Godzilla Minus One director couldn’t believe Steven Spielberg watched his film three times

LOS ANGELES – A sleeper hit in Japan when it opened in theatres there in late 2023, monster movie Godzilla Minus One scored a coup for the Japanese film industry when it won Best Visual Effects at the Oscars in March 2024.

This was despite the film reportedly costing just US$10 million (S$13.5 million) to US$15 million to make – a fraction of the budget of Hollywood’s Godzilla flicks, including 2021’s Godzilla Vs Kong, which is said to have cost US$200 million.

Set in a post-World War II Japan being terrorised by the titular giant creature,

Godzilla Minus One

– a heartrending tale told from the perspective of a former kamikaze pilot (Ryunosuke Kamiki) haunted by survivor’s guilt – also did exceptionally well in the US when it opened there in January 2024. 

And no one was more surprised by this than its writer, director and visual effects whizz Takashi Yamazaki, who is known in Japan for his big-screen adaptations of popular book, anime and manga titles.

At an event in Los Angeles a few weeks before his Oscar win, the 59-year-old said he had not expected Godzilla Minus One – which is now available on Netflix – to get this much attention globally.

“Two months ago, I had no idea that this was going to happen, so I’m in a storm of both confusion and ecstasy about what’s happening around me,” he says through an interpreter.

Yamazaki jokes that he feels like he has been in a dream, including when he attended a luncheon for Oscar nominees held the week before.

It was there that he met American film-maker Steven Spielberg, who directed movies such as Jaws (1975), Schindler’s List (1993) and Ready Player One (2018).

And the Hollywood veteran turned out to be a big fan of Yamazaki’s movie.

“I spotted him and walked over, and because I was carrying a Godzilla figurine with me, he said, ‘Oh, you’re the director of Godzilla Minus One – I saw it three times.’

“I couldn’t believe it because Spielberg is like a god to me, just for what he’s done for the film industry,” says Yamazaki, who has won eight Japanese Academy Awards, including for the war drama The Eternal Zero (2013) and the animated comedy Stand By Me Doraemon (2014).

“And it sounded very real because Spielberg went on to say, ‘I saw it once in my home, and then had to go see it again in Imax, and then in Dolby Atmos.’

“You can’t make that up, so I felt pretty confident that he actually did see it three times,” recalls a beaming Yamazaki.

After the luncheon, the film-maker posted on X two photos of himself and the 77-year-old Oscar winner with the caption in Japanese: “I met God, but what should I do now?

“I cried. He had seen Godzilla three times, said he liked the characters, and also happily received a Godzilla figurine.”

Yamazaki – whose film is the 37th in the franchise launched by Godzilla (1954), and one of the most critically acclaimed – says he drew inspiration from the original Japanese movie.

“I am a huge fan of the 1954 Godzilla, and what I think it does really well is balance both the human drama and what’s happening on screen with the kaiju,” he adds, using the Japanese term for giant monsters.

“It had a lot of influence on how I wanted to bring Godzilla Minus One to life, making sure the human drama and story are woven together creatively with Godzilla.

“In kaiju films, the kaiju tend to take over a lot, but I made sure that the humans had their time and their dramas on the screen.”

Fans will spot nods to the original.

“There are little Easter eggs. For example, in the scene where Godzilla is chomping on the train, as well as the newscasters on the collapsing building.

“Those are little tidbits and homages to the original, but it all comes back to making sure the story and Godzilla found the perfect balance on screen,” says Yamazaki.