Godzilla Minus One (2023)

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Writer/Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Stars: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sae Nagatani



For the umpteenth time, Godzilla rises from the sea to stomp and vaporize Japan, but this time the people he terrorizes are three-dimensional characters with heart and humanity. 



Some have criticized the human stories as being melodramatic, but given the rather extreme inciting incident of a giant radioactive lizard on the loose, I don’t think mumblecore would have been a suitable approach.

 


Besides, there is a way to do melodrama right and a way to do it wrong, and writer/director Takashi Yamazaki most definitely does it right. 



I loved the characters in this movie and rooted for every single one of them as they struggled for survival, redemption, forgiveness, love, and self-respect. 



Part of the genius of the plot is setting it in a still-rebuilding post-war Japan whose traumatized people, abandoned even by their own government, must rouse themselves for one more life-and-death battle.

 


Godzilla has never been more terrifying nor the power of his atomic breath more awesome.

 


This is one of the most completely entertaining films of recent years.


























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