Though many of Godzilla’s recent appearances in Western-produced projects have framed him as something of a misunderstood hero, Toho’s upcoming Godzilla Minus One from writer / director Takashi Yamazaki is going to take the king of the monsters back to his roots as a horrific metaphor for nuclear devastation.
Set in the immediate aftermath of World War II at a time when Japan had been left hobbled by the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Godzilla Minus One tells the story of how the country plunged even further into turmoil and chaos when the titular kaiju is awakened for the very first time. Between ongoing efforts to rebuild destroyed neighborhoods and tend to the countless people left injured by the war, resources are already…