On February 14th, 2024, I was fortunate to exclusively interview Godzilla Minus One writer/director/VFX artist Takashi Yamazaki. The interview is quite informative with inside information about the film! As a result, spoiler warning if you have not yet watched the movie. I hope you enjoy reading!

Toho Kingdom’s Second Interview with Godzilla Minus One Director Takashi Yamazaki
Interview recorded and conducted by Chris Mirjahangir on February 14th, 2024
Transcription edited by Noah Percival
Additional editing by Chris Mirjahangir for flow and clarity
Questions by: Chris Mirjahangir, Jeremy Williams, Brian Elston, Jared Krichevsky, Joshua Sudomerski, and Andrew Sudomerski
Very special thanks to Jonah Keel

Chris:
My first one (question) is the beginning of the film, one of the mechanics said he had heard about Godzilla from the villagers on Odo Island, but you never see the villagers in the film. Was there a deleted scene where this was discussed? And if not, what’s Godzilla’s backstory?

Yamazaki:
So, no particular backstory or deleted scenes. It was just a village that had through the sort of urban legend village rumors, but more grounded in reality, I would say is how that story and word of mouth spread. And it’s a throwback to the original Odo Shima, Odo Island where they were offering sacrifices to Godzilla and was kind of like this…

Chris:
The girl on the raft and everything?

Yamazaki:
Yeah, that’s the legend as it’s spoken.

Chris:
Okay, so he (Mr. Yamazaki) had also stated (in another interview), I think it was online somewhere, that Godzilla… that version before the bomb, had regenerative properties, and so if that Godzilla had regenerative properties, would Shikishima’s bullets in the plane in the beginning of the film, would they have not been effective?

Yamazaki:
Well, it withstood a nuclear blast so I can only imagine 20-millimeter rounds wouldn’t have too much effect on it.

Chris:
The early form of Godzilla that appears in the film on an island called Gojira, some fans have named this an early form of Godzilla after the dinosaur “Godzillasaurus” that appears in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. So was Gojira meant to be a reference to that to Godzillasaurus? Or was it coincidental?

Yamazaki:
So in my film Minus One, we wanted to make sure that that Godzilla could grow… The pre-atom bomb Godzilla could grow into the final Godzilla you see. And with respect to the name, we wanted to make sure it actually didn’t look too much like the Godzillasaurus from vs. King Ghidorah.

Chris:
At the end of the film, there’s a strange moving mark on Noriko’s neck. Can you say what that is? Or do you want to leave it a mystery?

Yamazaki:
I don’t want to say. *laughs*

Chris:
Okay, mystery, okay. Something for fan speculation for another 30 years! So to lure Godzilla into battle at the end of the film, it was done by using a recording of his voice, but when or how was this obtained? Was it a deleted scene?

Yamazaki:
That’s a very good question, actually. And if you recall when Godzilla was smashing Ginza, there was a news crew on the top of the building. They discover a tape from the news crew after the building collapsed and obtained the recording from there and that’s actually revealed in the novelized version of the film.

Chris:
Okay, I hadn’t read that. And I… My friends had said, “Oh it’s from the news crew,” and I thought “No, I didn’t see it.” So okay!

Yamazaki:
But the novel’s only in Japanese, so it’s understandable why you haven’t read it.

Chris:
Could it be translated for Western audiences in the future?

Yamazaki:
We’re looking at the Toho people in the room and they say we’re considering it.

Chris:
So, was Godzilla just one of a group living on the island, or was he the last of his kind?

Yamazaki:
That’s an unexplained mystery. *laughs*

Chris:
Oh ok, alright.

Yamazaki:
I’m impressed by your line of questioning, this is great!

Chris:
This is everything big that fans will speculate on for years, so I just want to nip it in the bud! It becomes where one person’s opinion is the correct one and everybody believes them, so I’m trying to stop that.

Yamazaki:
And on the flip side, if I decide too much right now, it might end up blocking or I might paint myself into a corner in the event there is some future development with this project. So, I can’t confirm too much right now.

Chris:
Ok, no worries! So, when Godzilla is seen at the beginning of the film, he’s very quick and agile, but after he gets hit with the bomb, he’s very slow and lumbering. What was the reason behind this change?

Yamazaki:
Well for one, the sheer size of the creature. By its nature, larger creatures move slower and are more lumbering, but one other theory that I have is before exposure to the radiation, Godzilla was more of a creature, but after its exposure, it became this… it almost elevated itself to almost a divine or god-like creature. So, it’s half a creature and half-god is why I feel the movement is much slower and more intentional.

Chris:
So, if you were to do a sequel to this, would you bring back the cast from this film and have them on a new adventure? Or would you bring in different characters?

Yamazaki:
If I were and I had full control and no limitations, make a sequel to this film… I would like to see what happens to these characters. But again, I want you to take that as just my opinion and that’s not an indication of what would happen. *laughs* So that’s just my opinion.

Chris:
How did you come up with “live” as a theme, like why did you choose the most essential element of life to contrast against a symbol of destruction?

Yamazaki:
Making a kaiju movie, I think that’s one of the strongest opposing themes we can have when faced with this essentially god of destruction, and war is again a huge backdrop of this film and the implications of nuclear warheads and atomic bombs. So, the only force that I believe can withstand that is people’s will to live or the force of wanting to live. So, as a theme to clash against Godzilla, it made sense to me.

Chris:
Should there be a sequel and I asked you about this in the previous interview, but have you given any thought to what if Godzilla fights another creature like what it might be? Because there’s speculation of King Ghidorah or Anguirus, which everybody wants to see back! Have you thought about it any further?

Yamazaki:
I can’t say! *laughs*

Chris:
They’re all the burning fan questions.

Yamazaki:
There’s a lot of Anguirus fans, which is interesting, and my wonder is that because my film is closely tied or it has the feeling of the 1954 original Godzilla? So… Because if this were a hypothetical sequel, that was the second Kaiju that was introduced, do people like Anguirus because of that?

Chris:
Yeah! I mean, it’s just he’s like the underdog monster, or he became that. But, he became a fan favorite.

Yamazaki:
*laughs*

Chris:
All right, so the 4K Blu ray has really kind of blown up and people use that to like preserve the films that they love? Will there, and there wasn’t one for Shin Godzilla when it came out (in the Funimation release), we only got a 1080p version. Should this come out in the United States, I don’t know how much you have input on this, but would there be one for a home release for 4K for Godzilla Minus One? And would it have the black and white version as well? (Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color)

Yamazaki:
I know that Toho Studios is putting a lot of thought into the home video release. I don’t know to what extent that’s going to be released in the United States, but I’m sure it’ll be amazing, so stay tuned!

*given the “times up” signal by PR person*

Chris:
Okay, now that’s my cue, thank you very much!

Yamazaki:
Thank you very much!