Eden Court Cinema Youth Board member Gabriel has chosen the 2023 Japanese epic kaiju film Godzilla Minus One as this month's free BFI Recommends screening. Gabriel tells us why...
If you’re like me and love old sci-fi monster classics like Jurassic Park, Jaws or the original Godzilla, then this movie is for you.
People often complain about modern Hollywood transforming this genre into a big-budget CGI mess with little story and hardly any loveable characters. Godzilla Minus One, however, changes this formula and takes Godzilla back to his roots of being a metaphor for nuclear warfare and World War II. This causes the movie to actually feel more like a character-driven war drama than a monster movie, with the only difference being the giant nuclear lizard that shows up.
The story follows Kōichi Shikishima, a former kamikaze pilot, as he learns to cope with his post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt. On his journey of self-acceptance, he makes friends and grows a family with the rest of the cast, but they all become endangered when Godzilla appears.
Because of this, the movie has time to actually make you care and fall in love with the characters that drive the narrative. This is accompanied by an amazing script and actors that truly make you feel the horrors of war and Godzilla.
However, when Godzilla actually shows up, director Takashi Yamazaki makes sure that you feel it - whether it's through Naoki Sato's incredibly powerful and haunting score or the amazing cinematography by Kôzô Shibasaki.
As for Godzilla itself, the Oscar-winning special effects are a sight to behold, especially considering that it was only made by 35 people with a small budget of $15 million. This is also part of the reason why I think this movie gives such a classic feeling, because it was made by a small team with a small budget, which meant they had to get far more creative and also use older methods like stop-motion animation.
Overall, this all adds together to make an amazing monster movie that truly celebrates Godzilla's 70th anniversary and the genre as a whole.
BFI Recommends: Godzilla Minus One screens on Wed 30 Jul, free for 15 - 26 year olds.
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