Godzilla minus Zero teaser

[Umbran]

Fair, though I was struck by how the climax, in particular, was framed as a collective military action and a chance for redemption, and some of the rhetoric used in the filmed echoed that of the Japanese Far Right...and that's as far as I can safely go with that.

Fair. I don't follow current Japanese politics, so I would miss that.

 

[jian]

I had issues with Minus One for exactly these reasons. Specifically, I think it promotes the problematic ideology that the Japanese military were victims of WW2, when militarism was one of the main drivers of the Pacific theatre. I don't want to debate the pros and cons of that position as it will get into politics, but in terms of the film's themes, it felt disquieting to me, given the Japanese military's tradition of minimizing its own actions during WW2.

Yeah, it’s a major issue in Japanese media - even something anti-war like Grave of the Fireflies leans into it, or at least the idea that WW2 was something that happened to Japan or was done to it externally rather than something in which the country was an active participant and initiator.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I had issues with Minus One for exactly these reasons. Specifically, I think it promotes the problematic ideology that the Japanese military were victims of WW2, when militarism was one of the main drivers of the Pacific theatre. I don't want to debate the pros and cons of that position as it will get into politics, but in terms of the film's themes, it felt disquieting to me, given the Japanese military's tradition of minimizing its own actions during WW2.

I would say the film focuses on the consequences of the war, not the reasons for it. And I would suggest that Japan is not the only nation the has problematic imperialistic ideologies, and were should be very careful about blaming one without examining ourselves. Just why were Singapore and Hong Kong British?

 

[Clint_L]

I would say the film focuses on the consequences of the war, not the reasons for it. And I would suggest that Japan is not the only nation the has problematic imperialistic ideologies, and were should be very careful about blaming one without examining ourselves. Just why were Singapore and Hong Kong British?

Who says I don't critically examine other cultures, including my own? I can assure you that I do.

But that's got nothing to do with this film, which specifically uses some language that echoes WW2 denialism from the Japanese Far Right, and a plot that serves to rehabilitate the Japanese military immediately post-WW2. So even though I enjoyed many things about the movie, I found that aspect of it discomforting. I'm hardly the first person to have picked up on it.

For example, from William M. Tsutsui at Ottawa University:

Godzilla Minus One (Yamazaki Takashi, 2023), a bold reimagining of the monster’s origins set in the immediate aftermath of World War II, brought unprecedented global attention and acclaim to Tōhō’s Godzilla. Leveraging the seventieth anniversary of the series, the popularity of Legendary’s MonsterVerse films (which have featured Godzilla since 2014), and the buzz of controversy surrounding Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023) and its treatment of the development of nuclear weapons, Godzilla Minus One broke box-office records in the United States, won the first Academy Award in the franchise’s history, and inspired raptures from fans and some commentators. For all the hoopla, however, the movie proved divisive critically: while audiences were enthusiastic, film critics in Japan and internationally had a mixed response, and many academics were pointedly negative, even hostile, taking the film to task for an allegedly toxic nationalist message. Such polarization was hardly surprising, given that Godzilla Minus One was directed by the celebrated—some would say notorious—Yamazaki Takashi, whose nostalgic and crowd-pleasing films that often focus on World War II and its legacies have been consistently controversial in Japan. Just as Godzilla Minus One may well be the most commercially successful film in the Japanese franchise, so it may also prove to be the most earnestly discussed, actively debated, and politically contentious Godzilla feature ever.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't like big rubber suit monster movies, Western or Japanese. But I love the movies that center on what it's like to be a person in the path of them, like Cloverfield, Monsters, the Peter Jackson version of King Kong, Troll, Godzilla Minus One and, arguably, Pacific Rim.

Kaiju as angry natural disasters/sentient versions of manmade disasters are really compelling for me.

 

[Richards]

I agree with Whizbang Dustyboots...but I also really do like big rubber suit monsters, Western and Japanese.

Johnathan

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Who says I don't critically examine other cultures, including my own? I can assure you that I do.

I’ve heard much worse language in the UK about what a force for good the British Empire was. It sounds to me like you are specifically saying “all Japanese were guilty and deserved to be nuked”.

 

[Clint_L]

I’ve heard much worse language in the UK about what a force for good the British Empire was. It sounds to me like you are specifically saying “all Japanese were guilty and deserved to be nuked”.

That’s quite an interpretation of what I wrote about the film using rhetoric that echoes that of the Japanese Far Right. If that’s how you read me, then there’s not much point in continuing.

 

[Umbran]

..., and a plot that serves to rehabilitate the Japanese military immediately post-WW2.

You... don't want people who have done the wrong things, for wrong reasons, to be rehabilitated?
Isn't that the goal? To allow people to be better?

I would myself find a story that justified prior militarism to be deeply problematic. But, a story that allows folks to recover from being bad... is a problem?

 

[Ryujin]

You... don't want people who have done the wrong things, for wrong reasons, to be rehabilitated?
Isn't that the goal? To allow people to be better?

I would myself find a story that justified prior militarism to be deeply problematic. But, a story that allows folks to recover from being bad... is a problem?

I believe that Clint_L is more pointing to how the rhetoric white-washes the 'mistakes' out of existence, rather than actually rehabilitating people. And I can see his point, though I didn't get the same read from the movie that he did. Part of rehabilitation is acceptance of the wrongs that have been done, either by you or in your name.