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While the monster surfaces and wreaks havoc, the prime minister and his cabinet change into (entirely symbolic) emergency uniforms – instantly recognizable to anyone who was in Japan during the March 2011 earthquake – and hold meeting after meeting, unable to decide what to do. Reluctant to deploy the military on Japanese soil for the first time since World War II, the prime minister demurs, allowing the creature to grow until it comes to resemble the Godzilla we know and fear. Meanwhile, the American government, growing weary of the Japanese government’s indecision, send in special envoy Kayoko Ann Patterson (Satomi Ishihara) to exert some U.S. influence.
I don’t envy whoever has been tasked with subtitling this film: aside from lots of rapid-fire dialogue, the screen is covered – at times, almost entirely – with text, one of director Anno’s favorite filmmaking quirks.
But this information overload has a purpose: to represent the utter confusion, helplessness and frustration following a major disaster. The almost comically glacial pace at which the cabinet deals with the disaster, totally contradictory opinions from so-called experts and the outsized influence of America on a Japanese incident all instantly evoke the post-earthquake days and weeks of 2011. If Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla vaguely touched on Fukushima, Anno’s Godzilla Resurgence tackles it head-on – and chomps on heady issues like the U.S.-Japan security treaty and inevitable great Tokyo earthquake at the same time.
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There are relatively few Godzilla films in the almost 30 to date that bear much of an authorial mark: the original, a vehicle for creator Ishiro Honda’s feelings about the horror of nuclear weapons; Godzilla vs. Hedorah, an anti-pollution polemic so hated by its producer that director Yoshimitsu Banno was supposedly banned from helming any future Godzilla films; Final Wars, the martial arts-heavy actioner by Versus director Ryuhei Kitamura.
Perhaps more than any of those films, Godzilla Resurgence is clearly the vision of one man: Hideaki Anno. Fans of the director will recognize many pet themes, visual motifs and aural cues (the film’s preparing-for-battle music cue is literally the same one used in Evangelion) from Anno’s filmography. And as heavy as this film is, it’s sprinkled with moments of incredible levity. The director has publicly stated how depressed making the new Evangelion films has made him, and this is the first time in over a decade I was reminded Anno has a sense of humor.
Then again, Anno himself is famously influenced by giant monster movies and TV like Godzilla and Ultraman – ostensibly why he was given the job of resurging Godzilla in the first place, meaning that while he bends the Godzilla formula to his will, he never breaks it.
Read more at Godzilla Resurgence a Rebirth for Both Godzilla and Hideaki Anno A match made in kaiju heaven
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