Godzilla Minus Fucking One in anticlimatic

I have been quietly obsessed with this movie for a year, I think, based on loose recommendations I read- but I avoided it, and spoilers, until I was able to watch it in the original Japanese audio in the special Minus Color black and white version. No theaters in my area were playing the black and white version at the time, or else I would have seen it on the big screen.

I was excited when I saw both the color and black and white versions were on Netflix, but the initial audio was a dub, and I thought I was stuck with that for a second. I can’t stand dubs. I suppose I understand wanting to spare your eyes from having to read to enjoy the rest of the screen space a little more, but for me the very minor distraction at reading is redeemed by experiencing the original vision of the artwork in full detail. Plus, I consider Japanese (and German) to be among the most beautiful languages to hear spoken in the world…and with Japanese in particular, I find language around battle depictions and dramatic shouting combat scenes to be on a level unmatched. There is this biting raw smoothness to it- a richness and depth of feeling that other languages don’t capture. Compare any fight scene from any anime, the dub vs the sub, to see what I mean.

Anyway, after a day I remembered google exists, and asked if there was a way to get the Japanese audio on Netflix, and lo and behold there was. So just now, I sat down and watched it. Spoiler alert: it’s fucking spectacular. I recommend enjoying it just as I did, and all the better if you go in blind.

It was like watching the original Godzilla from the 1950s, with the moral backbone of Lord Of The Rings, and the grainy brutal realism of a Richard Avedon photo shoot. Never did I expect to be moved to tears by a young soldier tearing himself apart with guilt over failing in his duty as a kamikaze pilot, wracked with PTSD and nightmares, being comforted by the woman with the orphan baby he took in (but was too ashamed of himself to marry), in a Godzilla movie.

I will say no more about it for the sake of spoilers, other than this movie met and exceeded expectations I had for it that were already high.