Godzilla Minus One is being released in a new alternate black and white version – designed to evoke the spirit of the 1954 original – in Japanese cinemas on January 12, 2024.
Writer-director Takashi Yamazaki said in a new statement: “We are now able to announce Godzilla-1.0/C, which we have been working on for a long time. Rather than just making it monochrome, it is a cut-by-cut. I had them make adjustments while making full use of various mattes, as if they were creating a new movie. What I was aiming for was a style that looked like it was taken by masters of monochrome photography. We were able to unearth the texture of the skin and the details of the scenery that were hidden in the photographed data. Then, a frightening Godzilla, just like the one in the documentary, appeared. By eliminating colour, a new sense of reality emerges. Please live and resist further fear at the theatre.”
Meanwhile, here’s our coverage of the colour version:
Godzilla Minus One is a 2023 Japanese kaiju film in which the reptilian radioactive monster appears in post-World War II Japan.
Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki. Co-produced by Robot Communications and Toho Studios it is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, the 33rd Godzilla film produced by Toho, the fifth film in the franchise’s Reiwa era and the second live-action film thereof.
Reviews:
“Godzilla Minus One is a great film, providing entertainment and themes that engross viewers further into the experience. Yamazaki gives audiences plenty of spectacular monster action and simultaneously engages them with a humanistic story containing a powerful anti-war message that addresses the horrors of nuclear weaponry and promotes the idea of individuals supporting each other through dark times. The mesmerizing reimagining of Godzilla will satisfy long-time fans and newcomers.” Asian Movie Pulse
“Godzilla Minus One is a reminder to audiences why we fell in love with this kaiju, but also the universe in which it resides. It’s not enough to have flashy monsters just smashing each other to bits. Without the proper balance, the lessons these creatures carry on their scaly backsides can’t be properly conveyed to audiences. In Godzilla Minus One, we are reminded to take courage, to find our motivation to live, and to ultimately persevere against even the most impossible of obstacles.” 9/10 But Why Tho?
“This movie has it all, and on a $15 million budget, I found that economy begets ingenuity. The action scenes and even Godzilla himself outstrip what the far more expensive effects of the Warner Bros. and Sony Godzilla reboots did with all that technology and CGI available. It is just a lot more fun to see what Yamazaki does here, less sophisticated and even with a charming wink to the, uh, less savvy earlier entries in the venerable series. The acting also is aces…” Deadline
“The film only sags a bit in the middle, between Godzilla-driven set pieces, and overall the mood is much more hopeful than in the cynical Shin Godzilla. There’s more swell, in the score and on the heart strings; there’s less terror and more pride, even (or perhaps especially) while evoking a vulnerable period in Japan’s history. This is a film designed to make audiences stand up and cheer – and when Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla theme kicks in, it’s difficult not to comply.” 8/10, IGN
“Visually, Godzilla Minus One evokes the original film more than any “Godzilla” film since the ’50s. But by locating itself in the past, it avoids taking on contemporary issues, more content to be an entertaining ride than use Japan’s most malleable monster as a metaphor for what ails us.” ★★★ The Japan Times
“What makes Godzilla Minus One exceptional is that if the director removed Godzilla from the film, the human story still holds up, making it one of the best human stories in a Godzilla film by far […] Godzilla Minus One is truly a human story that digs deep into the Japanese psyche of life and death. Godzilla is a beast and is a spectacle whenever he’s on the screen. Even if you take away the kaiju element, the human story still stands on its own.” ★★★★½ Nerd Reactor
“In its back half, Minus One recreates that style of terror with human stakes and an intensely political message. Yamazaki brings together the threads he carefully put in place: Koichi’s mental health, the barely rebuilt Japan, the absent government, the abandoned military, and, in true classic melodrama fashion, a love story. Then he pits them against an indifferent, catastrophic force.” Polygon [click the link to read the full review]
” …there’s a reverence shown to Godzilla Minus One’s gruesome colossus; audiences may cheer the havoc it wreaks, but Yamazaki understands Godzilla’s sombre societal implications. It represents all the horrors that cannot be contained, the unknown terrors that lurk out there waiting to strike, and the fears that Japan’s trauma from the Second World War will never heal. Even when the film lurches into melodrama, that anguish doesn’t subside — the beast will never cease.” Screen Daily
“Ifukube’s key themes for the monster and the Japanese Self-Defence Forces are held in reserve for the most spectacular sequences, which have a grandeur often missing from city-stomping titan movies. Along with its 1950s setting, the film embraces 1950s populist storytelling conventions – seesawing from tear-jerking self-sacrifice to heroic survival, all the while treating its star with the respect due a seventy-year-old icon.” Kim Newman, Sight and Sound
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