Released sixty two years after the original film, Shin Gojira (2016) reimagines Godzilla to a modern context, while staying true to the level of metaphorical depth that rested at the core of Gojira (1954) and propelled Godzilla to the status of an icon. Written and directed by Hideaki Anno and co-directed by Shinji Higuchi, Shin Gojira knowingly uses spectacle and the legacy of Godzilla to modernize its metaphor to apply to the Fukushima disaster in Japan. In order to fully understand the ways in which the film wields its contexts and ideas, it is worth noting not only the ways in which the original succeeded in doing so but the way the 2014 American adaptation failed.
Shin Gojira structures itself around the arrival of Godzilla akin to that of a natural disaster. The Godzilla in this film is a wholly new incarnation of the creature, and over the course of the film has multiple stages of evolution, much in the same way as the Fukushima disaster of 2011, in which there were major nuclear meltdowns as the result of an earthquake followed by a tsunami. In the original Gojira, the imagery was blatantly reminiscent of the atomic bombings of Japan. The atomic breath, the burned and demolished city, and the graphic images of the mutilated victims. The film itself was based in part by a real life incident involving the “Lucky Dragon 5,” a fishing boat which became contaminated by nuclear radiation as a result of American hydrogen bomb testing. The film opens with a sort of recreation of this event, and keeps Godzilla offscreen, not only building suspense but establishing the film’s theme and metaphor. Shin Gojira operates in the same way, in that when Godzilla is no longer on the screen the images could be that of the Fukushima disaster. Where Gojira had a nuclear scientist at its forefront working to defeat Godzilla, Shin Gojira has an entire team of scientists, theorists, and bureaucrats working together. The film jumps between a litany of different officials and workers, displaying each of their titles on screen, giving a sense of what disaster relief looks like as the incident is occuring. The core team of bureaucrats and scientists who fight Godzilla directly are reminiscent of the “Fukushima 50,” the workers who stayed behind at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant during the disaster (Wingfield-Hayes).
Godzilla’s arrival is punctuated by a sudden eruption off the coast of Tokyo, the reverberations in its wake destroying a tunnel. This initial encounter with Godzilla can be likened to an earthquake, its arrival sudden. Shortly thereafter, while the government is scrambling to assess the situation through a series of boardroom meetings as the situation develops, Godzilla comes on land in its second form (the first being mostly offscreen, only its tail shown initially). The destruction that follows is comparable to the combined force of an earthquake and tsunami, just as it occurred in Japan in 2011. The supports for a building are crushed and the building collapsing into itself before toppling over. Godzilla crashes through the streets like a tidal wave. Every decision and conversation made by the various bureaucrats in the film to deal with the situation is shown travelling down the entirety of the various channels in which the conversations happen. Every single decision requires the proper authorization from the qualified individual, and the film takes its time (agonizingly so) to showcase every one of the officials, as well as their title, as every string is pulled, favor done, and political rank exploited for the purpose of facing the crisis. Where other action films would show immediate military response to a Godzilla like creature, Shin Gojira follows every phone call and authorization just to mobilize the military. This highlights not only the political process of disaster relief but also its failings, showing that if not for the incessant bureaucracy the damage could have been reduced.
When Godzilla returns, now massive in size, its destructive force is explosive, leaving the city burning in its wake. The scientists by this point have discovered that Godzilla is radioactive, having fed on nuclear waste in the ocean years before landing in Japan. It is here, in Godzilla’s fourth form, that it takes on the role of a nuclear meltdown. After causing massive damage to Tokyo Godzilla rests at a standstill, hibernating as it rebuilds its energy for another attack. It is also discovered that Godzilla has the ability to procreate, allowing it to spread across the globe. The threat of Godzilla now becomes not that of an oncoming attack, but a race against the clock to prevent further contamination. It is here where the US, by this point only offering assistance to Japan, takes control of the situation, being backed by the UN. With Godzilla being seemingly unstoppable, the United States makes plans to drop a thermonuclear bomb on Tokyo to eradicate Godzilla, under the pretense of the greater good for mankind. It is here that the allegory of Gojira returns in a modern context. The team fighting to defeat Godzilla become motivated more than ever to find a way to stop Godzilla using a freezing plan, as they refuse to see Japan bombed again after World War II.
A comparison is worth making here between Shin Gojira and the 2014 American reboot Godzilla. In the American film, a similar situation is presented as in Shin Gojira: In order to destroy the creatures battling Godzilla, the US government plans to use a nuclear warhead in Las Vegas. Ishirō Serizawa, a Japanese scientist in the film (named after both Ishirō Honda, the director of Gojira and Daisuke Serizawa, the nuclear physicist in the film) makes a plea with a general not to use the weapon, showing him his father’s timepiece which froze the day the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan. This scene falls flat, not only because the film is less concerned with allegory as it is justifying a fight between Godzilla and other kaiju, but ultimately because it comes from an American perspective. In Shin Gojira only two still images and the performance of the actors is enough to make its point clear. Japan has had a horrifying relationship with nuclear power and contamination since the end of the second world war which continues to this day, to a point where it has become part of Japanese culture and identity. The Americans in Shin Gojira don’t fully understand the ramifications of dropping a bomb on Japan, much in the same way the filmmakers behind the 2014 Godzilla fail to fully understand the depth of the original film’s use of metaphor and the fact that Godzilla was and is Japanese in its core, and that a Japanese context is all but inseparable from Godzilla.
In creating Shin Gojira, Hideaki Anno very purposefully draws from the original film in the presentation of Godzilla, while injecting the new ideas as aforementioned. Even amid the new and unique designs of the second and third forms, the fourth is unmistakably Godzilla, however the minutia of its design gives the appearance of a genetic abomination, a product of countless mutations at the hands of nuclear waste. Where previous Godzilla films have given it a more friendly and approachable design, Shin Gojira returns the creature to its original intent: being a monster of pure horror. Anno wears the reference to the original film on his sleeve, using songs from Akira Ifukube’s score for the original film in Shin Gojira, in addition to score by Shirō Sagisu, who previously collaborated with Anno on the music for his anime series of television show and films, Evangelion. This is notable not only because music from Evangelion is used in Shin Gojira, but also because Anno is achieving with Godzilla the same depth of reworking and recontextualization that he did with the mecha (giant robot) genre of anime with Evangelion, simultaneously paying homage to the genre while utilizing tropes only to have the work take a sudden turn in the other direction. Shin Gojira has all the spirit of a Godzilla film used to the effect of creating something brand new. Shin Gojira is the first mainline Japanese Godzilla film to forgo utilizing an actor in a suit for Godzilla, a staple of the series, but utilizes motion capture for Godzilla’s fourth form to give Godzilla the same slow, lumbering movement of an actor in a suit. Anno and Shinji Higuchi (also a collaborator on Evangelion) seem aware of the fact that despite its harrowing message, Godzilla as a creature is innately entertaining enough to spawn an entire film series. Anno owes much of his inspiration to the tokusatsu (special effects heavy) sub genre in Japanese cinema, and uses a mix of practical and CGi special effects to create a highly entertaining and climactic final battle.
In the end, the remaining scientists, bureaucrats and specialists are able to pull through and defeat Godzilla. But rather than disintegrate to bones as in Gojira or retreat back to the ocean as in the later films, Godzilla is frozen in place, rendering a statue visible on the horizon. It, like the real life nuclear contamination within Japan, may have been halted for now, but will always be a threat looming in the distance.
The “shin” in Shin Gojira is written in katakana phonetic styling, so while “new” is the presumed kanji meaning, the use of katakana leaves the meaning of “shin” more ambiguous, “shin” also meaning “true,” “evolved,” or “god” with the same pronunciation (Schreiber). With Shin Gojira, Hideaki Anno renvisions the iconic creature to a new, modern context while staying true to the meaning and depth of the original film. It is a film that, like Godzilla, is rooted in Japanese culture and context, and is emblematic not only of Japan’s continually fraught relationship with nuclear energy, but also the influence of the United States on Japanese politics to this day. Just like the original film it draws upon, Shin Gojira will stand as a film engaging with the political contexts of its time, working the ideas in with stark imagery and distinct iconography.
Works Cited + Sources
Ahlström, Kim, et al. “Kanji for ‘Shin.’” Jisho, 2019, jisho.org/search/shin%20%23kanji.
Anno, Hideaki and Shinji Higuchi, directors. Shin Gojira.
Edwards, Gareth, director. Godzilla. Legendary Pictures, 2014.
Honda, Ishirō, director. Gojira. Toho, 1954.
Schreiber, Mark. “Godzilla Hits Middle Age but Is Still Fueled by Japan’s Anxieties.” The Japan
Times, 10 Sept. 2016, www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/09/10/national/media-national/godzilla-hits-middle-age-still-fueled-japans-anxieties/#.XOGSHlNKjOR.
Wingfield-Hayes, Rupert. “Why Japan’s ‘Fukushima 50’ Remain Unknown.” BBC News, BBC, 3
Jan. 2013, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20707753.