The government assured the citizens that the creature would not surface, only for a giant monster to crawl out of the bay and into Tokyo. Stumbling around on its hind legs and pushing itself forward with its tail, the monster destroyed buildings and shoved cars and boats out of the way as it began to head inland. All the while, the creature secreted the red liquid from its gills and poured it onto the streets. The Prime Minister deployed a squadron of helicopters to attack the beast, but when they approached the monster suddenly stood up on two legs and sprouted arms. The attack was called off when the Prime Minister learned civilians were still evacuating the area, while the monster simply returned to the ocean.
Finally, the young Yaguchi is given the chance to form an emergency committee full of "nerds" and "outcasts" that will deal with the threat by working in a "flat structure" team. Immediately, a geeky female biologist watches videos of the monster that people have uploaded and starts to identify how it walks. Once they realize the beast runs on nuclear power, the committee devises a plan that could only come from a bunch of scientists thinking way outside the box. The agility and creativity of Yaguchi's team is constantly contrasted with the ever-diminishing old guard of ministers, one of whom is more upset about his noodles getting soggy than the destruction of Tokyo. Yaguchi is eventually joined by Kayoko Ann Patterson (Satomi Ishihara), a Japanese-American who values unconventional thinking just as much as Yaguchi does.
U.S. bombers fire on Godzilla directly in his spine, causing the monster to bleed. Hope flashes onto the characters' faces only to be immediately snuffed out as Godzilla charges up his atomic breath. Godzilla leans forward and "vomits" up a sea of black smoke that floods the streets of Tokyo only to ignite it, engulfing the entire city in a bed of fire. Godzilla focuses the atomic breath into a laser-like purple beam that cuts through buildings and aims into the sky with marksman-like aim to destroy a bomber. Remaining U.S. bombers continue their assault with another bombing run, but Godzilla showcases a new ability by lighting up his spine and unleashing a flurry of laser beams that destroys both the bombs and bombers, shattering any preconceived notions of Godzilla. All forces are dead and Godzilla turns his rampage back on the city by destroying everything.
Godzilla has always been a force of destruction that can affect all of humanity if he wanted to, but he was never depicted as anything beyond a very powerful animal lashing out against humanity, even in the original horrifying film, but in Shin Godzilla audiences are shown a monster that is more than just an animal. The film depicts a furious being that is capable of evolving to survive anything humanity can throw at him. In Gojira, humanity is able to develop a device to outright kill Godzilla. In most of the solo outings involving Godzilla, humanity without a doubt overcomes the challenge and defeats Godzilla, but as Shin Godzilla progresses, the plan involving the blood coagulant succeeds in freezing Godzilla, only temporarily stopping the monster. There is a moment of resolution where the characters cheer and breathe easily, having survived Godzilla and prevented the need of the nuclear launch ordered by the UN, but all the uplifting moments in the final minutes of the film are filtered through a sense of "for now." Godzilla is stopped... for now. The nuclear launch is stopped... for now. Yaguchi, the protagonist, looks out at the frozen Godzilla without a true satisfying sense of victory. He looks at Godzilla, aware that he will wake up again, dreading the inevitable destruction.
The story lines of Gojira and Shin Godzilla are remarkably similar and remarkably simple. Boats are unaccountably destroyed in the waters off Japan. A giant beast, eventually identified as a prehistoric creature mutated by radiation, emerges from the ocean and makes its way to central Tokyo, leaving a trail of devastation and death. Government leaders dither, military assaults to stop the monster are ineffective, and the common people suffer in quiet resignation. Ultimately, just as all seems lost, scientists step up with an astonishing technological breakthrough, saving Japan and humankind.
For all the undeniably cool scenes of a huge, irate reptile wreaking havoc, young audiences may not be so enamored of this latest installment in the Godzilla series. Shin Godzilla is, like Gojira and unlike Hollywood's most recent offering, a surprisingly talky film. The movie's message may also not resonate so thoroughly with U.S. audiences as with Japanese ones: While Americans are plenty jaded with Washington's political paralysis, the critique of Japan's uniquely ingrown and sclerotic capital culture does not translate perfectly on this side of the Pacific. Moreover, the movie's caricatures of overbearing Pentagon brass and supercilious D.C. functionaries are so crudely drawn that many American viewers are more likely to laugh or take offense than share in Japan's pain.
Two years ago, when Edwards' Godzilla proved a blockbuster at the box office, American movie theaters often erupted in cheers when the monster rescued the world from vicious invaders. I doubt any audiences will end up on their feet, whooping for Godzilla and his beat-down of the Japanese establishment as the credits roll at the end of Shin Godzilla. But it is hard not to be impressed by the work of the Japanese filmmakers who have reimagined the franchise and its relevance in these uncertain times at the start of the 21st century. The exuberant joy of a man in a rubber suit may be gone, and Godzilla may no longer be the heroic figure many of us remember from Saturday matinees, but the unlikely ability of this abiding cinematic monster to tap into society's deepest fears and spark its highest aspirations shines through once again in Shin Godzilla.
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused a chain of failures at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, leading to meltdowns, explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination. Evacuations were ordered, dislocating some 154,000 residents, and analysis indicates that it will take from thirty to forty years to decontaminate the area. In the years that followed, it was determined that the disaster happened as much by bureaucratic failure as technical breakdown. TEPCO, the company operating the plant, had been lax in establishing safety protocols; the government agency in charge suffered a conflict of interest between promoting nuclear power and overseeing the industry; and poor communication and inadequate government response plagued the event both during and after the calamity.
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