Shin Godzilla (AKA Shin Gojira) Review
- Jack Sheldon
- Jul 6, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 16, 2018
You may remember in one of my recent discussions about why the American's can't make a Godzilla movie to save their lives (If you don't here's handy dandy link here https://jacksheldon80.wixsite.com/filmreviews/home/why-can-t-america-do-godzilla-right) I used the recent Japanese Godzilla Shin Godzilla as a reference to where the Americans went wrong, so I thought to myself why not give Shin Godzilla a review of its own. So without further ado here's my review of 2016's Shin Godzilla. Oh and by the way spoilers ahead.
We open in Tokyo bay where a yacht is found drifting with no one inside and no clue as to where the passengers went. Soon strange jets of steam have been shooting out of the water all morning, wanting to reassure the citizens the prime minister organizes a cabinet when suddenly a tunnel underneath the bay collapses and floods.
Now with an actual crisis on their hands the prime minister must act fast, he's informed by one young member of his cabinet, Rando Yaguchi, played by Hiroki Hasegawa, that there is footage going around online of what looks like a tail sticking out of the bay, but the prime minster ignores these warnings and pushes on with his plan to...erm tell people not to panic. Anyway the news soon picks up on the giant tail and the prime minister has no choice but to reassure the nation that the creature cannot come on land due to its weight, but the beast moves up rivers and makes land that way,
But it does make land and this baby Godzilla thing pictured above starts wreaking havoc on Japan. The creature starts to produce a strange red discharge before evolving into a red skinned creature that can stand on its hind legs, but this seemed to tire out the creature and it heads back to sea. The government officials focus on military strategy and civilian safety, while Yaguchi is put in charge of a task force to research the creature. Due to high radiation readings, the group theorizes that it is energized by nuclear fission
The US sends an envoy Kayoko Anne Patterson, played by Satomi Ishihara, who reveals that a disgraced anti nuclear zoologist Goro Maki, had been studying mutations caused by the effects of nuclear contamination and had theorized the appearance of the creature but had been covered up by the US government. It turns out that that abandoned yacht from the start of the film belonged to Maki and he had left his research notes before disappearing.
The creature now officially dubbed "Godzilla" after Maki's research, now reappears twice the size that it was and is heading towards Kamakura and is en route to Tokyo. The Japanese self defense force mobilizes but their attacks have no effect and are forced to withdraw due to a civilian presence in the area.
The US intervenes as they want to defend their embassy which prompts the evacuation of civilians while the US hit Godzilla with bombs dropped from B-2 Bombers, Godzilla responds to the US's bombardment with highly destructive atomic rays fired from his mouth and dorsal fins which destroy most of the city and hit a helicopter carrying top government officials, the battle leaves much of Tokyo covered in radiation and fallout while Godzilla himself enters a dormant state and becomes immobile.
Yaguchi's team discovers that Godzilla's fins and blood work as a cooling system and theorize that they could use a coagulating agent to freeze it. After analyzing a tissue sample from Godzilla the group discovers that Godzilla is an ever evolving life from and that it can reproduce asexually, the united nations are aware of this and announce that they will thermonuclear weapons to destroy Godzilla. Unwilling to see nuclear weapons detonated in Japan again, Patterson decides to use her political connections to buy time for Yaguchi's team, who the interim government has little faith in. Yaguchi's team has a breakthrough and procure the means to conduct their deep freeze plan through international cooperation.
Hours before the UN's planned nuclear attack Japan launches operation deep freeze, they provoke Godzilla into using its atomic breath with a large number of drones until it depletes again, the team detonate explosives in nearby buildings causing them to fall on Godzilla, trapping him in rubble, the coagulant tankers move in and start pumping Godzilla full of coagulant. Although many people are killed in the operation, Godzilla has been frozen solid.
In the aftermath it is revealed that Godzilla's radiation has a very short half life so Tokyo can be rebuilt. The UN agrees to cancel the strike but warns that if Godzilla were to reawaken then nuclear force will be used immediately. In the final shots of the film we see Godzilla's tail covered in frozen humanoid like figures in the process of emerging
So that was Shin Godzilla and I have to say, its very good, despite quite a long run time for a Godzilla movie it never feels slow and the story doesn't drag thanks to Godzilla's well placed rampages.
I also really like the new design of Godzilla, the shades of black and orange really makes you think that this is some ancient creature. The acting was also quite good with some standout performances which added a lot of believability which was impressive considering it wasn't even in my language. The subtitles are where I take the biggest issue though as some lines have clearly been translated literally and that makes for some very awkward English. The subtitles also jump around the screen, introductions to places will be at the top and dialogue at the bottom, but sometimes dialogue starts before you've finished reading where this scene is. That and the original Japanese text hasn't been removed from some scenes so some of the subtitles can overlap and be difficult to read at times.
But other than these little issues the film is fantastic and is certainly a real Godzilla movie.
All images in this review were used under the fair use act (1988)
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