No. 72 - Godzilla Minus One
The King of the Monsters and a little-seen action movie are the two stars of this week's issue.
Godzilla Minus One
There are usually two kinds of Godzilla movies: movies where Godzilla heroically fights other giant monsters to save humanity and movies where Godzilla is an malevolent force of nature that humanity has to stop. Most folks are familiar with Godzilla the hero, fighting the alien threats like King Ghidorah, Gigan, and Mechagodzilla or terrestrial ones like Rodan and even our gentle King Kong. Even a few weekends ago a trailer for the latest American made Godzilla film was released, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), where Godzilla and King Kong must team-up to fight an army of giant underground apes. These films, tend to focus more on bombast than the painful metaphors found in the original Godzilla (1954) and other Godzilla films that depict him villainously like Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), the excellent Shin Godzilla (2016), and the Godzilla film currently in theaters, Godzilla Minus One (2023).
Like the original Godzilla, Godzilla Minus One takes place in a war ravaged post-war Japan where the effects of US bombings are still felt. Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is one of many displaced citizens who comes home after the war to find his home and parents were engulfed in flames during the US’s bombing of Tokyo. There is a certain amount of guilt he feels as he felt he did not do his duty during the war. Koichi was meant to be a kamikaze pilot, but couldn’t go through with his mission. Not only that, he was paralyzed with fear when it came time for him to protect a group of mechanics from a primordial Godzilla. Their deaths and his parents deaths weigh on his shoulders and it proves almost unbearable as he tries to start a new life with a young woman who has also lost everything (Minami Hamabe) and the orphan baby girl they are raising together.
Just as Koichi was changed by the fires of war, his guilt manifesting into a twisted thorn in his psyche, Godzilla changes too. Nuclear weapons tests change Godzilla into a nuclear demon that begins to rampage the Pacific Ocean. As Godzilla carves a path to Tokyo, the Japanese government begins to throw vessels in Godzilla’s way to slow him down. Koichi sees his newfound life slowly unravelling and has to decide if he is willing to die for his country or fight for a future worth living in.
As most Godzilla fans know, the big guy isn’t present for most of the films’ runtime and that its mostly the human element reckoning with the giant monsters. A majority of Minus One is a period piece melodrama about a man living in a period where Japan didn’t demonstrate that it valued the lives of its citizens. Takashi Yamazaki, the film’s director and writer, has stated that one of the inspirations for the film was the government’s unreliability during the pandemic. One thinks back to the legions of “essential” workers “on the front lines” and “risking their lives” who, in actuality, really shouldn’t be there. Even so, there are people putting their lives on the line that are working for a better tomorrow. A key lesson in Koichi’s journey is that it isn’t about sacrificing one’s life for the good of the whole because you can do so much good if you choose to live.
Disaster, whether it be manmade atomics or natural disasters, appear to be inspirations as well. Godzilla’s rampage is as frightening as its been since the original film because it evokes both the terrifying indifference of an act of god and the absolutely harrowing effects nuclear bombs. Godzilla’s destruction isn’t targeted toward anyone as he lumbers through Japan, crushing buildings as he turns his massive body and launching civilians as his steps send massive tremors through the streets. This isn’t some lost beast however, Godzilla’s face bears a demonic grin as if he enjoys all the carnage his very presence creates. Minus One really makes Godzilla seem like a Koichi’s guilt, the government’s disregard for human life, and the United States’ military bombardment all wrapped up into a monstrous behemoth of radioactive flesh and blood ready to launch more nuclear desolation with its atomic breath. In the face of all that, its no surprise so many of Godzilla’s victims just stand in shock. Or maybe its awe.
Godzilla Minus One is in theaters now.
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Ultra-Reality
Every so often I watch a film that inexplicably captures my heart despite the fact it sucks. Its star, Milla Jovovich has allegedly disowned the film, the director, Kurt Wimmer, couldn’t direct anything for over a decade, it was a bomb with audiences and critics (a measly 8% on Rotten Tomatoes), and I had heard for my entire adult life that it was undeniably terrible.
Then, the other night, I watched it.
Milla Jovovich stars as Violet, a one woman army who has been infected by a bio-engineered virus that gives people vampiric traits. After she lost her husband, got a miscarriage, and got infected all in the same day, she has sworn a vendetta against the human race. The human race can fight back too and its in the form of a corporation called the ArchMinistry headed by the evil Vice-Cardinal Ferdinand Daxus. In an effort to disrupt the ArchMinistry’s plans, she intercepts a courier and…none of this really matters. Ultraviolet’s plot is needlessly convoluted, crazy, and stupid to the point that it hardly even matters. What really matters is the aesthetics and action which go completely hand in hand.
Ultraviolet incorporates visuals that evoke anime, 90s video games, comic books, and the most outrageous Hong Kong action films from the late 90s and early 00s. Its style is somewhere between the latter Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil films (also starring Milla Jovovich), the Wachowski’s Speed Racer (2008), and the cinematics for fighting video game arcade cabinets. Everything has an overdone digital look to it and, at some points in the film, looks like an extremely dated video game from the 90s. Much like the Spy Kids films, it creates this wonderful un-reality that boldly embraces its artificiality. The story is complete nonsense and the visuals try to keep up with bloomed out lighting, ultra-saturated colors, and physics that go beyond anything in our world. Sometimes, these images become gauche, but the film has such a confidence in these bold choices that I can’t help but admire it. Ultraviolet isn’t realistic in the slightest, it exists in its own ultra-reality. That way, Violet can kill hundreds of goons in the most stylized way possible.
Like the over stylized visuals (like in the video above where the camera zooms into reflections of reflections of reflections), the action set pieces are over-the-top. Despite being a near-bloodless PG-13 action movie, the efficiency and brutality at which Violet dispatches legions of ArchMinistry soldiers is nuts. Jovovich is a talented physical performer and it is demonstrated throughout the film by the amount of flips, wire-work, and action choreography she does as Violet. These sequences are almost always accompanied by new settings that shift offer inventive, colorful, and imaginative set pieces. Like the Resident Evil films Jovovich starred in, many of these moments are composed in a way that appears to be appealing to the director’s inner 14-year-old self, but it is that sublime and unpretentious goal that makes them such a joy to see. It is stupid, yes, but it’s brisk, artistically overly indulgent, and totally original. I love it.
Ultraviolet is available for digital rental.
Stray Observations
Since my last newsletter, I’ve had the opportunity to see plenty of great films from this year, some of which haven’t been released yet. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro (I was disappointed), the surreal comedy Dream Scenario (I loved it), the incredibly bleak The Zone of Interest, and the funniest comedy of the year, American Fiction. Instead about writing about any of those, I chose a stupid action movie from 14 years ago. In hindsight, perhaps not the smartest idea for growing my audience, but I will admit, I had a lot of fun writing about it and making an illustration for it. Guess that’s what really matters. Maybe I’ll write about the others at some point.
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