Majestic mayhem

➤Rated PG-13
➤Netflix

AMERICAN AND JAPANESE AUDIENCES watch Godzilla movies differently. With each new city-stomping installment of the film series that originated in Japan in 1954, the island nation relives a nightmare of atomic devastation. On the other hand, the obliteration of people and buildings in the American-directed Godzilla films is the stuff of entertainment.

In Godzilla Minus One, director and co-writer Takashi Yamazaki delivers a visual and visceral masterpiece that gives Japan a decisive victory in the battle of the kaiju (giant monster) films. It’s a profound story: A kamikaze pilot who abandons his mission gets a chance at redemption. But Yamakazi poses a searching question: Is self-sacrifice or survival the greater good?

Kamikaze pilots aren’t supposed to return home. But Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) lies about his plane’s mechanical condition to dodge a suicide mission at the end of World War II because he believes his death would be pointless. While feelings of guilt and shame plague him, not everyone condemns his decision.

“We need more people like you,” a soldier buddy congratulates Shikishima. “Why obey an order to ‘die honorably’ when the outcome is already clear?” With this early scene, Yamakazi challenges Japan’s centuries-old code that entwines honor with suicide.

Shikishima’s self-loathing prevents him from committing emotionally to Noriko (Minami Hamabe), a young woman who’s caring for an orphaned baby. He provides for them but doesn’t feel worthy to become a husband and father. Although Shikishima and Noriko live together, they don’t engage in a physical relationship. (It’s hard to imagine an American film passing up that opportunity.)

Shikishima volunteers for the most dangerous role in a long-shot plan to defeat Godzilla, whose unexplained attacks on island military outposts and against naval craft suggest an imminent invasion of Tokyo. It’s a gripping moment, and the film offers Japan’s young people a patriotic vision. Today’s Godzilla might be the North Korean dictatorship that is a nuclear missile’s five-minute flight away.

Violence and a few expletives earn Godzilla Minus One its PG-13 rating. (The film doesn’t explain its title: Zero signifies Japan’s total destruction, so negative-one is even worse.) Godzilla Minus One won eight Japan Academy Film Prize awards, including best picture, as well as the 2024 Oscar for best visual effects, the first Academy Award of any kind for a Godzilla movie.

The film’s special effects are vivid and detailed. Godzilla surges up out of the ocean and snatches a battleship in its mouth, like a killer whale toying with a defenseless seal one-tenth its size. The blue nuclear ray Godzilla radiates from its mouth disintegrates targets in mushroom-shaped clouds. The film’s full spectrum of sound, from deafening explosions to poignant silence, produces a heart-pounding and moving experience. The ending, however, left this viewer disappointed. Without saying too much, it feels like Yamazaki flinches from plunging his craft with maximum impact into the audience’s soul. But you might watch the film differently.