Godzilla Minus One - DO NOT MISS the review

Godzilla Minus One

Sci Fi / Drama (yes!)

Japanese, 124 mins

Netflix

This movie was a darling of critics world over in 2023 . A movie about the  beloved "kaiju" in its native language. It also won the visual effects oscar with a budget of under $15 million!

While this may not be your genre, i encourage you to read further to understand what a big lesson this movie can be for Indian film makers - looking for international acclaim. Please read until the end.

The story is set in 1945 - almost at the end of second world war, when a Japanese Kamikaze pilot (Koichi) decides to abort his mission and lands on an island which is the Japanese repair base. He is chided by the chief mechanic (Tachibana) on dereliction of duty. The island is known to be on the path of the creature "Godzilla" (G) and it does saunter into the base at night. 

Koichi has a chance of redeeming himself by firing the guns on his plane, when Godzilla gets close to the base - but he chickens out and wakes up in the morning to know that obviously G has flattened the base with few survivors include Tachibana, who gives him an earful again, before going his own ways.

Overcome by  PTSD and guilt, Koichi heads home to war torn Tokyo - where he meets a young lady Noriko, who is caring for a young baby Aiko. Over the next few years, this is Koichi's family, as he works as a minesweeper in the open seas near Tokyo, with another small team of Naval vets. We see that the US has been conducting testing on G who continues to grow and destroy everyone and everything on his path and he is making his way towards..guess where 😁.

At this time, the US wants nothing to do with G or helping Japan. The Japanese government does not give a Kong's hair about G looking to bulldoze Tokyo. In one of the attacks prior, G takes down another part of the town where Noriko is blown away, while saving Koichi . The people of the town, along with Koichi's minesweeper squad devise a very scientific plan to destroy G. The plan B includes flying a plane  into G's mouth and triggering a mine inside. 

Surprise!! - Koichi now puts 3 year old Aiko in the care of his lovely neighbour lady and volunteers to fly the plane. The plane is a sexy but old bomber, which needs a mend and guess who is the only person who can repair the plane. You know this one! (Tachibana). Tachibana is proud of Koichi's chance at redemption  and helps the cause!

A rousing speech by a general, a fantastic plan by the scientist in Koichi's squad, the entire community comes together to plot G's demise. Plan A not working exactly, needing Plan B to happen and Koichi does the Kamikaze that he was meant to be - only that Tachibana had put in an ejector seat for him to escape!... The movie ends with Godzilla's head being blown off seemingly irreperably (he has the power to regenerate) and lo, Koichi also gets a telegram that  Noriko is alive...happily ever after!!!

It is a monster movie with Godzilla (G) appearing for a total of 11 minutes of the run time. The visual effects (especially for the limited budget) are absolutely stunning. The production values are great, the score is minimal and nice. The scene where G goes full atomic (tail and scales lighting up )  is super cool). 

We had Fighter - release 6 months back with some wonderful good looking and committed actors, a great support cast , fantastic production values and  pretty good visual effects (for the budgets available).Yet it had the old as hills neighbour bashing plot, which was probably why it was not a big success.

Now imagine if a Kabir Khan or Siddharth Anand  could be a little brave and have picked up the absolutely Bollywood plot of Godzilla minus one, with the same actors ( if you had watched Fighter you and read this far,  you can easily do your casting) and i guarantee you the movie would have been a global blockbuster and critic pleaser!

Even so, the global success of RRR and now Godzilla minus one just re affirms that if Indian cinema can stay close to its roots , tell the same stories and use budgets and marketing wisely - the filmmakers can certainly get the international acclaim that they are chasing with our brand of cinema!

As for  Godzilla minus one - if you are a creature movie fan - you can skip this one , but if you liked my review  and feel like exploring - please watch and drop your comments  on my thoughts!