NEW YORK – Look out, Manhattan. Godzilla has arrived in the Big Apple.
"Godzilla Minus Zero," the latest Japanese installment in Toho's long-running monster franchise, held its highly anticipated premiere on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the New York Film Festival. From director Takashi Yamazaki, the movie is a direct follow-up to 2023's "Godzilla Minus One," which earned rapturous reviews, won an Academy Award for best visual effects and became the series' highest-grossing Japanese entry to date.
In a morning press conference at the festival, Yamazaki said a sequel to "Godzilla Minus One" was already moving forward as soon as the 2023 movie's opening day.
"[As] 'Godzilla Minus One' [was] picking up a lot of traction, I could see the glimmer in all of the Toho
executives' eyes," he quipped, speaking through an interpreter.
"Godzilla Minus Zero" picks up two years after the giant monster was seemingly defeated thanks to the efforts of Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a former kamikaze pilot. But surprise, surprise: Godzilla is still alive in "Minus Zero."
When approaching a sequel, Yamazaki took note of internet chatter about what fans were expecting next – so he could do the exact opposite.
"There were several ideas, great ideas actually, floating around the internet, all kinds of theories," he said. "But my mission then becomes, well, how do I exceed that expectation? Because I think if I do it as the fans predicted, then what's the point of me as a creator? That would bum me out. So my goal with 'Minus Zero' was to shock audiences and do something that they didn't predict on the internet."
In particular, fans had many theories about a moment at the end of "Minus One" showing a black mark on the neck of Koichi's girlfriend, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), after she surprisingly survived a Godzilla attack.
"There was a lot of internet theories about, 'Well, is Noriko going to become the next kaiju somehow?" Yamazaki said. "So I told myself, that's the one thing we're not going to do!"
For her part, Hamabe was "relieved" when she learned this wouldn't be happening: Speaking through the interpreter, she recalled previously texting Yamazaki to ask, "Am I going to become a kaiju? Because if that's the case, I need to really think about this role."
"Godzilla Minus Zero" makes history for the franchise: After 39 movies over more than 70 years, it's the first to ever receive an R rating for "some violent content/bloody images." The bump up from PG-13 may stem from the way the film doesn't shy away from the horrifying realities of war: Several disturbing scenes show bloodied victims or burned bodies in the aftermath of either giant monster attacks or the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, fitting with how Godzilla has always been a metaphor for nuclear weapons.
The film continues running with this theme, which was also a major part of its predecessor and the first "Godzilla" movie, released in 1954.
"Godzilla, as a character, it's impossible to peel it apart from its history as a metaphor for war and atomic bombs and nuclear power," Yamazaki noted, adding that he wanted to "go all the way back to the 1954 'Godzilla' and that imagery of where it was born from" with the "Minus" movies.
As in the previous movie, the relationship between Koichi, Noriko and their adopted daughter, Akiko, plays a key role in "Godzilla Minus Zero." The same child actress, Sae Nagatani, returns in the role, though she may not have vivid memories of making the original.
"Perhaps she didn't recall filming 'Minus One' that much, so when she came on set the first day, she had this, 'Nice to meet you, this is the first time we're meeting' kind of greeting to me," Hamabe said. "So we rebuilt a lot of trust through 'Minus Zero.'"
The title for "Godzilla Minus Zero" has caused some confusion, so Yamazaki broke down the intent: "In certain disciplines of math, there is sometimes a minus in front of the zero, and the meaning is that you're approaching this number, zero," the director said, explaining that "this family is headed toward, approaching, this limit of zero, like going back to neutral in a lot of ways."
But despite the trailer for "Godzilla Minus Zero" declaring that "everything ends here," Yamazaki suggested a third movie could be possible, pointing out he might have written himself into a corner with this naming scheme.
"There is one issue, however," he said. "I mean, we've gone 'Minus One' and 'Minus Zero.' So if there is another sequel to this, where do we take it from here?"
"Godzilla Minus Zero" hits theaters on Nov. 6.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Godzilla Minus Zero' makes franchise history, aims to 'shock' fans
