Shin Godzilla
“Shin Godzilla” is the first Japanese version of Godzilla that acts as an origin story during the social media age. That, in and of itself, makes it unique among the franchise. While the government is trying to catch up to the intel that is coming in when a mysterious occurrence happens in a bay, and a tunnel is destroyed, social media is doing what social media does, and causing panic and anxiety that the government cannot control. Our focus is more on what the government is trying to do in response. When presented by a lifeform that is continuously evolving, with a genetic structure no one has seen before, how can it be destroyed?
Is Godzilla an example of a perfect franchise? I don’t mean that all of the films are great. I’m referring to how, over 72 years, it has been taken in several different directions, by a wide variety of filmmakers, and yet, it always finds an audience that is welcoming to what those filmmakers are doing. This is referring primarily to the Japanese franchise; I think the American take on Godzilla found its footing with the Monsterverse after Roland Emmerich’s awful 1998 film, but we are now in our fourth “era” of Godzilla in Japan, with this and the “Minus” films, and it’s impressive how each one has fell into its own groove of what it has to offer audiences, and even if they don’t love everything, they don’t seem to bitch about it the way American franchise fandoms do.
In our recent discussion on the “Minus” films, my guest, Matthew Saliba, and I talked about how American filmmakers have not really found a way to tie Godzilla to a significant American trauma the way Japanese filmmakers have; namely, with the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. For “Shin Godzilla,” filmmakers Hideaki Anno (who also wrote the screenplay) and Shinji Higuchi are using the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster as a point of reference. As the film progresses, we see how the bureaucracy is having to not only work through their own attempts to stop Godzilla, but also having to deal with the US and UN, who fear that Godzilla will not stop at Japan. The US insists on dropping a nuclear warhead; obviously, Japan would prefer to contain Godzilla any other way. It’s interesting how this and “Minus Zero” both look at how the world sees Japan as a pawn to be used by other countries for their own purposes. Little regard is honestly taken to Japan in either case; they just want the credit for what happens afterwards. It’s a strong evolution in this era of Godzilla films that is very welcome, to people willing to pay attention.
“Shin Godzilla” is truly a top tier franchise addition. One of the reasons is Godzilla himself. Rather than coming out of the water fully formed, he is an early amphibian version of himself, with small legs and a face with bug eyes, and doing more sliding on the ground than walking. Eventually, he transforms into a version of himself before becoming his known form, and seeing how the government has to change their expectations of what they’re dealing with in each version is some of the best drama in the movie, especially as “experts” disagree over which prediction is right. And the visual effects that bring him to life are superb. Yes, the film does over focus on the bureaucracy of the moment, not even giving us regular characters on the ground to care about, but the focus of the film is part of its strength, letting us see the personalities involved, and how they must figure out their way through leading the country through such a cataclysmic event, especially in a way that doesn’t lead to further tragedy afterwards. This film was not what I anticipated, but it was a fresh perspective on the legendary monster that is always welcome.
