Directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, “Shin Godzilla” is the 31st film in the Godzilla Toho franchise. It was released on July 29, 2016 in Japan and had a limited release in America on Oct. 11, 2016. 

Kaiju is the Japanese term for “strange creature.” Godzilla, the most popular kaiju, was created as a response to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings reflecting the Japanese citizens’ burgeoning fear of nuclear weapons. “Shin Godzilla” adapts this premise to the modern era, and is specifically a commentary on the inefficiency of bureaucracy in response to the Fukushima Nuclear Accident that occurred in 2011. 

Cinematography is incredibly important in Godzilla movies – he’s a huge, imposing monster, and he needs to look the part. The film achieves its desired scale through careful manipulation of the viewer’s perception. During the Godzilla scenes, most shots of actual people are close shots, where only a portion of their bodies are shown. But when Godzilla is the main point of view, long shots are used, meaning that his entire body is in frame. The immediate placement of long – sometimes extremely long – shots right after close-ups creates the scale necessary to dramatize the horror of such a monster. 

In the film, Godzilla is mostly Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), but the integration of practical effects in small ways creates a sense of realism with surreal horror. Rather than using traditional animation, the film opts to use a Noh performer for Godzilla. Noh is a traditional type of theater in Japan, in which performers are trained to move slowly and deliberately. The rigidity of such a monster, like the cinematography, utilizes contrast to demonstrate its terror. It seems unnatural, such a destructive creature moving so slowly yet being so efficient in its large-scale terror. 

As for the destruction scenes in the film, they’re top-notch too. Miniatures are used for every building and are actually destroyed with practical effects. In combination with the clever cinematography, the destruction feels so real that it actually made me feel sick. This all leads to the incredible final atomic breath scene – a scene so guttural in its apathetic destruction that the viewer can feel and identify with the characters’ hope draining…

This is how you make a kaiju film: political messaging and spectacle. “Shin Godzilla” is a milestone in the cinematic legacy of Godzilla, and deserves to go down as one of the greats.