Cinepals - GODZILLA MINUS ONE is The Best Film of 2023! | Non-Spoiler Review

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

Jaby Koay reviews Japanese film Godzilla Minus One. The film is written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki and stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe and Yuki Yamada. 

Senna. Pals. I recognize that the title of this video might seem ridiculous, but I stand by my statement. Godzilla minus one is the best film of 2023. So far, there are six weeks left in the year, so something else might come along that blows my mind. But as of right now, as of this recording, Godzilla minus one is the best film of 2023. And I'll break down all the reasons why I believe that in this video, without giving away any spoilers. But first, I want to clarify something. There are two different Godzilla things coming out at the same time.

for the longest time that they were the same thing. I thought the American one was just the Japan one with a different title for the American audience. It's not. Apple TV's thing is something totally different. I don't know anything about it, so we won't be comparing it in this video. If you happen to catch this review after it's already hit streaming,

please watch it in its original language. I don't want you to miss out on all that emotional content that you could experience hearing it in Japanese. It's not that often I get to say I love a movie. I love this movie. This movie, it is so good. Now keep in mind, when I went to watch this, I was sitting at the very front on the far right side,

the worst possible seat for this kind of movie. I didn't have a choice because I was at a screening, and I still loved it. What is Godzilla minus one about? You might be wondering to yourself, why is he even going into this? It's a monster film. Am I there for the story?

Generally speaking, you're not there for the story this time you are. This one actually has. as a substantial story and it's important. It's crucial to the whole experience. I'm not gonna give too much away. I just wanna give you a tiny, tiny sliver of information. This takes place after World War II.

We are following one soldier that has survived. It is his journey to picking himself back up while Japan is also picking itself back up. But all of that process gets interrupted by Gojuda. Godzilla. It's true, I just can't deny. There's one persisting flaw in all. all of the American Godzilla films that, for some reason,

we can't seem to shake, and that is, the humans suck. We haven't had a Godzilla film yet where we care about the human beings. We want them to go kick rocks. We just want to pay attention to the monsters destroying each other and destroying shit like the end of a Power Rangers episode. That's all we want to fucking see. For some reason, we can't get it together when it comes to the human characters. They're boring. Go away, humans.

This is a Godzilla film where you care about the human beings. You care so much about them, and their plight, and what they're going through. You understand each of their personalities. They were all interesting. They felt like real people, and that's awesome. From a monster movie, how many huge big-budget movies can you think of

that are like this, like King Kong or Godzilla, where you really care about the human characters and what they're going through, all of them? How often do you experience that? I'll wait. I bet you can't name one. Now you can.

It's Godzilla minus one, goddammit. The human characters are so important to this story, and they're so well-defined. Immediately upon meeting them, you know who they are, you know what they're about, you know what they're like, and they feel tangible, you know? They don't feel like caricatures, for the most part, I'm going to, there's a caveat in there I need to explain later on. For the most part, they feel like real people and you, you just love being with them on this journey. So the characters are great, the story's interesting. action. I mean, it's a Godzilla film. It's a monster movie. How is that? I'm happy to report

it's fantastic. It's so good. It is awesome. It feels like it's paying homage to the original Godzilla and updating it in a wonderful way. When I saw the most recent trailer, I was actually concerned that the VFX was maybe a little bit ropy sometimes, sometimes obvious. But when I was watching it in the cinema, I was like, dang, this is actually just so much fun. Now, Keep in mind, I was sitting at the very front of the film, at the very right side of the theater. I'm seeing everything up close. I'm seeing the details. It still looked great.

The visual effects is top-notch. The monsters are great. The destruction is awesome. And believe me, the trailers do not mislead you. There is so much, there is so much destruction in this movie. And it is so exhilarating to watch on the big screen. Earlier I mentioned how one of the things that we seem to lack from these huge blockbuster monster movies are good human characters we care about.

Another thing we seem to lack that this movie made me realize that we lack are awesome themes that connect to us on a deep human level, themes that just kind of resonate with us and make us feel something. There are four themes that come to mind that I want to mention. There are probably a whole bunch more. The four that come to mind are forgiveness, particularly. Self-forgiveness. Family. And what is a family? Redemption and live. Redemption, that's an easy one to understand. What is family? If you are living in a post-war world, most of the members of your family have died, if not all of them, and you're the only survivor. What is family at that point? But the other survivors in that world. You really can't depend on your government. You have to depend on the people around you, your tribe. And it's crazy to me that this theme exists in this movie. I haven't seen something like that since V for Vendetta.

It's not that often we get that in our movies over here anymore. I see that all the time in Indian films. But it's wild to me that a Japanese film is saying, yo, you can't trust the government. You got to trust the people around. Those are the people you depend on. Self-forgiveness. It's such a weird concept.

Maybe many of us struggle with. If we feel guilty about something, how do we forgive ourselves for that thing? This film really dives deep on learning to forgive yourself and moving forward. One of the characters is experiencing unfathomable guilt. I mean, you're dealing with monsters

and stuff like that, but still, this film was made with a global audience in mind, but it was made with Japan in mind first. That is very, very obvious because of the theme, live. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I can't get into it because of YouTube.

Just know that that is a very, very essential theme to this film, and it's important to the Japanese audience, or at least I can see why it would be important to the Japanese audience. All right, the last two things I want to talk about are the acting and a thing I found weird. The acting in this film was, for the most part, stellar. I loved it. It helped to root me into the characters, into their plight.

It helped me to feel all the things I was supposed to feel, all the stuff that's aforementioned. It was helped by the fact that the acting was so good in this movie, for the most part. There were instances where it got a little bit over the top. That's maybe 5 to 8% of the movie in my mind. opinion. I am not a Japanese speaker, but there was a woman who was there that I spoke to that is Japanese and she's like, yeah, some of the acting was over the top. I'm like, yeah, but I think even when it went over the top, I think it was actually at the service of the film. Now, sometimes you do need it to get bigger. Now, what was the thing that I found weird in this movie? A huge deal is made about how radioactive Godzilla is. For all of the rara that was made about him being radioactive, the humans don't seem to be affected by that in the slightest. Characters, characters survive. survive situations they probably shouldn't. I was so rooted in the journey. I was so rooted in the emotions.

I was so swept up in it all. I suspended my disbelief of all of that. I still noticed it. Wait a second. I enjoyed the film nonetheless. As much as like I can be persnickety and analytical and shake my finger, it didn't matter at the end of the day because the, it was the entertainment factor was through the roof.

If you haven't seen the film yet, and it's still playing in theaters, please go find the biggest screen you can with the best audio possible. It'll be an experience you will not regret. The film is awesome. It's not that often. I get to say that I love a movie. I love this movie. I hope you guys do too.

Now, if you've seen it already, I am very curious to know what you felt about it. What was your favorite film from 2023? I'm very curious to know. Thank you so much. That's it for now. I'm Jabby Kouye. Peace out.