Netflix And Chill: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Look, I think we can all agree that, whether you love them or not, the American Godzilla movies have greatly improved since the debacle that was served up to us in 1998. There's a sense of overdue atonement, even if purists might still balk at them. There's also a sense, however, that the Japanese can keep coming along every now and again to remind us of how to REALLY do Godzilla movies. They did it back in 2016, and they've done it again now. This is a very strong contender for the greatest Godzilla movie of all time, although the first film is still a tough one to beat.

Ryunosuke Kamiki plays Koichi Shikishima, a "failed" kamikaze pilot who has to deal with his personal shame while those around him deal with the after-effects of being on the losing side of a world war. Shikishima has also survived an encounter with Godzilla, but that seems less likely to be a constant worry in his life as more time passes. Making a home with a young woman, Noriko Oishi (played by Minami Hamabe), who needed help after the war, Shikishima takes a job on a boat that is helping to clear some of the many sea mines floating around off the coast of Japan. And that's when Godzilla reappears. While Shikishima is terrified by this gargantuan monster, he also knows that this could be his shot at redemption. If he can help to destroy the beast before it destroys more of Japan then maybe he can feel as if his life has had purpose. Even if it means a death that he considers overdue.

Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, this is absolutely brilliant stuff from start to finish. Unlike so many other kaiju movies, there are a number of human characters that you get to know and like, with a complex and sympathetic lead character who maintains a bigger interest in the whole situation than anyone else. Much has been made of the relatively low budget already, so all I will say is that you cannot guess at that from the quality of the special effects onscreen, whether it's the destroyed and rubble-strewn landscapes or Godzilla itself. Everything looks and feels as realistic as you could hope. It's helped by cinematography from Kôzô Shibasaki and music by Naoki Satô (you know the theme by now, and it's used here, of course), as well as excellent production design, set decoration, and on and on the list goes. I'd love to name every single person who helped to put this together, but I only have so much time and space.

I don't normally set aside much space to praise the acting from the people in Godzilla movies, because they all tend to be present mainly to witness the glorious and fearsome beast, but there are performances here worth praising. Everyone here does fantastic work, with Kamiki and Hamabe a wonderfully sympathetic couple at the heart of everything, making a home for themselves (as well as an orphaned child rescued by Hamabe's character near the start of the movie) while struggling to figure out exactly what they should or shouldn't be doing for the sake of post-war recovery and developing their potential relationship. Sakura Ando is also great, playing a resentful neighbour who dislikes the fact that Shikishima didn't carry out his main objective, but soon starts to help out when she sees them struggling with a baby. Hidetaka Yoshioka, Munetaka Aoki, Kuranosuke Sasaki, and Yuki Yamada all end up helping to battle Big G, but all of them also help our leading man to find his way through a dark part of his life until he can finally see the smallest dot of light at the end of a very long tunnel.

The human moments are still interrupted by Godzilla carnage though, and Yamazaki handles both elements equally well. In fact, more so than any other movie I can think of, this film makes Godzilla genuinely terrifying. The first appearance is intense, despite the fact that Godzilla isn't yet at full size, and every subsequent appearance brings a real sensation of dread, with a major sequence set on the sea just about as perfect a homage to Jaws as you could hope for. Whenever Godzilla decides to attack the tiny figures and fragile environment around it, there's often nothing to do but run, hoping that you're getting away from stomping feat and the range of the atomic breath.

You've already heard all of the praise for this. I am just adding my own tiny portion to the huge pile. The first film deserves to maintain a spot at, or near, the top of any ranked list of kaiju movies. I say that this one just edges ahead of it though. It's perfect, and I was delighted to FINALLY get the chance to see it.

10/10

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Shoplifters (2018)

Blood is thicker than water. You can choose your friends but can't choose your family. Whatever happens, your mother is always your mother. These are some common phrases that many people tend to use as 100% true statements. I don't think they're true. At all. And, considering the content of Shoplifters, I don't think writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda does either.

Shoplifter revolves around a family unit that has, at its core, a father (Osamu, played by Lily Franky), a mother (Nobuyo, played by Sakura Ando), and one son (Shota, played by Kairi Jō). There's also a grandmother and one other, younger, woman in the house. They have their moments, but they're not the beating heart of the tale. Osamu and Shota are the shoplifters, perfecting their craft daily and making a decent score from each trip to the shops. When they find a very young girl named Yuri (Miyu Sasaki) they eventually decide to let her stay with them. It seems that Yuri has been stuck in an unhappy situation for most of her brief childhood, so her new life is an improvement, even if she ends up being introduced to the shoplifting life.

That's one main aspect of Shoplifters, the fact that a family made up of bad people can still be a good thing for the ones they love and care for. The main adults that we are watching have some major flaws, but those flaws don't seem to matter so much when they're also shown to be offering something that was missing from the lives of the young ones in their lives. The other main aspect of the movie is that family doesn't have to be made up of the people assigned to you at birth. You CAN pick who becomes your family. There are two quotes that stand out here, although I will have to paraphrase. One is about how the bonds you choose are stronger than the bonds simply forced upon you. The other is when a character states that giving birth to a child doesn't automatically make you a mother. It's often the case that we hear about men not being fathers just because they helped to conceive the child, but the same is equally true of mothers (although they go through much more on the journey from conception to birth, of course).

The acting from all involved here is superb, so I will just single out both Kairi Jō and Miyu Sasaki, who give two of the best child performances I have seen in recent years. The former is at an age where he is starting to ask a few more questions and consider acts of rebellion, the latter is young and innocent without being overly delicate or precocious. As an ensemble piece, this is pretty much flawless when it comes to the acting.

It helps that Koreeda has crafted such a wonderful tale, one that unfolds with a few twists and turns that allow you to question your own views without ever feeling as if the rug was pulled out from under your feet. The film is full of a precariously balanced state of peace and contentment that you suspect may not last, and indeed feel cannot last for these characters, yet you want it to. You want it to last forever.

There's a scene in the final act of Shoplifters that has the main characters all enjoying a day at the beach. It's a sweet, uplifting scene. If Koreeda has worked his magic on you, as he did on me, then you want the film to just end there. That's a family having a pretty perfect family day out. But that's not where the story ends. What family story does?

9/10

Shoplifters can be picked up here, eventually.