AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The year is 1949, and Japan is devastated after World War II. It's only a few years since hundreds of thousands of people died after the United States dropped two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tokyo was firebombed and remains leveled. And if that wasn't enough...
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RASCOE: ...A giant radioactive creature, Godzilla, vaporized whatever was left of the country's capital city. It's in this aftermath that we find the Shikishima family still rebuilding their lives when a new kaiju, a giant monster, appears, and Godzilla returns to fight it.
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RASCOE: "Godzilla Minus Zero" is the new film by Japanese director Takashi Yamazaki. We spoke to Yamazaki through an interpreter. He says Godzilla represents the wounds of war that were very fresh for Japanese society.
TAKASHI YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) A different sort of war trauma, something that they've begun to put behind them and kind of are moving on from a lot of what had happened. And without spoiling anything, I think there are, of course, characters that harbor different emotion and who still feel the wounds of war.
RASCOE: No spoilers, but there is a part in the movie where someone basically says, things keep happening. Why do we have to keep going through this? Almost like, will we ever get relief? That's something that the Japanese could feel after World War II, but that's also maybe something that people around the world may even be feeling now. Did you think about that?
YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) I mean, maybe that's something that humanity just has to carry with them. Hopefully, of course, that doesn't happen to too many people on an individual level, and it's not too focused. But if you zoom out and look at the larger scale of mankind, and it does feel like it's nonstop, whether you take, you know, our current era, even now, there's always something that's happening. So in a way, maybe that's just the fate of humanity. And I didn't mean to actively make that a theme in the movie, but if it perhaps came through, then maybe subconsciously, we're all feeling something.
RASCOE: I want to talk to you about the cycle of revenge because there are plenty of people in your film that have been done very wrong, and I think people will find their need for revenge understandable. But your film also shows us that people who long for revenge don't always get it. Why is that?
YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) I mean, this one's hard to answer without spoilers. I'm going to do my best. But when you look at a certain generation, especially the generation who went through the biggest hardships, I think those who've been through the most are the ones who have to let go for the cycle to end is I think all I can say without revealing too much about the movie.
RASCOE: Thank you for that. The film before this one won an Oscar for visual effects. And in this movie, you also see the visual effects are so engaging. You feel like things are getting destroyed. You feel like things are flying. Like, you really feel it. What is your technique for making CGI feel so real?
YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) Everyone on the team just loves VFX, our VFX team. And I think with "Godzilla Minus One's" very critical reception, the team wants to show the world that they can do even more. So there are oftentimes takes that I will sign off on and say, hey, guys, we did it. Let's ship it. But the artists will keep working on it 'cause they want to get even more iterations and improvements to it. So I think there's a lot of passion in our studio, and that's what's coming through.
RASCOE: And this movie is rated R. Was that intentional, so you could really go there with kind of the guts, the gore, the brutality?
YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) When trying to express what we wanted to properly, the R rating was a byproduct of that process. But rather than sort of compromise on our visual expression, what we want to put on the screen, because of the threshold of PG-13 to R, I think it was more important for us, and especially this film, given the subject matter, to really show what needs to be shown on screen. As a result, we got an R, but I think it was good that we didn't compromise.
RASCOE: Now, this is a geopolitical question, but this movie also, obviously, has geopolitical themes. Because of Japan's history from World War II and because of your film's portrayal of militancy, I'm curious - what do you think of Japan's move to increase its defense capabilities?
YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) I mean, that's a very difficult social issue, and I think there are as many opinions and thoughts on that as there are people. But what I will say is, I think that that issue is something that we all need to look at very carefully, not just exclusive to Japan, but around the world. And it would be foolish to think that it doesn't relate to you at all, even on an individual level. Like, that is something that will affect all of us.
RASCOE: This is - probably you get asked this a lot, but should we see Godzilla as a villain? And also what will be the name of the third Godzilla movie? 'Cause now you did "Minus One," "Minus Zero." Will it be "Plus One"?
YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) I think the Godzilla franchise, the "Minus" universe that I've been working on, in that version, Godzilla's certainly not an ally to humans, like some other Godzillas where Godzilla will show up and almost take the side of humanity. But at the same time, I wouldn't call Godzilla a villain, either. I see Godzilla existing on a completely different spectrum than this ally-enemy spectrum that we humans tend to categorize each other on. I would say it's closer to a god or some kind of divine creature, a force of nature that can't be reckoned with. And as far as if there's a third movie, I mean, first off, I don't even know if there is going to be a third movie. But if there is, I'll think about it then.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
YAMAZAKI: (Through interpreter) But "Plus One" is certainly one of the candidates.
RASCOE: All right. That's Takashi Yamazaki. He's the director of "Godzilla Minus Zero." Thank you so much for joining us.
YAMAZAKI: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARK ORTON'S "THE GLOVE / NOW HE'S HISTORY / 5/4 FOR CONSTANTINE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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