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Grammarly
Oooooh, it's Halloween
Which means monsters
And what better monster to talk about
Than the biggest one of them all
Yo Mama!
Godzilla!
But which one?
Well, I asked on Patreon
And you voted for Shin Godzilla
And I can see why
It is THE most critically acclaimed Godzilla film since the original
It is both a technical masterpiece
And an emotionally impactful one for the Japanese public
The impressive CG that emulates the miniature look flawlessly
Creating haunting imagery that recalls real-life events
From earthquake and tsunami
World War II firebombing
Nuclear contamination
To cooling a nuclear reactor in meltdown
It is a masterpiece
And I...
Yeah... I didn't like it
"But this is going too far!"
And it's all because of one fundamental, critical problem
Problem being, how "Japan" is defined in the movie
Specifically, let me ask you this question
If every civilian in a country died
Does that country still exist?
In Shin Godzilla
A never before seen giant creature, dubbed Godzilla, attacks East Coast Japan
Due to the extreme inefficiency of the Japanese government
The creature destroys chunks of Tokyo without much resistance
The plot centers around a young politician
Who must swim his way through the bureaucracy
And devise a plan to save Japan from both Godzilla
And the US threat of nuking Tokyo, should Japan fails to save itself
It's a bold new angle for the series
Focusing almost solely on the politics of Japan amidst a disaster
It is no secret that Shin Godzilla is a metaphor
For the real events of the Tohoku Earthquake
And the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
It mocks the Japanese government for failing to respond quickly in times of crisis
All they do is have meetings
And if something goes wrong
They move to another room and do another meeting
"We had two hours to assemble an initial response"
"Disappointing"
Yet, at the same time, it is also familiar
The title screen is a deliberate call back to the original movie
In ways, Shin Godzilla is a very straight forward remake
Much of its imageries are taken directly from the OG
Even the timing matches
But they have one critical difference that makes it inferior in my eyes
When you think of Godzilla's rampage, what do you see?
In the OG, Godzilla breaks through the military barrier
And uses his atomic breath to set the city ablaze
Killing everyone in a brutal demonstration of power
Even if you never saw a Godzilla film in your life
You probably guessed that
In Shin Godzilla, the big G also walks right through the military
Sets the city ablaze
Destroying every...
THING
During the Attack in the OG
We see a mother and her children cornered by Godzilla
"We'll be joining your father in just a moment!"
"A little longer"
It's depressing and disturbing
Minutes later, we see a group of reporters being killed
"This broadcast is over! Good-bye, everyone!"
With OG Godzilla being a symbol of nuclear weapons
And by extension, war
Civilian deaths are presented as emotionally upsetting events
Every soul lost in this war is impactful
Every soul living is suffering
In fact, it is the suffering of the people
Communicated through the singing of a choir
That gives a scientist the motivation to kill Godzilla
So how does Shin Godzilla translate these scenes into the 21st century?
Well...
It doesn't.
Because these moments are gone from the film
Instead of living breathing human beings being impacted by the event
Civilians are now a faceless populace
Shin Godzilla is uninterested in any human beings outside of the government
OG Godzilla shows the aftermath of the attack as traumatic
Shin Godzilla shows the aftermath as "life as usual"
When Godzilla causes a tunnel to collapse
You don't see the person being trapped
When Godzilla destroys Tokyo with his atomic beam
You don't see the people being killed
And the implication for this is uncomfortable
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If every civilian in a country dies
Does that country still exist?
The OG made it clear that when Japan is attacked
When those in power fail to act
The ones who suffer the consequences are always innocent civilians
For OG Godzilla, the people are the country
Shin Godzilla doesn't share this sentiment
As previously mentioned, Shin is deathly allergic to showing civilians
When the government officials visit the area of destruction
Lives lost are not mentioned or shown, at all
Instead, the film focuses much more on the property damage
The military losses
The economic impact
"Tokyo's economy is in free fall"
Unlike OG, where politicians and the military serve the public
In Shin, government officials are there to manage the public
"Tokyo has 13 million people, a GDP of 85 trillion yen..."
To the politicians, civilian lives are treated as a resource
In other words, when the characters say they want to save Japan
They aren't saving the people at all costs
They are saving the land, the economy, the infrastructure
The definition of "Japan" is the system
Civilian lives are just part of the machine
Small loses are acceptable, and can be repaired
When facing civilian deaths
The response from our main character, and thus the film, is cold and uncaring
"Amazing"
"It's evolving"
Dude, the people are dying
But there is ONE death that emotionally affected our main character
"We'll manage the survivors!"
When Godzilla sets Tokyo on fire
Instead of showing civilian deaths
Godzilla kills the prime minister
Suddenly, the loss of a major figure in the system feels like defeat
This is where it starts to get uncomfortable
This favoritism towards authority figures can also be seen in military scenes, too
The higher your rank, the more the film focuses on you
Whereas frontline soldiers are always faceless
Nothing more than part of their war machines
It's like a war movie where you don't see the soldiers
It's like disaster film where you don't see the civilians
The film is only interested in those in power
Added with its fetishization of military equipment
The call for greater government autonomy
And the speech that sounds almost like "some of you may die"
"I cannot promise that all will be safe"
It's no wonder why people think this is an authoritarian right-wing propaganda
And in the context of Japanese politics
(OH NO)
Now I want to make it clear that Shin Godzilla is NOT a right-wing movie
What you see here is likely an unfortunate coincidence
Shin Godzilla's primary director, Hideaki Anno
Known for his Evangelion series
Is famous for his love of giant machines and urban infrastructures
Even within Shin Godzilla His passion for machinery doesn't stop at military equipment
And really, if he's into militarism
The Japanese and US army wouldn't be so utterly useless
Similarly, the film's disinterest in civilian lives is because...
Well, Anno hates humanity
In his Godzilla, civilians are stupid animals who form cults to worship Godzilla
The first time we see civilians
They are shown enjoying the disaster like idiots
The bumbling politicians really aren't that much better
Even the call for greater autonomy
For Japan to stand up against US bullying
Isn't a bad message in and of itself
It IS true that the inefficiencies of the Japanese government
Lead to the death of many during the Tohoku Earthquake
The desire to change that is understandable
But when all of these elements come together
The lack of civilian representation
The emphasis on the authority figures
The love for military equipment
The call for Japan to rise up
It becomes extremely appealing to the ultra-rightwing nationalists
An ideological group who calls for Japan to rise again
And it just so happened that in their eyes
The glory days aren’t the Meiji period or the Edo period
But the period where Japan was invading the rest of Asia
Yikes
But no, my problem with the film lies somewhere else
As previously mentioned
Shin Godzilla is a metaphor for Tohoku Earthquake
And Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
Godzilla is this force of nature, never before seen
Tearing Japan apart from its foundation
While the government fails to take action
The problem is Fukushima is NOT purely a natural disaster
Sure, at magnitude 9.0
The Earthquake was the biggest in Japan's recorded history
But it's far from the only large earthquake to hit Japan
The entire country of Japan lies in an active seismic zone
Earthquakes are a common occurrence
If Godzilla represents the Tohoku Earthquake
Then, in the film's universe
Japan would be attacked by a smaller kaiju
Once a couple of years
(Which would make a kickass movie)
If Godzilla represents the danger of nuclear energy
Then, Japan would already know the existence of Kaiju
The government shouldn't only be criticized for failing to take action
The government should've been criticized for...
Lack of preparation
"Prime Minister, let me reiterate the presence"
"of a large sea creature as a possible cause"
The film alludes to it
But doesn't address it
Unlike the emergence of Godzilla
People in and outside of Japan have foreseen the possibility
Of an earthquake-induced nuclear disaster in the country
Warnings where made, and ignored
The Power Plant wasn’t designed to withstand a tsunami of a scale...
Much smaller than that of the Tohoku Earthquake
Numerous warnings were given
Additional precautions were requested
No actions were taken
Until it was too late
Japan wasn't attacked
Japan was put in danger by its own governmental failure
The Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami killed over 15,000 people
With 2,200 more deaths from evacuations due to the nuclear disaster
Not a single soul lost in this tragedy is reflected in the film
No person was at fault for willingly jeopardizing the lives of thousands of civilians
In not a single instance does this film show sympathy
For the helpless people who truly suffered
So many elements from the OG film were included
Yet the one most critical aspect is left out
The voice of the people is entirely missing
And that's just...
Not right
This is why I don't like Shin Godzilla
It's a shame, because I want to love it
With haunting and terrifying imagery
The film could've served as an important piece
To let the world learn from Japan's mistakes
It takes a small and unique idea
The idea to explore the politics of a kaiju attack
And show us a great, self-contained story
From a singular, razor-sharp focused point of view
Yet it is this fundamental idea that makes me feel... uncomfortable
The exclusion of the victims in a disaster story rubs me the wrong way
In any other context
It wouldn't have been a problem for me
But no film exists in a vacuum
Since this film has the intention of paralleling real-life events
I think it's fair to judge it by its real-life responsibilities
But, you know...
That's just my opinion