Sei Hiraizumi – Through the Shattered Lens

In 2004, Godzilla: Final Wars was released by Toho and promoted as Godzilla’s final film.

And indeed, for ten years, there was no sign of Godzilla. There were rumors that he would return but, for the most part, he was a fondly remembered relic of a different era. That changed in 2014, when Legendary Pictures produced and Warner Bros. distributed a new Americanized version of Godzilla. Though the new version was not particularly well received by critics, it did well enough at the box office to convince Toho that it was time to make a new Godzilla film of their own.

2016’s Shin Godzilla is not a sequel to any of the previous Godzilla films. Instead, Shin Godzilla imagines a continually evolving Godzilla attacking Japan, for the first time, in 2016. When Godzilla first appears, he definitely doesn’t look like himself. He doesn’t have his famous scaly skin. Instead of proudly striding through the cities and stepping onto buildings, he slithers through the streets. To be honest, he actually looks a little… well, goofy. At first, I wasn’t really sure that I would be able to accept this Godzilla. However, the film apparently predicted my reaction. Throughout the film, Godzilla slowly transforms (or “evolves,” as the film puts it) into the majestic monster that we all know and love. And when that Godzilla finally made his appearance, I wanted to cheer. I also wanted to hide behind the couch, because this is one of those films where Godzilla has no interest in being a nice guy. He lives to destroy, and Shin Godzilla, made in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis that rocked Japan in March 2011, doesn’t shy away from showing the amount of damage and death that would result from an actual monster attack.

The film uses Godzilla sparingly. Instead, most of the running time is taken up with meetings. The Japanese government meets and tries to figure out what to do about the monster that’s attacking their country. The military is unprepared. The citizens have no memory of being put under a national emergency. The prime ministers (yes, the film goes through more than one) all look like they’re about to have a panic attack when they’re expected to make a decision. The Americans send over an envoy (Satomi Ishihara) who views dealing with Godzilla as a way to further her own political ambitions. Running throughout the film is the idea that the Japanese government has been left powerless to deal with real emergencies. The film’s ineffective bureaucrats become stand-ins for the same bureaucrats who failed in 2011. This is the most openly political Godzilla film since the first one.

Indeed, Shin Godzilla is far more concerned with how the government reacts to Godzilla than with Godzilla himself. I imagine that was, and probably still is, an issue for some viewers of the film. Myself, I appreciated the film’s portrait of a useless and largely impotent bureaucracy full of entrenched people who were more concerned with their own advancement than with protecting the citizens they were supposed to be serving. There’s a satirical edge to Shin Godzilla that I absolutely loved. Be glad Godzilla isn’t real, the film seems to be saying, because these idiots certainly aren’t going to protect you. Instead, all they can do is issue meaningless statements and pointless regulations designed to maintain the illusion of their own power. In its way, Shin Godzilla predicted the entire COVID era. It’s a Godzilla film with a lesson for us all.

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

To celebrate the incredible Takeshi Kitano’s 79th birthday, I decided to revisit his directorial debut, VIOLENT COP (1989). I first discovered Kitano in the late 90’s when I saw that his film FIREWORKS (1997) was available for rent at my local Hastings Entertainment Superstore. Of course I rented it. It was slow, but it was also incredibly powerful, and I found myself paying attention to Kitano’s career. He has this incredible screen presence, and I was soon watching everything he came out with from BROTHER (2000) and BATTLE ROYALE (2000) to the update of ZATOICHI: THE BLIND SWORDSMAN (2003). I also looked back at the earlier work in his career, which brings us back to VIOLENT COP.

VIOLENT COP introduces us to Detective Azuma (Takeshi Kitano), a Tokyo cop whose methods are almost as brutal as the crimes he investigates. When his best friend, the corrupt cop Iwaki (Sei Hiraizumi), is murdered, Azuma uncovers a criminal network tied to drugs, corruption, exploitation, you name it! Through a series of beatings and threats, Azuma closes in on the professional killer, Kiyohiro (Hakuryu). Complicating matters is Azuma’s sister, Akari (Maiko Kawakami), a mental case and drug addict. When Akari is kidnapped due to his investigation, Azuma will stop at nothing to get his own, unique brand of justice.

First time director Takeshi Kitano brings an interesting and minimalist quality to VIOLENT COP through his long static shots and sparse dialogue. He’s able to create an atmosphere where the brutality of his story feels raw and natural. Actor Takeshi Kitano’s performance as Azuma follows suit. Once the violence comes, it resonates and lands extremely hard precisely because it’s presented in such a straightforward manner. Kitano’s film is way more realistic than most of us would probably care to admit.

Ultimately, VIOLENT COP doesn’t condemn or endorse Azuma, choosing to just observe him as his story leads to tragedy. As Kitano’s directorial debut, however, it introduces us to a unique and confident new voice… bleak, unsentimental, and unsettling. Kitano, the actor and the director, isn’t afraid to just stare at the camera and dare you to decide if there’s any difference between the good guy and the bad guy!