Shin Godzilla (aka Godzilla Resurgence, Shin Gojira, etc.)
Inspirational in its grotesque, brutal brilliance
Godzilla/Gojira is one of the longest running franchises — maybe even the longest, depending how you determine that. The first movie, the classic ‘Godzilla’ movie directed by Ishirō Honda was made in 1954. Over sixty years ago. Sixty years filled with countless sequels filled with imaginative, crazy, and hokey monsters that have have helped create and foster the Kaiju genre.
I can name a good many of those Godzilla monsters because when I was younger, I was a Godzilla fan. I’d used to find the Godzilla movies, look at the circle insignias with the monsters that were in the movie, and try to collect them all in a way. I also have a Godzilla poster (not original) of the Americanized first Godzilla movie. Its hung on my bedroom door for a long time. I also have a few Godzilla figures.
Basically, I was a slow burning Godzilla fan, like how I was with Star Wars. Then came the spark that brought me out of my hibernation. That spark was not Godzilla 2014 (which I still haven’t seen so don’t expect comparisons), but Shin Godzilla.
I was looking into Neon Genesis Evangelion, I think, and I saw that the director of the acclaimed ‘weird’ anime had done a Godzilla movie. I saw images of the forms of Godzilla in Shin Godzilla and I was intrigued. I like weird and Shin Godzilla seemed out there in a good way.
So I did something that I don’t typically do — I preordered the movie on Amazon without seeing it. I went back and forth on it — how would I know I would like it? I saw a few really good reviews for it and some haters biting into it. I was worried.
But I preordered it anyway and watched it as soon as it came in. I watched it subbed, blu-ray on a 4k TV.
The movie starts somewhat like a found-film or documentary. We explore a an abandoned boat — then the threat that is obviously the big G comes into play. Something is happening in the water causing havoc to city infrastructure.
Then we pan to the politics, and this is where Shin Gojira shines, or, well, probably where it won all its awards. Yes! A Godzilla movie swept the award scene in Japan. How, you may ask. Well. That’s easy.
Shin Gojira, asides from being a great Godzilla movie that has the horror if not more of the original film, hearkening back to the series’s roots, is political satire. Others have said Godzilla is a manifestation of the Fukushima disaster as the original Godzilla was to threat of the atomic bomb.
The movie is all about Japan reacting to Godzilla, frankly, badly, but triumphing because of the patriotic few willing to go the full nine yards. In the first twenty minutes, politicians, concerned with following the proper conduct and looking ‘good’, switch conference rooms, debate protocol and who gets to deal with the issue, and, probably my favorite bit, change into uniform to attend a press conference. It is hilarious. The movie’s political satire is so biting and powerful that it leaves you gasping for air.
And the grotesqueness of Godzilla suffocates you even further. This is not a pretty guy. He evolves from form to form, becoming more and more like the classic G.
The second form known as ‘Kamata kun’, is this…eel with legs with ‘googly eyes’. On one hand, kind of cute. On the other hand, he’s running through Japanese cities destroying everything in his path with no end. And then he gets bigger and is actually able to walk.
Japan attacks him using its Self Defense Forces, and guess what, they fail multiple times. One time, because they might have hit some evacuating citizens. These scenes are almost comical because of how inept the bureaucratic process is for an event such as the advent of Godzilla and also terrifying for how powerless we would be in the face of Godzilla.
And Godzilla continues to get larger, the largest he has ever been.
But, do not fear, the movie has able politicians and scientists who are feverishly working to stop Godzilla. And it becomes a race against time as the threat of the US sending another Atomic Bomb against Godzilla looms over them.
“Do as you like” — Goro Maki
The above quote was said by a character not actually in the movie physically. Basically, the quote is interpreted by the ‘protagonists’ (I use air quotes because the characters are as much as characters as Godzilla, as in, they are more forces and symbols than anything else), as that the choice for how to deal with Godzilla is left to them.
Like in the original Godzilla movie, there’s this friction between defeating Godzilla using weapons of mass destruction and the fallout that would create. The original Godzilla had the Oxygen Destroyer used against Godzilla to great effect, but the creator destroyed any chance of it being used again. That was the compromise.
In Shin Godzilla, it’s when the countdown for the Atomic Bomb being dropped begins and the ‘heroes’ are finding an alternative. Goro Maki’s quote is basically turning the choice over to Humanity on how to defeat such a threat. To use a weapon, or to find some other path.
There’s hope in this movie, amidst all the despair wrought by Godzilla. Godzilla’s atomic breath is the most powerful its ever been. The sheer destructive force of it was a spectacle to behold.
Without a doubt, the best Godzilla atomic ‘breath’ (because there’s other areas where stuff shoots from…it was absolutely insane to watch.)
And all of this chaos is set to a plethora of old-school Godzilla tracks taken from some of the movies and new tracks, most notable ‘Who Will Know’ which is basically a haunting song from Godzilla’s perspective.
There’s this one point in the movie, where things really turn in Japan’s favor, when everyone is pulling everything into basically the future of Japan, where this army march song that’s played in Godzilla vs. the Astro Monster comes on. I was jumping and clapping in my seat in this point. You’re so engaged with what’s happening, it’s the culmination of all these crazy ideas and intense dedication. It’s down to the wire.
The way they figure out how to stop him is so imaginative and the sequence of the victory is one of the most exciting, crazy things I have seen. I won’t spoil it.
But I’ll spoil this one part that stuck with me. As the clock counts down for the bomb drop, and the plan to stop Godzilla without the bomb goes underway, the Prime Minister who is portrayed as inept and out of touch, someone not at all suited for the role and time, contributes to the cause. He buys time by persuading the French ambassador to force a time extension. After Japan succeeds, he’s seen bowing in silence to the French ambassador. This scene was really powerful to me because it was that act that prevented the bomb from being dropped and it in a way showed that perhaps not every government person considered inept is completely without redemption.
In the end, Shin Godzilla is a condemnation of Japanese bureaucracy, but also a show case of the dedication of the Japanese people to their nation. It’s like what Independence Day is for Americans but somewhat elevated.
So.
I know it’s hard to guess, and you totally can’t see this coming by now, but I recommend it. I really, really can’t recommend it enough. It’s an experience unlike any other. It’s the Godzilla movie for the times and probably the Godzilla movie that needed to be made ever since the 1954 one. It is the spiritual successor to the original while also being a reinvention. It’s brilliant.
