MOVIE MUSIC UK

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

Back in 1954 director Ishiro Honda and Toho Pictures introduced the world to Godzilla. While on the surface Godzilla was ostensibly about a giant monster lizard attacking and destroying Tokyo, and ranges from sensible to desperately silly in terms of tone and sophistication, the film was an enormous success, and the subsequent franchise became enormous – it now comprises 33 Japanese films, five American ones, and innumerable TV shows, comic books, and more. This latest one, Godzilla Minus One, is the first live-action Japanese Godzilla film in many years, and in many ways it is returning to its roots with its 1940s setting. It stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as Kōichi Shikishima, a former kamikaze pilot who encounters but fails to kill a large lizard on an isolated Pacific island, and who years later becomes part of the team charged with stopping the same lizard – which has since mutated to enormous size as a result of the United States’s nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll – when it emerges from the ocean and begins to attack Japan.

One of the things that critics have praised about Godzilla Minus One is its intelligence and thematic elements, and how writer/director Takashi Yamazaki has brought a great deal of emotion and meaning to his film as a counterbalance to the enormous special effects sequences of violence and destruction. Of course, over the years, the Godzilla movies have increasingly been shown to be deeply rooted in Japanese culture and history, and often serve as a powerful canvas for symbolism and allegory; Godzilla Minus One is no different.

Godzilla himself is a metaphor for the consequences of nuclear warfare, reflecting Japan’s traumatic experience with the atomic bombings during World War II, and as the franchise evolved, Godzilla’s symbolism expanded to encompass broader environmental concerns about the consequences of unchecked human activities. Not only that, the monster vs monster battles themselves can be seen as allegories for the delicate balance between nature and technology, while Godzilla’s shifting portrayal from a destructive force to a defender of Earth mirrors Japan’s own journey from devastation to resilience. In this film specifically, Yamazaki also said that the worldwide anxiety and government unreliability during the COVID-19 pandemic was one of his major inspirations for the story, which makes the film very relevant to today’s world.

The original 1950s Godzilla was scored by the great Japanese composer Akira Ifukube, whose legendary main title march has gone on to become one of the most iconic pieces of Japanese film music in history. Numerous other composers have written Godzilla scores since then, with varying degrees of success, but Godzilla Minus One marks the first Godzilla score from my personal favorite current Japanese composer, Naoki Sato. Sato has collaborated with director Yamazaki on many of his previous films, including Always: Sunset on Third Street (2005), Space Battleship Yamato (2010), Stand by Me Doraemon (2014), the two Parasyte films, and The Great War of Archimedes (2019), among many others. Yamazaki usually brings the best out in Sato, and that is certainly the case with Godzilla Minus One – although, unlike most Sato scores, this one requires you to have some perseverance in order to connect with it.

The first apparent thing about Godzilla Minus One is that Sato’s soundscape is quite dour. It lacks the impressively bombastic heroism that typified much of Akira Ifukube’s work, and that of many subsequent Godzilla composers, and instead engages in several sequences of long, introspective string atmospherics backed by electronic tonalities. While perhaps initially disappointing, this actually fits in well with director Yamazaki’s more serious and profound tone for the film overall, which is as much about regret and desperation as it is about giant monsters. Not only that, repeated listens to the score reveal a great deal of compositional intelligence and depth that is not immediately apparent at first glance.

There are several themes that run through the work, the first of which is a six-note theme for Koichi which is first introduced in the gorgeous, emotionally devastating “Elegy” and later forms a major part of most of the second half of the album in cues like “Hope,” “Honor,” and the somewhat religioso-sounding “Pride,” in the moments where Koichi is able to overcome his remorse and lingering trauma following his actions on the pacific island and work to save both his family and his community. Related to this, I really appreciated the more upbeat, determined-sounding low-brass theme running throughout all of “Mission,“ which has a resolute and stoic but also optimistic feel, characterized by the juxtaposition of dominant brass against agitated string figures.

This is counterbalanced by a more despondent four-note theme that gives voice to Koichi’s suffering and distress; it first appears in the opening cue “Fear,” a battering ram of howling horns and fluttering strings underpinned by huge electronic blasts. It is especially prominent later in the eerie, spectral “Pain,” before emerging as a searing lament in the second half of “Last”. Some of this music is really quite dissonant and challenging; some commentators have compared the work to the avant-garde sound of contemporary composers like Henryk Górecki, Krzysztof Penderecki, and John Adams, which is probably a fair assessment, and although that doesn’t make for easy listening, it’s certainly impressive from a compositional point of view.

And then, of course, there is a recurring idea for Godzilla himself, a massive three-note motif that first emerges from the depths of the lowest possible end of the sonic scale in “Portent,” rumbling and growling in a way that you can almost feel in your chest cavity. It is referenced in fragments all throughout “Confusion” before exploding like a battering ram in “Divine,” backed by massive orchestral and choral forces. I really appreciate how the howling horns and electronic tones mimic the sound of air raid sirens in “Confusion” – more ‘Godzilla as atomic bomb’ allegory – as well as the unusual way that Sato uses tubular bells all throughout “Divine,” a really clever touch.

The finale of the score – from “Resolution” through to “Pray” – sees Sato bringing all three of his themes together to underscore the final battle as Koichi and the remnants of the Japanese Navy and Air Force try to defeat Godzilla once and for all. The themes for Koichi and Godzilla are heard in conflicting counterpoint during “Resolution,” an intelligent representation of the two protagonists comprising lightly dancing strings structured in layers, offset by unexpectedly warm brass harmonies, and finishing with an outburst of powerful choral intensity. “Unscathed” is aggressive and fully representative of Godzilla’s scale, as his brass theme takes on a new dimension through the addition of choral overtones – not only does this massive kaiju have godlike powers, but now he’s enraged. There are more references to both Koichi’s theme and Godzilla’s theme in the aforementioned “Last,” which as I mentioned erupts with an enormously satisfying brass outburst in its second half, while in the conclusive “Pray” Sato lays heavily on the religioso sound, arranging Koichi’s theme as a gorgeous elegy for strings and choir that is emotionally powerful, musically rewarding, and narratively appropriate. The citizens of Japan have been saved and can breathe easily… for now.

Also included on the album is a three-part 10-minute “Godzilla Suite” comprising new recordings of music from classic Ifukube Godzilla scores, including the famous 1954 march, plus brief references to King Kong vs. Godzilla from 1962, Mothra vs. Godzilla from 1964, and Godzilla vs. Destroyah from 1995. These tracks are mostly used as underscore in the major battle sequences, such as Godzilla’s first attack on Tokyo, and then again during the final battle. While I understand the reasons for including this music – it would be like having an Indiana Jones film without the Raiders March – and while I love this music as pure music, I actually wonder whether including it here slightly undermines what Sato is trying to achieve with his score. Sato’s music is such a carefully crafted soundscape, and is so intent at prudently conveying the emotional depth of the story, that when Ifukube’s crowd-pleasing marches come in, they actually break the mood, and almost trivialize the rest of the score’s profundity. I’m torn; on the one hand, this music is undeniably outstanding, and I thoroughly enjoy listening to it, but it has such a different tone and style to Sato’s, it almost comes from another world entirely.

Overall, though, Godzilla Minus One is a hugely impressive work. I have to admit that my initial response to the score was not especially favorable; I was expecting something more akin to the classic Ifukube scores, or the more recent scores by Shirō Sagisu and Takayuki Hattori, and so the more avant-garde and emotionally bleak sound of Sato’s score took me by surprise. However, the more I delved into the score’s complexities, the more I appreciated its approach, especially the delicate balance it offers in terms of its portrayal of post-war Japanese society, Koichi’s personal emotional demons, and how yet another devastating attack on its territory would obviously traumatize the country even more, irrespective of whether the attack comes from bombs in the sky or massive lizards from the ocean. This is complicated, unconventional, uncompromising, sometimes difficult, but deeply impressive stuff, and yet another example of why Naoki Sato is – for me at least – one of the best Japanese composers of his generation.

Buy the Godzilla Minus One soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

• Fear (3:48)
• Portent (3:25)
• Confusion (5:30)
• Godzilla Suite I (written by Akira Ifukube) (3:40)
• Divine (2:12)
• Elegy (2:34)
• Mission (3:28)
• Hope (0:53)
• Honor (1:57)
• Pride (2:41)
• Pain (5:09)
• Resolution (5:08)
• Godzilla Suite II (written by Akira Ifukube) (4:48)
• Unscathed (2:17)
• Last (2:33)
• Pray (4:14)
• Godzilla Suite III (written by Akira Ifukube) (1:47)

Running Time: 56 minutes 12 seconds

Rambling Records/Milan Records (2023)

Music composed and conducted by Naoki Sato. Orchestrations by XXXX. Recorded and mixed by XXXX. Edited by XXXX. Album produced by Naoki Sato.