How ‘Godzilla Minus One’ reimagined the monster and snagged an Oscar nod

livemint.com:

“Just terror on legs." That’s how filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki pictured Godzilla. His version of the cinematic monster both nods to the 1954 original and goes fully berserk with visual effects that have been honored with an Academy Award nomination—the first for a Godzilla picture, of which there’ve been dozens. The creature storms into Tokyo in Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus One," but the Japanese movie crept up on America.

It appeared in U.S. theaters in December with virtually no advance marketing, then emerged as a critical darling and word-of-mouth hit. At the domestic box office, “Godzilla Minus One" became the No.

3 highest-grossing international film ever (ranking behind “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and “Life Is Beautiful," respectively, and just ahead of “Parasite," best-picture winner at the 2020 Oscars). “Godzilla Minus One," including a black-and-white version, took in $56.4 million through Feb. 1, when it had to exit theaters so as not to compete with a different Godzilla movie coming soon from Hollywood.

The human drama in “Godzilla Minus One" was key to the monster movie’s success, and proved there can be emotional stakes in a genre that has long relied on giant spectacle. The story takes place in the aftermath of World War II, as Japan rebuilds from zero. “Minus One" refers to Godzilla’s effect on that national struggle and the already traumatized characters in the film.