I am pleased to report that my favorite line of dialogue has been restored in the BluRay edition of Godzilla Minus One, which was released this week: “We can’t rely on the U.S. or Japanese government.” I was dismayed when the Netflix translation watered down the line, but the disc restores the theatrical translation by Anthony Kimm.
Are you surprised at all that I bought the BluRay on the first day it was available? It’s been a treat watching the various features that are included along with the film. “The Making Of” feature is fascinating, seeing how the scenes were filmed in a specific order to take advantage of the actors’ time. As each actor’s scenes are completed, they’re given flowers and an opportunity to make a little speech. So many of them say they feel honored to be part of a Godzilla movie, a series that one actor even said is how Japan is represented to the world.
The 7-year-old inside me is tickled to see such a great movie emerge from a franchise that was so silly for awhile.
When I was a young comic book nerd, I believed that great stories could be told in that format, and my fellow comic book nerds know that Amazing Spider-Man #33 and Fantastic Four #51 are among the proof of that theory. I obviously wasn’t the only true believer — so many great stories were told that they had to coin the term “graphic novel.”
And so when a great movie is made in the giant-monster genre, I’m over the moon. Arguably only two truly great films had been made featuring giant monsters — King Kong (1933) and Gojira (1954). And now there are three.
Godzilla has seen a resurgence in popularity over the past decade, since Hollywood got involved and made the very fine movie Godzilla (2014) and its sequels, but Godzilla is a Japanese creation and their work is clearly the best. Of the half-dozen Godzilla movies made in the last 10 years, clearly the best are Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One, products of Toho Studios.
You may not be able to rely on the U.S. or Japanese governments, but you can surely rely on Toho to deliver.
