Year: 2023
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Not a widespread release here in NZ, but a healthy crowd turned up for the screening I went to in Auckland.
As it’s a Godzilla film, we are talking about a huge F-off dinosaur thing, stomping around Tokyo and roaring its head off. However, the surprise element to this was how simple, warm and engaging the story was – as well as the understated and dignified performances from the cast.
It is set in Japan in 1945. The outcome of WW2 is known. A young fighter pilot, Koichi Shikishima, is on, quite literally, a Kamikaze mission. From the cockpit, he reports that his plane is faulty and flies into a remote Japanese military base to request that the engineers check the plane.
The engineers find nothing wrong. Just as Koichi is summoning up fake outrage when accused of cowardice…they all notice multiple strange, deep sea fish bobbling up on the surface near the beach. This can only mean one thing! But I’ll leave it there, cos spoilers.
In time, Koichi arrives back home in a bombed-to-smithereens Tokyo suburb. He was not expected to be seen again and he quickly establishes that his parents are dead. He is thoroughly shamed by a neighbour who accuses him of allowing the enemy to win – blaming him directly for the death of her own children.
In the anarchic mayhem of a society that has broken down, he finds himself sharing his small family home with a stranger. A forceful young woman, Noriko, who has a baby girl in tow. The baby is orphaned and is not hers.
Recovery and rebuilding continues over the next couple of years and some form of normalcy returns. Koichi and Noriko live as a family with the toddler girl. They appear to live as a family but there is no funny business. Koichi is tortured by his PTSD and is in no state to have thoughts of romance.
Unfortunately, the big F-off monster dinosaur is back on the scene and Koichi becomes involved in the efforts to contain the beast alongside work colleagues who initially are very cold to him, but become friends. Also, the neighbour now looks after the little girl when Noriko is at work.
Have you noticed something? There have been no timewarps or multiverses. No unexplained Nemisis monsters fighting the ‘zillmeister. The story is easy to follow.
It’s a preposterous state of affairs really, but you see a society slowly piecing itself back together and the technical side of things i.e. what they plan to do is within their means and seems scientifically credible. A bit like that scene in Squid Game when the weaker side in the Tug of War made some clever adjustments which meant the other team’s brute force worked against them.
I know what you’re thinking “yes, yes – but what about the MONSTER?”. Well I can tell you that this is a very scary Godzilla indeed. I have often thought in the past that G’s roar sounds a bit weedy and high-pitched, given its size. Not here! It’s a full-throated 100 Lion roar. Not only that, this iteration is remorseless, relentless and a complete and utter bastard. There is no soft side – there is no Achilles heel – no redeeming love of its babies. The only emotions are non-negotiable fury and anger.
Talking of emotions, the human characters never descend to mawkishness. Acts of kindness, gestures of friendship and love are done with stoic dignity. No need for us to sit through lingering hugs, rumpo or “I love yous”. This may be due to the Japanese version of Dunkirk Spirit during wartime, but I think it’s more a Japanese thing. We English are famous for our stiff upper lip, but if that was true – why do we seem to like blubalongaAdele and Love Actually so much?
In short my 15 year old son and I loved it. It is a satisfying meal but not everything is squared away, there is a healthy amount of intentional loose-endery. We are given space to imagine what we think will happen next. It’s simple, scary, warm and clever.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Godzilla On the Buses, Godzilla in Space, Carry on Godzilla, Godzilla Queen of the Desert…
Or how one traumatised soldier’s attempt at redemption with a NUCLEAR family is threatened by the worst case of ATOMIC halitosis you’ve ever seen.
I love me some John Wick, all fearless and invulnerable and an expert at everything, but when I see a protagonist who thinks “why should I kill myself for a war that’s lost?” and is frozen rigid when confronted by a giant monster I think “that’s my guy”.
The thing is, his instincts were right in both instances. If he had shot the creature in that manner, it would have just regenerated really quickly and ended up even MORE grumpy!
Saw this earlier in the week and really enjoyed it – great review.
Amazed at how much they managed to achieve with such a low budget (think the whole thing cost less than $15m), and loved the fusion of trad B-movie, classic Japanese melodrama and post WW2 reconstruction.
Absolutely loved the shot of the lead on his knees screaming as the mud begins to rain down. Glorious stuff.
Also enjoyed the team from the inflatable dinghy company who insisted on attending the final battle for very ill-defined reasons and then all stood therein their daft blue boilersuits like “well, fuck” as Godzilla prepared to melt them and the ship they stood on.
But the absolute highlight for me was one of the trailers before the movie. The Beekeeper, the new David Ayer, featuring ACTUAL JASON STATHAM DOING AN AMERICAN ACCENT. Take my goddamn money, you magnificent bastards!
I enjoyed this review of it:
Thanks for tipping us off about Dan Murrell @locust. He’s a real find.
A wonderfully enthusiastic film nerd.
I got curious about The Beekeeper. The title does suggest a gentle, contemplative, poetic movie like Secrets of the Beehive or 20, 000 species of Bees.
Could it be that Jason Statham has finally discovered his inner Timothée Chalamet?
So I took a look at Rotten Tomatoes.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_beekeeper_2024
I loved Hannah Strong’s comment.
“A sad disappointment for bee enthusiasts.”
He is, and he (among other things) makes the most pedantically accurate box office charts every week on his channel, which I enjoy even though I don’t care much about the subject.
His deep dives into the financial details of making movies and turning a profit are fascinating, and his opinions always entertaining (even when you might disagree).
He used to be a part of the Screen Junkies Universe on YT, back in the days when they’d have a wonderfully nerdy daily panel show around film news, usually three or four smart and funny people having great conversations for an hour or so, and very entertaining Movie Fights every Friday…those were the days.
Covid pretty much killed that channel, which now seems reduced to two last guys standing, still making some Honest Trailers but nothing much else.
Which is good for my overall time wasted on the internet, but still sad.
But Dan left on his own accord before that sad development.
I absolutely loved this film, real top tier monster smashing up buildings (and ships, and trains…) stuff. The character beats are just right, the set pieces are spectacular, and I especially enjoyed that the CGI for big G kept just a tiny hint of man in a suit. I can even forgive the touch of schmaltz at the end because it worked in the moment. I saw it in the first week of 2024, but it’ll be a good year if I see many better films over the rest of it.
Word is that they’re re-releasing this in black and white (like they did with Fury Road) which, I would guess is meant to evoke Gojira.
Thing is, the colour bright blue is almost a character in this film. When it lights up, you know sh*t is about to go down..