This article contains minor spoilers for “Godzilla Minus Zero.”
“Godzilla Minus Zero” is here, with director Takashi Yamazaki once again getting to put his stamp on the King of the Monsters. He also got to offer up his take on another classic kaiju this time around in the form of King Ghidorah. The monster’s appearance was a poorly kept secret, with Ghidorah’s design in “Godzilla Minus Zero” leaking thanks to merchandise. But in any event, the monster’s inclusion helped resolve a 55-year-old dream for the filmmaker.
According to Reuters, Yamazaki grew up in the Japanese city of Matsumoto. A big “Godzilla” fan, he was particularly excited about 1964’s “Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster,” one of the best “Godzilla” movies of all time. In particular, he hoped to see the kaiju wreck shop in his hometown. Unfortunately, Matsumoto only appeared fleetingly in the movie after Ghidorah’s emergence.
Given that “Godzilla Minus One” became the highest-grossing Japanese Godzilla movie ever en route to winning an Oscar, Yamazaki was given a lot of creative freedom on the sequel. He used that freedom to show Ghidorah doing what he wanted to see as a child. “Minus Zero” prominently features Matsumoto, with Ghidorah carving a path of destruction there relatively early on in the movie’s runtime. Here’s what the filmmaker had to say about it:
“55 years later, I had King Ghidorah appear in my own film. I had the chance to make the movie I wanted to watch back then, and I created the footage that I wanted to show my younger self, as if to say, ‘This is what you wanted to see, isn’t it?'”
Godzilla Minus Zero made up for the sins of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
“So, my dream has finally come true after 55 years, and I am truly happy,” Takashi Yamazaki concluded.
The sequel picks up two years after the events of “Minus One” as Japan is still trying to put itself back together in the aftermath of Godzilla’s attacks. Things are once again thrown into chaos when a new, mysterious, dragon-like monster emerges. It’s not long before Godzilla is back as well, leaving the people of Japan scrambling to figure out how to deal with not one but two kaiju.
“Godzilla Minus Zero” is rated R, which meant that Yamazaki didn’t have to hold back at all. When it came to having King Ghidorah destroy his hometown, he certainly made the most of that R rating. In a bizarre method of showing pride for the place he came from, he made the most of Matsumoto in his latest cinematic effort. Being from Japan and having your home shown off in a “Godzilla” movie is, understandably, something to be proud of.
King Ghidorah was the movie’s “surprise” villain who has a long history with the franchise. “Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster” was his first of many, many appearances across the many eras of this franchise. In recent years, he’s been showcased in everything from “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” in the MonsterVerse to the animated “Godzilla: The Planet Eater” on Netflix. He’s without a doubt Godzilla’s most notorious foe.
“Godzilla Minus Zero” is in theaters now.
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