‘I wanted to re-create that fear’: How ‘Godzilla Minus One’ found its Oscar-winning auteur
For their encyclopedic, eye-popping new narrative and visual history, Godzilla: The First 70 Years, authors Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski had a rare opportunity: unfettered access to the Toho archives. Having previously teamed up for Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa, the first biography of the legendary filmmaker, the duo unearthed a treasure trove of concept art, sketches, photographs, and behind-the-scenes stories about the King of the Monsters, from the iconic Showa Era films (1954-1975) up to 2023's Godzilla Minus One, which earned the franchise its first Oscar win.
In the excerpt below, the authors reveal how a kid raised on Steven Spielberg and George Lucas was selected to transform Godzilla into a formidable awards monster. Here's the story of how Takashi Yamazaki came aboard Godzilla Minus One — a film the authors describe as a "unique rewriting of Godzilla’s origin story [that] received critical acclaim worldwide and changed the conversation about what a Godzilla film could be, technically and dramatically."
"Old clichés about men in suits and low budgets gave way to praise for a living, breathing, terrifying Godzilla," they write. "A distinctly Japanese character-driven story about trauma, loss, and redemption, rooted in the tragic history of the Second World War, somehow resonated with audiences worldwide."
New Directions
A filmmaker and visual effects supervisor, Yamazaki came to the Godzilla franchise with a reputation as one of Japan’s most prolific, versatile, and commercially successful directors. Inspired by a love of Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), he graduated from Asagaya College of Art and Design and then joined Shirogumi Inc., an animation and visual effects studio, in 1986, where he honed his craft by creating effects for commercials and feature films. Yamazaki would maintain a close association with Shirogumi throughout his career, and the company would serve as the VFX house on Godzilla Minus One.
After launching his directorial career with a pair of modest science-fiction films, Yamazaki broke through with the nostalgic period dramedy Always: Sunset on Third Street (2005), which used VFX to re-create Tokyo in the late 1950s. The film won 12 Japan Academy Film Prize awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. From there, Yamazaki genre-hopped between live action and anime. Among his films’ numerous accolades, the war drama The Eternal Zero (2013) and the anime Stand by Me Doraemon (2014) won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Picture and Best Animation Film, respectively.
GODZILLA FACT: With Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki became the first director to be
nominated for an Academy Award for visual effects since Stanley Kubrick, who won the award
for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
Yamazaki first received an offer to direct a Godzilla film around the time of Always: Sunset on Third Street but declined because he felt it would be impossible to make a fully CG kaiju film with Japan’s then-available technology. Two years later, Yamazaki gave Godzilla a cameo in Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (2007), fueling speculation that the director was next in line for the series, but 16 years would pass before Godzilla Minus One.
“The plan for a live-action Godzilla film by Yamazaki had been on hold within Toho, not as a question of if but when to do it,” said Minus One producer Kazuaki Kishida. Following Shin Godzilla, the studio had passed on several proposals for a follow up. “[To] meet the expectations of fans who watched [Shin Godzilla], we needed an entirely new and unprecedented concept,” Kishida said.
In February 2022, Toho and Robot Communications, an independent production company closely associated with Yamazaki’s filmography, announced a casting call for extras to appear in a new kaiju feature tentatively titled Blockbuster Monster Movie. The story was said to take place roughly in the years 1945-47; filming was scheduled from mid-March to June 2022 in Tokyo, Yokohama, and other locations.
Yamazaki had recently directed the five-minute film Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle, part of an attraction at Seibuen amusement park in Saitama. This fueled online speculation that “this seemingly original monster film could secretly be the next installment in the Godzilla franchise,” said the Tokusatsu Network website.
The rumors were confirmed on Godzilla Day, Nov. 3, 2022, Toho’s annual celebration marking the anniversary of the original film’s release. The official Godzilla Twitter account announced Yamazaki’s attachment to write and direct the still-untitled next Godzilla production, scheduled for release exactly one year later.
"I felt that people had forgotten that Godzilla was originally a metaphor for war and the fear of the nuclear age. I wanted to re-create that fear," the director says in the book. He managed to do it with a budget of just $15 million — a fraction of what a Hollywood blockbuster would cost.
"Given our limited resources, we knew we had to maximize what we could do to put the best possible interpretation of Godzilla on [the] screen," Yamazaki says in the book. "From a VFX perspective, [we had to take] inventory of what the team was capable of. Having said that, I never let that distract me from writing a good story, which is the most fundamental component in making a good film."
His vision was rewarded on March 10, 2024, when Yamazaki (carrying a golden Godzilla for good luck) and his VFX collaborators — Masaki Takahashi, Kiyoko Shibuya, and Tatsuji Nojima — won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
Godzilla: The First 70 Years, by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski, is available beginning July 15.