Shin Gojira (2016) Reviews

• A satirical masterpiece of post-Earthquake Japan, revolving around the most awesome monster ever

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  First of all, if you are expecting the stereotypical monster movie where the point of it is just watching a monster destroy stuff and watch people running around, you WILL be disappointed. The majority of this film takes place in offices and meeting rooms. Japan just went through a nation-wide Earthquake that took more than 15,000 lives, and triggered the second worst nuclear meltdown in history, both just five years ago. And this is a clear satire on the sociopolitical events since. The film takes us through what goes on in the government when a unprecedented crisis hits the nation. It's a bunch of long meetings, finger-pointing, paperwork, and slow decision-making. It is the epitome of dysfunctional bureaucracy. On top of all that, you start to see the US government and other UN nations start to poke their heads into the matter, treating the hometown of 15 million Japanese people like just another battleground for just another war. There are no clear-cut heroes; Just a group of normal people who are experts in their own fields, doing their best to contribute and put this disaster to an end. They have to fight the politics more than the actual monster. The reality of all of this is astonishing, and completely believable. It starts to feel like a crisis simulation film. But of course, the center of it all is Godzilla: Godzilla himself is truly awe-inspiring in this film. What they have done with the monster is totally new, different from any of the Godzillas in the past (be careful of spoilers out there on the web if you want to experience the amazement). It's personally my favorite by far. Throughout the film, Godzilla is dubbed as "The truly perfect organism", "The most evolved being on the planet", and "A god". So that is the level which you should expect. His crazy power is far beyond belief, so you can safely immerse yourself into this fictional monster. The tag-line for "Godzilla Resurgence" in Japan reads: "Reality(Japan) V.S. Fiction(Godzilla)". So you are witnessing the fault line between reality and fiction. When Godzilla is turning the city of Tokyo into rubble, the Japanese don't see fiction. They see the events of 2011/03/11. The director clearly took measures to parallel the tsunamis, the rubble, and the fear of radiation to the events in real life. Put that together with the bureaucratic mess, the international politics, and terror/awesomeness of the devastating monster Godzilla; The result is this masterpiece. It's a movie clearly wouldn't have come out from the Hollywood scene. It does have it's faults (like Satomi Ishihara's cartoonish character), but the impact and significance of the film far surpasses its faults. A must-watch.

• What would happen if Godzilla appeared in 2016 Japan? This is the answer.

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  The film takes a somber, serious tone as to what would happen if Japan were attacked -- in this case, by a seemingly unstoppable foe. At present in Japan, there is an ongoing debate as to whether or not Japan should amend it's constitution to allow for an offensive military and this Godzilla film plays to exactly how powerless Japan would be in making it's own decisions during an attack of any kind. The reality is that the Japanese Prime Minister would have to ask for permission from the United States President before making an offensive move against a foreign threat and this film plays to that hard reality. This new Godzilla starts out as an homage to its former man in a monster suit so that when you first see Godzilla, you'll disbelieve what you're seeing, but this Godzilla evolves into something majestic and utterly awe inspiring in its power. What's more, this film makes it clear people die. In the Japanese release there's a lot of word play about how the government officials up high (on the fifth floor) make decisions that get passed down to people on lower floors that eventually hurt the people. I'm not sure how much will be translated, but the film is deliberately showing the disconnect between the political and day to day realities. Overall, the performances are good. There is one character who they, for whatever reason, decided to make speak English in odd an inappropriate times. This isn't a film for US audiences. The aesthetics will turn off a lot of non-Japanese young people accustomed to CG reality. But if you're open to learning about another culture, this is an excellent film, one of the best kaiju-films you'll ever see.

• Not your typical blockbuster - 'Shin Godzilla' taps into the fear and frustration of the Japanese post-3/11 for sharp political allegory and chilling real-world horror

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  'Shin Godzilla' isn't Toho's vainglorious attempt at re-capturing the success of recent Hollywood adaptations of its iconic Japanese monster. Quite the contrary, co-directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi know better than try to outdo their Western counterparts in terms of spectacle, and instead have made the astute decision to make a distinctly Japanese 'Godzilla' that will most certainly resonate with their home audience, even at the expense of alienating some non-Japanese viewers without the same cultural or historical context. In fact, we dare say that their film has the unique distinction of being both political allegory as well as real-world horror, and is surprisingly effective on either count. No other recent event has been so seared in the Japanese consciousness as that of the 2011 Tohoko earthquake and tsunami as well as the consequent Fukushima nuclear disaster, not just because of the hundreds of thousands of people affected but also because it exposed how terribly unprepared the Japanese government was with handling a crisis of such proportions. The parallels here are unmistakable – from an indecisive Prime Minister (Ren Ôsugi) to the frustratingly bureaucratic attitude of his Cabinet ministers to the embarrassing revelation of his poor judgment (such as during a live press conference where Godzilla makes landfall right after he specifically tells the people that the creature will not) – and indeed meant no less than a searing indictment of just how inept the Naoto Kan's administration was during 3/11. Yet it isn't hard to imagine how a movie based solely on such criticism would quickly turn monotonous, not least because the lead characters here are all political/ Government figures – among them, Hiroki Hasegawa's outspoken and gutsy Deputy Chief of Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi, Yutaka Takenouchi's opportunistic Aide to the Prime Minister Hideki Akasaka, and Satomi Ishihara's Special Envoy for the United States Kayoko Ann Patterson – and each is defined only in terms of his or her role and ambition in relation to the ongoing calamity. None too subtle is the point, emphatically and unequivocally made, that while politicians wield the ingenuity and authority it takes to manage an unprecedented catastrophe, each is also simultaneously weighting the cost or opportunity of every decision or maneuver to his or her political futures. Just as illuminating, especially to the Japanese, is the strengths or limits of its military might post-WWII, seeing as how it has never yet seen the need to invoke the use of its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) or call in the help of the US military under the US-Japan Security Treaty. Under the pretense of exterminating Godzilla, Anno's screenplay imagines what it would take not just for the SDF to be activated but also how US intervention would likely come with some strings attached. How and if at all it is meant to play into the current Shinzo Abe's push for an expansion of the SDF role is quite perceptively left up to the audience's interpretation, but there is no doubting that the introduction of the United Nations late into the film is meant to demonstrate how powerless nations not on its Security Council may be to resolutions passed by its five members on non-member countries. Yes, if it isn't yet clear, there is no intent here to highlight the human dimension of such an event; rather, it is domestic politics as well as the global world order that forms the basis of this re- incarnation of Godzilla. As a reboot, 'Shin Godzilla' starts on a clean slate, beginning with an underwater disturbance that briefly makes its way onto shore before going back out to sea, then returning as a much more highly evolved organism that grows and grows ever more fearsome. Fans though will not be disappointed – as with past iterations of Godzilla, this latest version not only has the ability to radiate highly destructive atomic rays from its dorsal fins, it also can set streets of buildings ablaze by spewing fire out of its mouth. It does take time to get used to the new 'ShinGoji' design, but rest assured that this beast is every bit as terrifying as it should be. In fact, that palpable sense of fear is twofold – first, in tying the origins of Godzilla to Japan's ignominious nuclear history; and second, in showing with utmost realism the wanton destruction of notable landmarks in Tokyo by the monster. The former has to do as much with the United States' alleged dumping of radioactive waste in Tokyo Bay in the 1950s and 1960s as accusations of Japan's own disposal of toxic ash from the burning of Fukushima's nuclear waste into the same waters. The latter, on the other hand, sees entire districts in Tokyo ripped or flattened by Godzilla's rampage, impressively staged by co-director cum VFX supervisor Anno (also known for last summer's 'Attack of Titan') using a mix of old- fashioned puppetry and modern CGI. In particular, the combined US- Japan military assault on Godzilla along the banks of the Kano River and the finale in downtown Shinjuku is stunning, especially in imagining the magnitude of destruction that Godzilla could inflict on modern-day Japan. Yet if the promotional materials have given the impression that 'Shin Godzilla' is an action-packed blockbuster like its most recent Hollywood predecessors, you'll do best to temper those expectations. Sure, there are beautiful sequences of Godzilla wreaking havoc, but because the focus is on displaying different types of political personalities and their responses towards such a crisis of proportions, there is a lot of talking (as well as 'talking heads') throughout the film and especially in the beginning. By tapping into the paranoia, fear and frustration of their fellow Japanese following their own recent real-life crises, Anno and Higuchi have made a contemporary 'Godzilla' that is sure to roar loud with their home crowd – and by that count, this is as its Japanese title suggests, a new and true incarnation as relevant as it is frightening.

• The Smartest Giant Monster Movie I've seen

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  The movie was a great satire on the Japanese Government during the time of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The reactions by the Prime Minister, defense minister, etc etc during Godzilla's initial appearance perfectly recreate the indecision that lead to more people being killed in that country than necessary during the real life disaster. In short, this movie uses Godzilla to satirize the Japanese government. A new, more decisive body of government forms in the aftermath and one end of it wants to evacuate Tokyo to Nuke him and the other wants to make a more experimental approach by analyzing Godzilla's body chemistry (the science is actually pretty good and leads to a surprisingly tense climax that involves construction cranes pumping hoses down Godzillas throat). The scenes with the humans are also shot in a very dynamic and fast paced way. Characterization suffers (Japanese films do this thing where they just add an odd quirk to a characters personality and call it a day) but its all for the purpose on finding out how to take care of the giant monster rampaging through the city while minimizing human casualties. Believably too, like how the government would actually react would it have happened. As for the big guy himself, Toho definitely plays around with him a lot. He's still a big green iconic monster, but they change his design more than I've ever seen before. When he first appears in the movie, he's more like a tadpole and over the film evolves into the monster we know. But even then he does things like opens his lower jaw when breathing fire like the predator, shooting beams from his dorsal fin and tail, and there's even a VERY chilling shot at the end involving Godzillas tail with some imagery with broader implications on what Godzilla is able to do. But for all these new things that happen, there's a bunch of stylistic choices that keep it rooted in its history. There's music being used from the original 50's score than ever before (they use more than just that classic brass theme), Godzilla still has his trademark roar, and when he breathes fire in a way we've never seen before (it starts as gas, lights up into a jetstream of flame, and then concentrates into a beam) there's a classic sound effect played that we haven't heard in ages. In short, there's a bunch of new and classic stylistic choices in equal measure. Plus the scene where he destroys Tokyo is, in a weird way, gorgeous to look at. In short, this is the smartest giant monster movie I've ever seen. It's not for everybody but it's certainly for people who understand what that means.

• Godzilla Post-3.11 Earthquake & Fukushima Disaster

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  This is a movie for the Japanese, by the Japanese, of the Japanese. And Godzilla is originally a Japanese franchise, a mass entertainment movie but made in defiant protest to nuclear weapons, or generally technologies which mankind cannot control. The new Shin Godzilla, or Godzilla Resurgence, is a movie which follows the original spirit, but with events taking place in contemporary Japan after the 3.11 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi NPP incident. Live broadcasting of natural and nuclear disaster, smartphones and social media, extensive bureaucracy incompetent to handle extreme situations, discourse about the adaptability of law and constitutional order to external threats, military alliances with US and US's assertiveness towards Japan, all play part in this film. It attempts a quite realistic portrayal of the Japanese bureaucracy at work albeit with much caricature and simplification. What was seen as a reality or how it should have been handled to contain the damage is realistically portrayed in the film- which might not quite strike a chord with overseas viewers who are not so interested in the current state of affairs in Japan. However, this "too much talking" by politicians and bureaucrats criticized elsewhere is the very core of the film; it is a strong anti-thesis of a Hollywood-style movie with a superhero with a cute girl in danger saving the world and detonating a nuclear bomb all so casually. Shin-Godzilla does not have such superheroes but average people of different backgrounds working as teams; there is no romance involved at all; and the threat of nuclear attack on the city is averted (although Godzilla is nuclear-fed and bursts out nuclear laser beams and destroys half of Tokyo and most of the Japanese government). All conventional weapons of the Japanese Self-Defense Force as well as US are tested but to Godzilla they're just annoying itches; I bet even a nuclear bomb won't work for the beast as this Godzilla have probably been consuming nuclear waste as a tea snack. This Godzilla is a really devastatingly fearsome beast which made me almost shouting Nooooooooo! at the theater. This is not some kind human-loving monster who fights another monster for the sake of humans. It's not even simply evil. It's just simply unsympathetic to humans like earthquakes, tsunamis, or radiation-spills. In short, if you like disaster and panic movies, more than you like action packed comic hero movies, then you will enjoy this movie; perhaps more so if you like Director Anno's animation works like the Evangelion series, or his earlier undertakings in The Wings of Honnêamise or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and understand the references and similarities. Fans of past Godzilla movies might be either delighted to find subtle homages or perhaps disgusted as how it partly departs from the conventional formula of Godzilla movies. There are obvious flaws in this film. Sometimes, the line between natural realistic portrayal of the Japanese reacting in extreme disaster situations and just pure bad acting is blurred. And the main actress, Satomi Ishihara, is good at acting as daikon radish is, as we say. But Godzilla films were never about good acting. I really enjoyed watching this one at a local theater in Tokyo on the premier day. It is a very timely, originally-crafted, a bit thought- provoking, visually satisfying, and overall an entertaining film from a Japanese point of view.