Godzilla Minus One(2023)

PG-13
2h 4m

Release Date: Dec 1, 2023 | Wide

Post-war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Dec 1, 2023

Watch Trailer

Box Office

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$11,419,975
Total US & Canada:
$57,144,669
Total International
$56,516,547
Total Worldwide:
$113,661,216

Director & Top Cast

Takashi Yamazaki
Director

Minami Hamabe
Noriko Oishi

Ryûnosuke Kamiki
Koichi Shikishima

Sakura Andô
Sumiko Ota

Munetaka Aoki
Sosaku Tachibana

Kuranosuke Sasaki
Seiji Akitsu

Yuki Yamada

Shiro Mizushima

Hidetaka Yoshioka

Kenji Noda

Rikako Miura

Minami Hamabe's stand-in

Yûya Endô

Tadamasa Saito

Ozuno Nakamura

Actor

Sae Nagatani

Akiko

Kisuke Iida

Akio Itagaki

Kagga Jayson

Boy #5

Makoto Araki

Actor

Miou Tanaka

Captain Tatsuo Hotta

Kenji Mizuhashi

Actor

Yuki Takao

Actor

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos,IMAX 6-Track

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Japan

Language: Japanese

Summaries

Plot Summary

In 1945, near the end of World War II, kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima feigns technical issues with his plane and lands on Odo Island. Lead mechanic Tachibana implies that Shikishima fled from his duty. That night, a dinosaur-like creature, Godzilla, attacks. Shikishima gets in his plane but cannot bring himself to shoot the monster and is knocked unconscious. He wakes up to learn that Tachibana is the only other survivor, who blames Shikishima for failing to act.In 1946, Shikishima returns home to find his parents were killed in the bombing of Tokyo. Plagued by survivor's guilt, he works as a minesweeper and begins supporting a woman, Noriko Oishi, whose parents also died in the bombing, and an orphaned baby, Akiko, whom Noriko rescued.Later that year, Godzilla is mutated and enlarged by the United States' nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll; it destroys several U.S. warships before heading for Japan. The U.S. refuses help, owing to tensions with the Soviet Union, but General Douglas MacArthur sends decommissioned Imperial Japanese Navy vessels.In May 1947, Shikishima and his minesweeper crew are tasked with stopping Godzilla's approach to Japan, in reality stalling for time for larger vessels to arrive. They release a mine into Godzilla's mouth and detonate it, doing significant damage, but it quickly regenerates. The heavy cruiser Takao then arrives and engages Godzilla, but is subsequently destroyed when Godzilla unleashes its atomic "heat ray."After returning to Tokyo, Shikishima tells Noriko about the attack and his earlier encounter with Godzilla. Days later, Godzilla makes landfall in Japan, attacking Ginza, where Noriko works. Noriko narrowly avoids dying and is found by Shikishima. Type 4 Chi-To medium tanks engage Godzilla, but it fires its heat ray which causes a nuclear explosion that obliterates Ginza, killing tens of thousands. Noriko pushes Shikishima into an alley but is caught in the blast herself and presumed dead. Devastated by the loss of Noriko, Shikishima vows revenge against Godzilla.Godzilla departs, but is expected to return; the government refuses to do more to prevent another attack. One of the minesweeper's crew, former Naval engineer Kenji Noda plans to destroy Godzilla by surrounding it with Freon tanks and rupturing them, lowering the water's buoyancy and sinking it to a depth of 1,500 meters, letting the resultant pressure crush it. Should that plan fail, balloons will be inflated under Godzilla to force it back up to the surface, killing it through explosive decompression. He has recruited private citizens, mostly former Naval members, to enact his plan. Shikishima recruits Tachibana, the mechanic he fought alongside, to repair a broken-down Kyushu J7W Shinden fighter. Shikishima plans to fly into Godzilla's mouth, then detonate an explosive charge inside the plane in an attempt to destroy the monster from the inside. He leaves Akiko in the care of his neighbour Sumiko.Godzilla resurfaces, and Shikishima draws it into the trap. After Godzilla is tricked into destroying two unmanned destroyers with its heat ray, the two remaining ships get close and wrap it in the buoys. Godzilla is then successfully dragged down to 1,500 meters but survives. The balloons are activated, forcing Godzilla up to 800 meters, but it survives and manages to break free. Two ships try to haul Godzilla to the surface but fail. A fleet of tugboats lend their assistance and Godzilla is brought to the surface. Still alive and enraged, Godzilla prepares to destroy all the ships with its heat ray. Shikishima flies the explosive plane into Godzilla's mouth and remembers Tachibana imploring him to use the ejection seat, to let go of his survivor's guilt and choose to live. The plane explodes, destroying Godzilla's head and causing the energy of its heat ray to tear its body apart. The crew celebrates as Shikishima parachutes down, having chosen to live.Shikishima receives a telegram and heads to the hospital with Akiko. They are reunited with Noriko, who survived the destruction, but has a black mark creeping up her neck. Meanwhile, a chunk of Godzilla's scale sinks into the ocean and begins to glow and morph.

Storyline

Feeling as if he unfairly cheated death too many times, Shikishima, a surviving Kamikaze pilot, is attacked on Odo Island along with many war plane engineers by a gargantuan monster. After the engineers die because of Shikishima failing to distract the monster, an overwhelming amount of guilt weighs on him, especially after a homeless woman and a baby move into his home when he returns. Shikishima, now on a personal mission, teams up with a large group of veterans to finally take down the monster known as Godzilla. Haunted by the horrors of World War II, guilt-ridden kamikaze pilot Koichi returns home to find a decimated Tokyo. Now branded a coward, Koichi tries to find his feet, but another destructive challenge awaits him and the country. With the fragile newfound peace hanging by a thread, Koichi has one last chance to right a wrong and clear his name before an unstoppable atomic monstrosity makes it to Ginza. But the mutated behemoth is indestructible. Can a gutless mortal defy Godzilla, the king of monsters? — Nick Riganas In 1945, the coward kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima lands at the Odo Island to repair his airplane. The mechanic Sosaku Tachibana and his team do not find any problem and conclude that Shikishima is fleeing from the war. Out of the blue, dead fishes appear on the surface of the water and the monster Godzilla attacks Tachibana and his crew. He asks Shikishima to distract Godzilla with the machine gun of his plane, but he freezes and all the mechanics but Tachibana are slaughtered by Godzilla. With the end of the war, Shikishima returns to Tokyo and learns that his parents and the children of his neighbor Sumiko Ota died during the airstrike of Tokyo. While he is walking, the homeless Noriko Oishi is fleeing from a crowd and delivers a baby to Shikishima. When he returns the baby to her, she follows him and tells him that the baby Akiko is not hers but was given by her dying mother. Shikishima ends lodging Noriko and Akiko at his home and accepts the risky job of finding and exploding mines in the sea to have money to help them. Shikishima has a trauma with the events in Odo, and he befriends his colleagues Seiji Akitsu, Kenji Noda and Shiro Mizushima and they work happily together. Until the day that they see the unstoppable Godzilla. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil