Good movie, I liked it a lot. There was a good amount of Godzilla, although not ‘a lot’, but the story was good, captivating, with interesting characters, very well done, a good movie. All set in the years after the second world war. I enjoyed very much the visuals too, the clothes, the houses, everything. I loved to see how the time passed, not just by Akiko’s growth but also the house: one scene it’s in ruins, the next the walls are repaired, then we slowly see other improvements.
Really well done.
In details:
Shikishima Koichi is a kamikaze pilot. The war is almost over, and he’s supposed to complete one last mission… well, for a kamikaze pilot the first is also the last. In this case, though, it’s totally useless, the war is lost already, almost over, so we can all understand that this young man does not want to die and at the end he chooses to live, to fake engine troubles to avoid it. He lands on the island of Odo where there are Japanese engineers with that task, to work on planes.
The chief engineer Tachibana does not need long to understand the truth, he knows his planes and knows this one can fly, but he also understands and sort of approves not wasting his life.
That night, though, troubles find him anyway, because they are attacked by a huge creature, looking like a dinosaur of sorts, the locals call him Godzilla. Tachibana tells him to reach his plane and shoot the creature, because the plane has advanced weapons compared to what they have. Koichi reaches the plane but it’s too scared to shoot, he can see Godzilla up close, Godzilla hasn’t seen him yet and he doesn’t shoot. The engineers are scared, seeing Godzilla advancing; Tachibana had them hide, but someone starts shooting, and so Godzilla kills them.
Koichi had lost consciousness, and in the morning he wakes up to see all the bodies lined up, only one survived, chief Tachibana, who is very angry at him for ‘causing’ all those deaths.
Koichi comes ‘home’, his village is in ruins, when Tokyo was bombed many many civilians died, including his parents. His neighbour Sumiko is grieving the loss of her children, and therefore accuses Koichi just like Tachibana did (because she knows he was a kamikaze pilot, so he should not be alive).
He meets by chance a girl who is running away. He tried to stop her at first, but she gave him the child she was carrying and keeps running. It’s a baby girl, and he does not have the heart to leave her alone and defenceless, so he keeps her until he finally sees the girl again. Her name is Noriko, and she understands that he has a heart and won’t kick her away, so she joins him and stays at his house, or what’s left of it.
It comes out that she is not only not married, but she’s not even the baby’s mother. Her parents died, and so did the baby’s family. Little Akiko is alone, so she takes care of her. And now Koichi takes care of them both.
He finds a job well paid, because it is kind of dangerous. He goes on a wooden ship with three other men to find all the left over mines and shoot them.
Little by little they keep on living, Koichi makes friends with these men, while Noriko and Akiko are helped by Sumiko, who can’t help helping a baby in need.
Noriko eventually finds a job in Ginza, she wants to work and be independent, and Sumiko will help take care of Akiko.
When the States are doing nuclear tests, Godzilla gets caught up in that; it sort of causes his ‘upgrade’. Godzilla destroys some US ships, we see one when Koichi’s ship finds it. They’ve been sent to ‘gain time’, because a modern, war ship is arriving. The US won’t help at all, and since Godzilla seems directed to Japan, they have to do something. Koichi tells them of his encounter with Godzilla, and then they see it. They succeed in making a mine explode inside Godzilla’s mouth, but he can regenerate himself!
The big ship is easily destroyed too, when it arrives! Godzilla now has an atomic ray!
Shikishima goes back home, in Tokyo, and tells Noriko about it all, his first encounter with Godzilla and that it has returned. He is still ashamed of himself.
When he gets the news that Godzilla is in Ginza, he goes there, worried for Noriko. She survives its attack on the train she’s on, and then Koichi finds her, but when it uses his atomic ray again, the resulting wave of destruction is massive, and Noriko pushes Koichi on a side alley to protect him, but she gets it and pushed away. Koichi thinks she’s dead and mourns her.
He is now determined to defeat Godzilla.
For now Godzilla has gone away, but they seriously fear his return. The government won’t help, so they have to do it themselves. Koichi’s friend Noda is a naval engineer who has a plan, to attract Godzilla where the sea is the deepest, and to force him down to the bottom, thinking the huge pressure will break him, and plan B is to have him resurface equally fast, to add to the pressure, thinking nothing could survive something like that. In addition to that, Koichi wants a plane to launch directed into its mouth, remembering how the mine had wounded it.
Nobody is forced to do it, and many people leave because they have family, but many men remain, mostly people who fought in the war, one way or the other.
Koichi wants to find Tachibana to repair the plane that Noda and other men found for him. He sends lots of letters and finally explains it all, and Tachibana agrees.
Koichi leaves Akiko with a letter for Sumiko, an envelope with his money so that Sumiko can take care of the child. Koichi does not expect to survive.
When finally Godzilla is spotted, Koichi manages to get it where they want it, attracting its attention with the plane’s weapons. The ships work well, and the plan goes well… only Godzilla is made of sterner stuff, and goes down and then comes up still whole. Maybe a little wounded, but only enough to get him angry, nothing serious. At that point, Koichi arrives, and flies his plane right into Godzilla’s mouth before it can use its atomic ray.
His friends are worried about him, but Tachibana told him to live, to eject himself from the plane and survive. Of course the kamikaze planes did not have it, but this is another type of plane.
Shikishima survives and they see his parachute and take him on board. Tachibana is relieved when he hears this.
Godzilla’s head has been blown off, and then its body charges and destroys itself.
When his ship touches land again, Koichi is met by Sumiko, carrying with her Akiko and also a letter. Koichi reads it and then runs to the hospital where he finds that Noriko survived. Half her face and her arm are still wounded, but she’s alive. He has resolved his internal conflicts and they can now be a family together. We can only assume that they will get married and live together with Akiko who of course calls them mom and dad.
In the last scene, though, we see a piece of Godzilla, sort of… moving, regenerating itself.
It is over for Koichi, but not for the world or the future.
If I had to choose something, I’d say the scene I liked less was the last one, when Koichi sees Noriko alive in the hospital bed. That could have been better, he stayed too long with his mouth open, she never once looked at Akiko, and they sort of forgot the child when he approached the bed to touch her hand and kneel by her.
ITA Godzilla minus one
