Starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Miname Hamabe

Written & Directed by Takashi Yamazaki

Toho Studios, in cinemas.

A failed kamikaze pilot has a disastrous encounter with a young Godzilla on Odo Island in the summer of 1945. When the full-sized monster reappears a few years later to attack Tokyo, it becomes his personal mission to destroy it.

It seems to be a week for pleasantly confounded expectations. I’m not one for magical chocolatiers, but just as Wonka turned out to be a lot more fun than I’d anticipated, a few days later, despite a lifetime of indifference to monster movies (more often than not, even if there’s a decent set-up, the final act is usually half-an-hour of tedious CGI beat ’em up) Godzilla Minus One had me on the edge of my seat.

I can’t claim to be a student of 20th century Japanese history, nor a student of the Godzilla franchise (and I’ve known a few actual students who have written dissertations on that very subject), but thankfully Godzilla Minus One is an epic cinematic tale very well told in its own right. As monsters go, it hardly appears to be the subtlest of metaphors – embodying Japan’s national trauma following their defeat at the end of World War Two and the aftermath of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – but everything you need to know is contained not just in the plot of movie, but in the emotional journey of the chief protagonist.

Failed Kamikaze pilot Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is haunted by his own cowardice in not being prepared to lay down his life for his country, but what distinguishes the film is the sophisticated way this plays out in the battle against the eponymous monster. This is about far more than post nuclear trauma. Woven into a rip-roaring adventure are complex threads which are as much to do with national cultural culpability as they are about the horrors inflicted upon the nation itself. This is a monster movie with nuance and heart – which is why I confess to shedding a little tear after the final battle.

Of course, this only works if the nuts and bolts hang together. The effects are terrific – not because the CGI is necessarily top drawer (at times it seems to be consciously reminiscent of its low-tech 1950s origins), but because we are entirely invested in the story and its characters. What happens has consequences that we care about. I rarely gasp at movie FX, but there is one moment so rooted in our collective cultural horror at the events of August 1945 that there was a distinct intake of breath in the cinema around me, and a brief moment of silence that rolled in the pit of my stomach.

Verdict: Godzilla Minus One is a great ride, a heartfelt story, a great ambassador for popular Japanese cinema, and a hugely enjoyable monster movie for anyone who thinks they don’t like monster movies. 8/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com