“Godzilla Minus One” will be screened, followed by Q&A with director Takashi Yamazaki, on Monday, Feb. 19, from 6 to 10 p.m. at Secret Movie Club, 1917 Bay St., Los Angeles.
“What can one say about one of the greatest movies of 2023 that took everyone by surprise?” said Secret Movie Club founder and programmer Craig Hammill. “Toho’s ‘Godzilla Minus One,’ the 33rd entry in its storied franchise, written, directed, and co-VFX supervised by Takashi Yamazaki, has turned out to be one of the very best in the series. But even more miraculously, one of the great blockbuster epics of 2023, made for only $10 million U.S.
“‘Godzilla Minus One’ takes us back to the series’ roots with a story that starts at the desperate end of World War II where kamikaze pilot Koichi and an island of Japanese military mechanics witness a Godzilla attack that nearly kills them all.
“When an ashamed, traumatized Koichi returns to a post-war ravaged Tokyo, he struggles mightily to build up a new life. Along the way he meets fellow survivor Noriko, who has rescued an orphaned baby, Akiko. They form a makeshift family as they try to put back together lives just like all of Japan.
“Meanwhile, Koichi gets a job with a salty crew of shipmates destroying all the mines that still remain out in the ocean. But soon, after the U.S. tests its H-bomb, the monster Koichi saw at the end of World War II resurfaces, larger, more powerful, more terrifying than ever. And Godzilla heads to Tokyo, the living embodiment of the horrible potential of the nuclear age.
“Somehow ‘Godzilla Minus One’ manages to communicate the horrors of the atom bomb better than ‘Oppenheimer.’ Taking its inspiration from the very first somber movie in the series, 1954’s ‘Godzilla’ (directed by Ishiro Honda), this Godzilla is full on metaphor, horror, terror.
“Yamazaki-san and his team also manage the impossible (at least up to this point in the Godzilla series) by making the human story as compelling and necessary as the kaiju Godzilla monster attacks. This is the Godzilla movie that is going to make you cry.
“‘Godzilla Minus One’ reminds us, in 2023, that epic movies of scale, scope, and movie magic can still be made. More amazing, made for a low budget in the right hands of brilliant creatives.
“Join us tonight to see this instant classic. And stay to learn how it was done as we have the honor of speaking with Yamazaki-san himself about he and his team made one of the all-time great Godzilla movies.”
Cost: $14 plus online ordering fee. Info: https://www.secretmovieclub.com/calendar/godzilla-minus-one-with-director-yamazaki-san-qampa-the-smc-theater
Note: Entrance/parking is in the back of the 1917 Bay St. building. Entrance is not on Bay Street. Access entrance from Wilson Street by turning into the street art alleyway/corridor in the back of the building. Follow signs posted on Wilson and in the corridor.