Reel Rundown: Godzilla Minus One is less a monster a movie and more a tale of Japan’s redemption

Ever since debuting on screen in 1954, the creature that the Japanese call Gojira – but who is known internationally as Godzilla – has undergone a series of character changes.

In that first of more than 30 films, the creature was portrayed as a radioactive killing-machine, wreaking destruction over a Japan still reeling from its defeat in World War II.

Since then, though, Godzilla has been portrayed both as a threat and a savior to Japan, at times continuing to level Tokyo and vicinity while at others battling a range of other-worldly demons, from King Kong five different times to a trio of old foes – Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah – in 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.”

And then we have “Godzilla Minus One,” a 2023 theatrical release that is streaming on numerous services (I saw it on Netflix). And while it is a return to the original premise, with obvious references to the nuclear devastation that Japan endured in 1945, the monster story is part of a larger, more human-oriented tale about personal pain and a quest for redemption.

The story, directed by Takashi Yamazaki from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ishirô Honda and Takeo Murata, focuses on Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a kamikaze pilot who in the final stages of the war is ordered to sacrifice himself in what he and many others recognize is a losing cause.

Disobeying both orders and custom, Shikishima pretends that his plane is having problems and lands on a remote island devoted to servicing Japanese aircraft. Despite resorting to what even he regards a cowardly action, Shikishima elicits sympathy from the island’s head mechanic, Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki).

But everything changes when, suddenly, the island is attacked by the monster known as Godzilla. And when Shikishima balks in his efforts to stop the carnage, resulting in the deaths of everyone but him and Tachibana, his shame – already as much as he can handle – increases. Even worse, any sympathy that a now angry Tachibana had for him disappears.

Time passes and Shikishima returns home, where he is greeted by the sight of his bombed house, the news that his parents have been killed and resentment leveled at him by a grieving neighbor, Sumiko (Sakura Andô).

Soon Shikishima is joined by Noriko (Minami Hamabe), a homeless woman who is caring for a baby girl whom she has rescued. And gradually, as he takes a dangerous job clearing mines left over from the war, Shikishima’s life returns to something close to normal. His recurring nightmares, though, never let him forget his traumatic past.

Which is when Godzilla, enraged by U.S. atomic-bomb testing efforts, reappears. After destroying a number of ships, the monster focuses on a larger target: the Japanese mainland itself. And in a series of impressive computer-generated scenes, which won the film an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the monster does nearly as much damage as had the bombs that struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Ultimately, Shikishima – both with the friends he has made clearing the mines and his former friend, now rival, Tachibana – gets involved in the plans to stop Godzilla. And that’s where a typical Godzilla thriller would climax, with humans finding a way to survive against all odds.

But “Godzilla Minus One” strives to be far more than merely a story of humans overcoming the threat posed by a dinosaur-type monster from the deep. At its essence, Yamazaki’s film is both about one man’s struggle to find a way to redeem himself and about the citizens of a country reconsidering everything that drove them to wage such a self-destructive world war.

Yamazaki’s Godzilla might be a throwback to the creature’s monstrous past, but this version of the story also can be seen – ironically – as a reckoning for Japan itself.