When a film tries to carve out the underlying inept weaknesses the ageing Japanese government have kept hidden by dropping a radiation-spewing, blood-spurting lizard monster into Japan and letting the stuff hit the fan when the politicians realise they’ve been too eroded to deal with real problems, the concept sounds interesting (if you haven’t already seen one of the more than 30 godzilla films from over the course of 50 years), but how can even Japan successfully execute something with such a ridiculous concept to deliver the serious themes of modern bureaucratic hypocrisy and individuality and come out with something quite thought-provoking? Well, long story short: they did it.
Shin Godzilla, released in 2016 and written and directed by Hideaki Anno, is the latest reboot of the pop culture icon Godzilla. However, while some of the earlier films took some exploration into Japan’s current governmental stance and how it tries to handle various catastrophes, none have come as close to being as politically-heavy as Shin. Sure, the film has some fantastic scenes of city destruction and the most awesome scene where Godzilla unleashes his signature attack yet, but every step he takes, there’s a meeting in the political department. Godzilla is essentially there to pry open the underlying incapability of the bureaucrats, as it draws the line between the old generation who cling too hard onto their credibility and honourable positions compared to the more open-minded younger generation who aren’t afraid to give daring ideas for obscure situations, giving hope to future development and connections as the younger minds come together to fix the sins of the past, both literally and figuratively, with Godzilla basically being a combustion of all the combined mistakes of the older generation being left to prove the younger one it’s worth.
If there’s anything to say about the film’s pace, it’s the confusing focus on characters as things shift immeasurably quickly between politicians at different discussions, with various names popping and going a little too quick for comfort. But this can be considered comically intentional, as there’s a whole identity crisis amongst the ranks that steadily deepens as Godzilla gets increasingly dangerous with people getting more agitated to just who should handle such a bizarre situation. At first, there’s a comfortable collection of bureaucrats who all hold the stubborn individuality, except the younger and bolder Yaguchi, who first get alarmed of the emerging beast’s obscure, yet small-scale presence with solid titles among them, only for things to plunder into downward-spiral when the character titles get longer and longer and increasingly ridiculous, presenting the awkwardness of Japan having a situation to which no fingers can be pointed, so the fingers start getting pointed at each-other as they’re too incapable of handling a hostile situation with no eligible blame, showing Japan’s disorganisation as the securities come tumbling but they refuse to succumb to dependence on the increasingly powerful China and individualist US.
However, the film at least has the decency to have a main character. Yaguchi, the deputy chief cabinet security, is presented as the leading idealist of the politicians, presenting many theories the others dismiss, only to develop into truth while they succumb to destroyed reputation by doing the opposite of what would’ve kept it: widened-vision and bold insight. A huge irony is shown when Yaguchi presents an idea to what this recently-discovered anomaly could be, only to confuse one of the older politicians who asks: ‘Just who are you addressing?’ when they’re all really the same ‘respectable’, self-righteous members of the old generation. He’s addressing the feeble, spineless monster of the old Japanese bureaucracy itself.
The other character whom the film seems to focus on is the Prime Minister who is, unsurprisingly, the complete opposite of Yaguchi. Stubborn, feeble and more interested in keeping his honour secure than the country he was promoted to protect. He represents everything wrong with the old, frustrated generation who don’t know what to do with the poor state of Japan’s militarization
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His arrogant stubbornness is immediately shown when the fresh, open-ended data of the yet-to-be-seen Godzilla suggests he’d be unable to support his own weight on land. Instead of keeping an open mind and considering all possibilities in his speech to the public on live TV, he instead takes the stupid risk of trying to drown out all mass panic to keep any blame being directed at him by confirming there’s absolute zero chance he could make it onto land and tells the public to ‘put your minds at ease’. What do you think Godzilla does? He adapts and emerges from the sea, of course! He gets hit by his own bullet by refusing to consider something that MIGHT have lost a bit of credibility, showing the dangers of the stubborn self-righteousness that plagues the Japanese government.
His most devastating act of narrow-mindedness comes when an organised attack from the JSDF undergoes to attack the young, vulnerable Godzilla with machine gun fire. However, he calls off the strike when he sees 2 elder civilians are at risk, trying to make up for his hurt honour than doing the obvious thing. He shows another hypocrisy with ‘minimising firepower to stop civilian casualties’ when he refuses to give orders at their only chance at Godzilla, who’s killed hundreds and will kill many more if allowed to evolve any more. Later in the film, the Prime Minister calls for all necessary weapons to be used against Godzilla but by then, he’s completely adapted to any means of military weapon. The PM, and so many political leaders, simply refuse to think long-term, allowing Godzilla to evolve from a clumsy, building-sized irritancy to a devastatingly calamitous, impenetrable juggernaut with true powers of a god-incarnate.
When Godzilla retreats back into the sea, Yaguchi’s colleagues appear with him at the disaster site, saying ‘It was a surprise. Couldn’t be helped.’ It certainly could’ve if the government had more organisation and wasn’t so stubborn! Under the hands of people like Yaguchi, they probably could’ve handled it. These small poor decisions by higher bureaucratic positions cause thousands of people to work ridiculous hours to fix other people’s mistakes, which is constantly stressed throughout the film with many agitated young workers staying up awful hours and making more and more personal sacrifices after being hit with a growingly impossible task. The meetings get more rapid and more incoherent, with Yaguchi once angrily complaining about the dreary ‘foundation of democracy’ ordering a meeting for every single action when the main objective is simple: remove your comfort filters or admit defeat. One of his friends claims he assigned to be a politician because ‘It’s just friend or foe. I like the simplicity.’ But where does Godzilla stand in this? Can you point a finger at him?
Even things such as short hesitations where the PM considers either containing the situation or polishing his honour are shown to be consequential, such as when a police officer desperately asks where to send the fleeing civilians but gets no answer as the PM hasn’t made up his mind and doesn’t act rationally in an immediate situation where every second counts, putting many innocent lives at risk.
However, during the perfected Godzilla’s rampage, the Prime Minister finally sees the effects horrendous error of his and ends up on the confirmed dead list, euphemistically suggesting he took his own life due to being incapable with having his sins look him in the eye. He had no sense of infrastructure to learn from such awful mistakes and independently construct his own judgements and assumptions in the ever-thickening opponent, passing the torch to the younger minds.
Honour is a major theme in the film which is presented as something people have become much too attached to as though it’s the greatest weapon in the Japanese world of society and politics. Japan has one of the lowest crime rates on the planet, with actions that would be considered reckless in most places, such as leaving your phone unattended on the table at a coffee shop or sleeping with your handbag being unguarded on a train being completely ordinary in Japan. This is mostly due to a long Confucian system of having great respect for authority and the current order, with the threat of severe guilt-infliction on offenders resulting in a mostly organised, disciplined society, with honour being turned against offenders.
However, when a creature with no moral reasoning or ability to feel guilt or remorse comes onland and causes destruction as it’s too powerful to contain, everything comes tumbling down. The glass box that contains everything with a code of honour is shattered with no fingers being able to be pointed and no simple papers can be filled out to settle the issue. A real physical problem has arrived and, as simple as it appears, it’s almost alien to the current government who have grown too attached to inflicting shame as their means to win over and treat their only means of salvation, the Japanese Self Defence Force, with awkward and incapable means of handling as they haven’t had any true means to use it for obscure situations in years. When the world’s powers realises just how inept they are, the Japanese socio-economy plunders into free-fall with trusts and bonds being severed after Godzilla pries open the flaws of the old, incapable forces. That is until Yaguchi and his team take over.
Creativity and ability to make connections are also presented as the defining traits of the younger generation as the scale of the situation ascends. Should the Prime Minister had continued, the third Japanese nuking in history would’ve undergone but this time on themselves! Do these more idealistic minds simply increase plain power to the point where they’re literally destroying themselves, or do they use what makes them the capable generation and use their insight to come up with something wonderfully outside-the-box with the help of allies?
What’s rather peculiar about this film is how Godzilla, and Godzilla alone, smacks the old gen across the face so instantly after they confirm each of their very wrong, selfish judgements and they never learn as the scale rockets. It’s almost as if he gets stronger with each wrong decision to carry the burden of their sins, he is the hyperbolic monster of the old Japanese government. Starting with the illegally-dumped toxic waste he consumed and adapted to in order to start his nuclear fission.
What makes this all the more tragic is how sorrowful and in-agony Godzilla is presented. He’s first seen ejaculating blood from his gills to cool down, which stretches to spewing fire and pure radiation to keep himself stable, a horribly cruel fate for a creature. He’s presented as an unstoppable force of nature that’s purely capable of mass death and destruction but underneath it all, he’s just a lost, wandering soul who wants the pain to go away. He’s like a citizen of each generation who suffers with the slight mistakes of the higher powers which resulted in tragic effects, shown with his evolution as the pain gets worse with being forced to adapt with each attack right to the point of being a crippled, wandering husk, forever alone and never fitting in. The tragedy can be seen in the song ‘Who Will Know?’ and a very famous quote by the original godzila director, Ishiro Honda: ‘Monsters are tragic beings. They are not evil by choice. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. That is their tragedy.’ Shin Godzilla is the greatest example of this to date, with immaculate detail being shown with his consistently frozen, crippled stature as he roams alone and his horrible expressions of pain when the government finally finds cracks in his structure.
When the capable minds finally work out a strategy to permanently stop Godzilla’s nuclear fission by injecting him with coagulant, Godzilla is left as a frozen corpse in the middle of Tokyo. Seeing the physical embodiment of the old generation’s mistakes as a frozen embodiment can be seen as a clever reference to the Fukushima disaster where the frozen remains of the nuclear reactors remain frozen after 3 nuclear meltdowns. Both can be considered a totem reminder to humanity, as if the old hypocrisies died with Godzilla’s pain at rest and the young minds can be set on a hopeful note on rebuilding Japan from build-and-scrap once more for a more organised, insightful future.
It’s also at the end where Godzilla seems to see the hive-mind of humanity with people who succeed as a community and, therefore, tries to form a self-alliance with the final shot showing his frozen body, but with his tail showing numerous frozen humanoid versions of him sprouting halfway out, as he realises humanity itself is his enemy, not the bullets and missiles they hit him with. This is due to many people of the JSDF forming a really clever plan with several backups, a true example of community rather than sloppily shooting him and turning up the power. But will the younger minds truly give rise to a stronger, more capable generation to guide Japan’s new future? Or will they simply age into the brassbound, close-minded individualists who cut off everything from the country’s current comfort zone to preserve credibility, thinking nothing of the future where another force of nature may be waiting to unveil all their mistakes all over again?