly survives the initial attack and reunites with Shikishima. Enraged by tank fire, Godzilla obliterates much of the district with its heat ray, killing tens of thousands. Noriko is caught in the blast and presumed dead. Devastated by the loss, Shikishima vows revenge.
Frustrated by the government's inaction, one of the minesweeper's crew, former naval engineer Kenji Noda, devises a plan to destroy Godzilla by luring it out to Sagami Bay before surrounding it with Freon tanks and rupturing them, lowering the water's buoyancy and sinking it, letting the resultant water pressure crush it. Should the plan fail, balloons will be inflated under Godzilla to force it back up, killing it through explosive decompression. He has recruited private citizens, mostly former members of the navy, to enact his plan. Shikishima recruits Tachibana to repair a broken-down Kyushu J7W Shinden fighter. He plans to kill Godzilla in a suicide attack by flying into its mouth and detonate the explosive charges onboard. He leaves Akiko in the care of his neighbor Sumiko.
Godzilla resurfaces, and Shikishima lures it into the trap set by two ships. It survives the initial plunge and then breaks free before being forced back up. With the help of a fleet of tugboats, the ships haul Godzilla to the surface. An enraged Godzilla prepares to destroy all the vessels with its heat ray, but Shikishima crashes the plane into its mouth and destroys its head, causing the energy of the heat ray to tear its body apart. The crew celebrates as Shikishima ejects before the explosion and parachutes to safety, having remembered that Tachibana implored him to let go of his guilt and choose to live.
Shikishima visits a hospital where he reunites with Noriko, who survived the destruction but has a black bruise creeping up her neck. Meanwhile, a chunk of Godzilla's flesh begins to regenerate as it sinks into the ocean.
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