Godzilla is a household name in the media now. Almost everyone knows Godzilla as one of the scariest monsters in history known for destroying buildings and leveling entire cities with his atomic breath, but what if Godzilla became something even scarier than a monster? A metaphor for survivors’ guilt. This idea is creatively explored in the newest entry to the kaijuverse, “Godzilla Minus One”.

Godzilla Minus One is the newest Godzilla film coming from director Takashi Yamazaki, originally released around the beginning of December in US theaters. The movie is currently replaying for a second round in black and white. The movie stars actors Ryunosuke Kamiki and Hidetaka Yoshioka as the lead roles.

During the peak of WWII, we follow failed kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima as he constantly faces the guilt of feeling like a failure to his country for being too scared to die for it. Especially strong guilt from an early encounter with Godzilla where he was too afraid to attack which led to the death of many soldiers. After running away from war, he comes back to his hometown which has been demolished in war and everyone around him shames him except for a woman he meets known as Noriko, and a baby she has. To take care of his newfound family Koichi takes a government job on the ocean destroying old sea mines. Unfortunately for Koichi and his crew they have another problem in the water more dangerous than any mine. The physical representation of his guilt, Godzilla.

This movie does something no other Godzilla movie has done before by focusing on the characters of the movie and their lives rather than Godzilla being the center of attention. Not to say that Godzilla doesn’t get his share of destroying war vessels and cities, because there is plenty of that in the movie, but their focus of the movie is Koichi coming to terms with the deep guilt he has for his fallen comrades and how he decides to face it by fighting Godzilla.

The beautiful visuals that come out of the movie were enough to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Though the movie has more to offer than its visuals, it offers a deep story about how one man comes to terms with his past trauma and decides to conquer it by fighting Godzilla in one fighter plane.