Shin Godzilla (2016 By TheSmithCure

The title of Shin Godzilla is a succinct explanation of what this version of the Kaiju monster will be New (Shin) Godzilla (Gojira, or Gorilla Whale, or perhaps as translated God Incarnate). This is a series that has lasted since 1954 with 36 films and counting still with the moderately successful Legendary Films Godzilla movies. This film written and directed by Evangelion Director Hideki Anno truly provides something new to the character while being very consistent with what it’s title character represents, and how humanity must respond to it, even the flaws of how it responds based on modern bureaucratic structure.

Within Shin Godzilla we observe the literal evolution of a mysterious creature from a bizarre fish eyed, fish-like creature to the eventual bipedal beast we know of him. During the span of the film Japan; a country that has reckoned with humanities nuclear ambitions, sees and responds to this within it’s own bureaucratic structure. This may perhaps be one of the driest dialogue wise of the Godzilla movies but it does it with the correct flair to reflect the banality and perhaps predictability of real life governmental structures. Perhaps this film in this way is a direct response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that happened in the wake of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. A nuclear disaster that leaked nuclear material into the city of Ōkuma, Fukushima; in the ensuing hours of this disaster the situation got progressively worse causing even further evacuations and a common critism of the response showing the government was ultimately unprepared for a “cascasing nuclear disaster”. In this film it’s a the appearance of a unprecedented unidentified lifeform that the government struggles to respond to.

In the most visually awe inspiring part of the film Godzilla has been trampling through Tokyo late at night when with assistance of US Military have B2 bombers drop MOP (bunker buster) bombs on Godzilla with precision. Godzilla is hit and a tremendous amount of blood drops from Godzilla. Godzilla keels over points his mouth at the ground and a immense amount of smoke aggressively bellow of out of Godzilla’s mouth, followed shortly by a large hellish amount of fire. It would seem that Godzilla has absorbed the force of the bombs that hit him and is forcefully expelling the energy of the bombs. The hellfire forcefully coming out of Godzilla blankets the city and shortly thereafter the fire focuses into a fine purple plasma colored beam as Godzilla cranes his head into the air from the sheer force of the beam, this ends up hitting one of the B2 Bombers and Godzilla seemingly in control for a moment closes his mouth and the same plasma colored beam lasers out of the spines in his back hitting follow up bombs and destroying the remaining B2 bombers Godzilla is protecting himself.

The threat neutralized Godzilla opens his mouth back up and the laser focused plasma beam come out of his mouth to destroy everything else like a katana through hot butter, buildings, helicopters, the entire city is a hellscape of fire survivors are those who managed to hide underground.

Godzilla in Shin Godzilla (2016)

During this whole sequence is a beautiful piece of music composed for this film called “Who Will Know” that illustrates Godzilla’s inner anguish. Featuring a lyrical back and forth structure of pain unacknowledged, and the desire to survive in spite of this. “If I die in this world, who will know something of me”, in response “But I must carry on, nothing worse can befall”. This piece of music alone serves to differentiate this Shin Godzilla from others before or after, this is a creature who is in tremendous pain, the hubris of humanities nuclear ambitions (most recently reflected in the Fukushima disaster in real life Japan) has turned this creature into this huge monster who just evolves and survives the only way it thinks it can, only humanity can do at this point is to try and defend itself.

In the final act of the film as Japan learns from all of the continuing information (including the cirumstances leading to the appearance of Godzilla), they bring in full force the Japan Self Defense Force SDF, who manages to be presented as some of the most calm and collected in the film. Indeed it is their support in addition to some important break throughs that leads to a intense climax in the film. Even with the clear commentary on Governmental response it still presents the humans and military in a favorable light and perhaps most important in the need of self defense from a monster of ones own making. From that perhaps there’s some hope for humanity to rebuild after such a disaster after so much destruction ultimately wrought by humanity on itself through it’s hubris.