, the most popular Japanese movie in the past two years, is finally here. What happened to
?
was released in Japan on November 3 last year and has won the local box office championship for three consecutive weeks. The total box office has exceeded 6 billion yen, becoming the 2023 Japanese live-action movie champion.
has become the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film in North American film history with a cumulative box office of US$26.48 million.
What’s even more outrageous is that a Japanese monster movie not only won the Japan Film Academy Award for Best Picture, but also won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
Steven Spielberg praised it as "the pinnacle of filmmaking".
Rotten Tomatoes has a 97% freshness rating, but its Douban score is only 7.0.
can be so powerful, it must be Mr. Ge——"Godzilla-1.0".
A movie costs 15 million US dollars. The production cost is less than one-third of " Hot and Spicy " or an S+ ancient puppet show. It is only a fraction of the investment in " Godzilla vs. King Kong 2" special effects blockbuster. Why? ?
In a nutshell, it’s crazy.
The cast of this film is indeed quite impressive.
The male protagonist Kamiki Ryunosuke looks like Zhou Shen . No wonder some Douban netizens ridiculed the film: Zhou Shen vs. Godzilla.
The heroine is Minami Watanabe, the new Japanese movie star.
's female supporting actress Sakura Ando won three Japanese Oscars for her roles in " Monsters ", " Shoplifters " and " Hundred Dollar Love ". Her performance in "Godzilla-1.0" also won her the Best Supporting Actress. This year's Japanese Oscar Actress Award was directly won by her.
Takashi Yamazaki, who is famous for his blockbuster films such as "Eternal Sunset on Sanchome" and "Doraemon Comes with Me", wrote and directed the entire movie, fully returning to the style of the original "Godzilla" . What kind of work is
that can beat many Hollywood special effects blockbusters? Even revitalized Japan’s local Godzilla movies?
How did a classic monster IP that had already been filmed to the extreme, be outdone by Japanese movies again?
can’t wait to try the poison. But the story still has to start from the beginning.
01
To understand what makes "Godzilla-1.0" so good, you must first understand a movie universe that spans a hundred years:
Godzilla Monster Universe.
The biggest feature of "Godzilla-1.0" is that Godzilla completely abandons the tokusatsu feel and becomes completely Hollywood-style CG.
The earliest Godzilla movie is an iconic Japanese special film.
In Japan after World War II, the whole country was shrouded in "nuclear panic." Inspired by this,
filmmaker Inoshiro Honda collaborated with the tokusatsu master Eiji Tsuburaya to sell the idea to Toho -
uses tokusatsu films, that is, using miniature models and actors wearing holsters. The "special effects blockbuster" created by the film concretizes this national fear and creates a towering monster that sucks nuclear energy-
Godzilla.
In 1954, the original "Godzilla" was released in Japan and became a box office hit, creating the pinnacle of Japanese special effects films.
In the film, Brother Zong appeared in many coastal areas of Japan, and finally landed in Tokyo. He sprayed white-hot light from his mouth and turned the urban area into a sea of fire.
In the end, the male protagonist and the monster died together, destroying Godzilla.
Producer Fang Dongbao saw the momentum and quickly launched a European and American edited version and multiple sequels.
and thus developed a series of derivative monsters such as Mothra and Ankilla, which together with Godzilla constitute the Japanese monster movie universe.
During this period, King Kong rose to prominence in Hollywood.
In 1962, Toho Company obtained the production rights for "King Kong vs. Godzilla" and handed it over to Inoshiro Honda for filming.
This "monster duo" teamed up for the first time in a film that swept the box office in both the East and the West.
Interestingly, Inoshiro Honda, who personally created Godzilla, set the ending for the film: King Kong defeated Godzilla.
In the following decades, Toho released dozens of Godzilla movies.
's huge body, cool atomic breath, and personality of being alone in a thousand mountains have made him more popular than King Kong, making him the most popular monster image in film history.
Chinese audiences affectionately call it Mr. Ge.
In 1998, Sony Pictures acquired the rights to adapt the Hollywood version of Godzilla from Toho.
Roland Emmerich, who became famous in "Independence Day", made the first Hollywood version of "Godzilla".
For the first time, the film abandoned the special photography technique and instead used computer special effects to create Godzilla.
However, the excellent special effects cannot make up for the immature plot. The most impressive thing about the live-action part of the film is Jean Reno's funny performance.
In the next few years, Japan did not produce decent works.
Tokusatsu films are still very popular in Japan, but the tokusatsu version of "Godzilla" is gradually falling behind.
In 2016, "Shin Godzilla" directed by Hideaki Anno still relied on special photography techniques.
Even though Ishihara Satomi, Takenouchi Yutaka and many other stars were recruited, and the whole film was also full of irony of the Japanese bureaucracy, it was still difficult to save the length of the entire film. It was a hit at the domestic box office, but it did not become popular in Japan.
In order to restore Godzilla's popularity in Europe and the United States, Toho has cooperated with Hollywood again.
In 2014, Legendary Pictures' "Godzilla" was released, and the film once again became a global hit.
"Godzilla vs. Kong 2", released this year, was not only a global hit, but also broke the continued box office decline of Hollywood blockbusters in mainland theaters. The total box office has now exceeded 900 million, and even 35 days after its release, it can still be sold on May Day. It beat domestic new films and continued to harvest box office.
There is no doubt that Godzilla is still the world's leading box office monster.
So Toho launched its 30th live-action movie "Godzilla-1.0" on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the birth of "Godzilla".
Takashi Yamazaki, who gave the boss a glimpse of his appearance in "Eternal Sunset 3-chome 2", is responsible for creating this crucial Japanese revival of Godzilla.
He succeeded.
02
As a commemorative work for the 70th anniversary of the birth of Godzilla, "Godzilla-1.0" achieves innovation and nostalgia at the same time.
The background of the film is set after World War II.
This is the year when the original "Godzilla" was born.
The war has left Japan with nothing, a state of zero.
As soon as Mr. Brother appeared, he breathed an atomic breath and turned Japanese society into a negative number.
This is the origin of the title "-1.0".
The male protagonist Shikishima was originally a kamikaze pilot who was ordered to die in the last days of the war.
But as a fishing genius, he pretended that the engine was malfunctioning and ran to an island for repairs.
As a result, the chief mechanic of the garrison, Tachibana (played by Sotaka Aoki), led the repair team to repair it for a long time, but found nothing wrong.
Just when the male protagonist was exposed, Godzilla suddenly appeared at night and wiped out the entire repair team.
Tachibana asked the male protagonist to quickly shoot his brother with the machine gun in the plane, but the male protagonist was so frightened when he got into the plane that he did not dare to move, so he escaped.
The male protagonist returned to his hometown with a bunch of old photos of the repair team, but he saw a Tokyo in ruins.
However, the great beauty Noriko (played by Hamabe Minami) whom she met in the chaos after the war, the little girl she adopted, and her partners who worked together in mine clearance, such as the humane Captain Akitsu (played by Sasaki Kuranosuke) Together with Professor Noda (played by Hidetaka Yoshioka), a technical genius with a nerdy temperament, and his neighbor Junko (played by Sakura Ando), a sharp-tongued neighbor, the male protagonist finally found a little reason to survive.
To be honest, I thought this part of the plot was watching "Eternal Sunset III" by Takashi Yamazaki.
Until the minesweeper was suddenly recruited and responsible for facing the US military directly, he could not resist the brother.
Although the mines swept out during minesweeping blocked Mr. Ge for a while, the small minesweeper was obviously no match for Mr. Ge.
If the male protagonist hadn't suddenly become brave and hit the torpedo in the brother's mouth with one shot, he wouldn't have been able to resist it for a moment.
Brother is always chasing the minesweeper in the sea.
At the critical moment, the Japanese warship Kaohsiung arrived and fired a heavy artillery fire to relieve the siege.
Then, unsurprisingly, he was blown up by the boss in one round.
Then a scene familiar to the audience appeared: Mr. Brother crossed Tokyo Bay.
As you can imagine, the next step is for Mr. Brother to wreak havoc in Tokyo.
But at this point, the movie can only be regarded as an ordinary special effects film.
is a popular model, and the reason is definitely not that simple.
Sure enough, I was almost confused by the next plot direction.
First of all, there is the passage where Brother Zong brutally brutalizes Ginza, which can be called the title scene of the annual disaster movie.
Watching my brother overturning the whole building in Ginza Wako, I felt unprecedentedly happy.
The most amazing thing is that Godzilla is almost stuck on his face. The reporters are still reporting live from the rooftop. The strong sense of presence is so enjoyable.
In the end, of course, the reporters collectively sacrificed themselves for reporting. The boss turned around and toppled the building they were standing on.
Then the camera shows the horror of Godzilla's destructive power from the perspective of the male and female protagonists and other ordinary citizens.
Although there have been similar scenes in previous monster movies, they have never been as realistic and touching as this film.
When the boss, who was full of green light and exposed retractable spiked scales, went straight to Tokyo,
picked up the train like a toy, the destructive power was simply unparalleled,
This paragraph finally ended with the heroine pushing away the hero, Knocked away by the shock wave.
Faced with President Ge’s rampage, the Japanese government had no countermeasures. In the end, it could only rely on a group of private individuals to gather together to discuss how to deal with President Ge.
For the male protagonist, he wants to avenge the female protagonist.
For his comrades, defeating Godzilla is the only way to survive on the ruins.
In the end, a very strange master plan to fight Brother was formulated.
uses Freon gas, tugboats and a plane driven by the male protagonist to sink the brother into the sea.
It is worth mentioning that the maker of the plan in the film, the protagonist’s minesweeper partner Professor, proposed that the reason for adopting such a bizarre plan was because the goal was to avoid casualties.
No matter how controversial the film is, at least I agree with the plot.
Why should everyone sacrifice themselves for Da Ge?
As expected, some people quit on their own initiative. One person who decided to stay said: Is the action against Godzilla inevitable? If not, it must be better than war.
I also very much agree with this dialogue.
At this point, the highlight of the second half begins.
But just when I thought that the scene in which the male protagonist and the brother of the original "Godzilla" died together was just around the corner, the style of the movie quickly went off the rails.
Although the professor's bizarre plan completely deviated from the target from the very beginning.
But in the end, thanks to the magical performance of the male protagonist, Brother Zong blew himself up on the spot.
I have to say that inspired by the photos of Watanabe Minami, the hero's final fighting power was simply incredible.
In the end, the male protagonist did not sacrifice himself to destroy the monster like the original "Godzilla". Professor
's plan to eliminate President Brother without sacrificing one person did not go according to plan at every step, but the result was successful.
I can only talk about the last paragraph. Rather than saying it is a sci-fi special effects film, it is better to say that it was filmed by Yamazaki Takashi and gave the feeling of Doraemon vs. Godzilla.
Since then, Japan has had its own shredded brother movie.
03
After watching the whole film, it was indeed a bit beyond my expectations.
The movie does have its highlights, especially the audio-visual special effects. It is not only the one closest to the original Godzilla, but also feels like an enlarged version of "Jaws". No wonder Spielberg likes it so much.
Yamazaki Takashi's direction is also very good, making a monster movie feel like a nostalgic era blockbuster "Eternal Sunset on Third Chome", which is quite classic and solid.
But it’s more of a sense of fragmentation. The most exciting thing about
's film is that it completely abandoned the special effects film and used contemporary special effects to recreate the famous scenes of Godzilla movies.
Especially in the atmosphere creation of the scene where Mr. Brother is wreaking havoc, the immersion is full.
The scene where Mr. Brother destroys Ginza. When Mr. Brother appears, it is accompanied by an amazing sense of giantness and a sense of tension when a crisis strikes. Paired with Sato Naoki's exquisite orchestral score, it has an apocalyptic atmosphere.
Director Takashi Yamazaki used elevation lenses many times to shoot from the perspective of people fleeing after Ginza was destroyed, making Godzilla's huge figure look like a god. The sense of oppression was unprecedented, even more than in "Godzilla vs. Kong 2" .
In addition, there are two naval battles such as the Pacific Warship Fury. Through precise cooperation with the special effects team, the film created shocking visual effects that are not inferior to "Godzilla vs. Kong 2" with a total investment of only 1,500 US dollars. .
Especially the scene where Mr. Brother launches his atomic breath. When Mr. Brother's dorsal fin pops up, it emits a "swishing" green light. The sense of oppression is simply devastating.
The scene where the Japanese navy warship was directly detonated by Mr. Brother jumping from the bottom of the water also provided visual stimulation.
Solid details and smooth look and feel are the foundation for the effective communication of monster blockbusters, and Yamazaki Takashi has completely achieved it.
However, the excitement of the film does not stop at the special effects.
Yamazaki Taka once mentioned that the special effects of the film may not be the best, but they must all serve the story.
Yamazaki Takashi's new version of Godzilla's feast is actually a re-cooking of the ingredients from the original "Godzilla" according to his nostalgic techniques.
's three-dimensional and rich description of characters is the main reason why it beats those monster movies in Hollywood. The amazing dramatic effects of
special effects blockbusters cannot be separated from people and emotions.
As mentioned above, the literary and dramatic parts of the film are almost like "Forever Sunset on Sanchome 3", full of sadness, nostalgia, occasional small humor, and human touch in the ruins.
The big scenes perfectly match the emotions of the movie, and both the literary and dramatic parts of the film pave the way for the final climax.
However, the construction of the first half ushered in a big divisive turning point in the second half, which is also the most controversial section of the movie.
Behind the fight against monsters, there is family, country and anti-war.
It cannot be said that the film does not have anti-war elements.
The protagonist Shikishima did feel guilty for being timid at the beginning, but at the end of the film, the mechanic Tachibana, who had been scolding him, customized a plane escape device for him, so that the hero could parachute out after completing the mission.
This actually expresses the film’s stance: human life is the most important.
At the pre-war discussion on how to deal with Godzilla, a person called on everyone to help, saying that we cannot expect the Japanese government or the U.S. government to help us deal with these problems, because the future of this country should be ours. Decide.
The irony of this part is also evident.
Finally, the film does not glorify suffering and sacrifice.
This also makes me understand the reason why this film can become a dark horse at the box office.
For local Japanese audiences, the movie is both entertaining and nationally emotional. Godzilla in the film symbolizes the Japanese people's mental trauma from the war.
However, reflection on this war is still incomplete after all.
The film highlights Japan's post-war misery, but does not reflect on the root cause of the suffering.
This makes me both surprised and uncomfortable.
However, the visual special effects and action scenes of this film alone have indeed achieved an unprecedented breakthrough in the Godzilla series, even surpassing "Godzilla vs. Kong 2", which was created with a lot of money from Hollywood.
Coupled with the film's rising box office, it is bound to trigger the next wave of local Godzilla movies in Japan.
The ending of the movie also lays a foreshadowing: Mr. Ge, who was beaten to death, recovered again in the deep sea.
Half a century has passed, and the Godzilla series has evolved from a metaphor for nuclear weapons to a direct name brand.
Godzilla and his monster companions have experienced ups and downs.
But Ge always stands tall on the big screen, which itself represents the emotions and psychology of the audience. Every atomic breath that
Brother explodes is a death knell for mankind's abuse of technology.
As long as the audience still has the fear of monsters in their hearts, Mr. Brother will definitely come back again and again and tell the audience: Who is the real king of monsters.
