Godzilla: Minus One director wants to respond to Oppenheimer with his next film

Takashi Yamazaki returns to the common theme of the two films: the nuclear bomb.

In 2023, after the hurricane barbenheimer was going out Godzilla: Minus One. Grossing more than 50 million at the box office, this film became the biggest Japanese-language success of all time. In an interview given to MovieMakerits director, Takashi Yamazakilooks back on the spectacular success of his film, but above all, on the points of connection between his Godzilla and theOppenheimer of Christopher Nolan. Because beyond the timing, what is most striking is the similarity of the theme evoked: that of the atomic bomb. If Nolan approaches it through historical and scientific prisms, Yamazaki makes it a fantastic object, responsible for the appearance of kaiju (“monster” in Japanese).

Moreover, Nolan's film has still not been released in Japan, precisely because of its subject. In the number of First currently on newsstands, he returned to the conditions for releasing his film in the country, specifying that“It was entrusted to a local distributor (Bitter End) capable of managing its distribution in a more prudent manner, without prejudging the reaction of the Japanese towards the film”. In the meantime, the director of Godzilla: Minus One had made the effort to travel to Taiwan to discover Oppenheimer, even going so far as to attend a session in original language with Chinese subtitles, which he does not master. A translation problem which did not prevent him from capturing the essence of his American colleague's film. When asked if he believes in the chance of the release ofOppenheimer and from his own film the same year, the Japanese responds:

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“That the two films came out in the same year was pure coincidence. But from a more relevant and current point of view, I think that the threat of nuclear war has never been more pressing in recent years than at any other time in our existence. In a way, the Godzilla from 1954, the original, was designed with the same backdrop in the wake of World War II, questioning the capacity of the super powers to produce so many nuclear warheads. I believe that this fear and threat is definitely real, but the temporal relevance of these thematic elements is truly striking.”

Yamazaki goes even further, evoking the possibility of making a film responding to that of Christopher Nolan, he who carries the historical memory of the atomic bomb through the prism of his Japanese origins:

“As a filmmaker, as a director, I actually want to provide a sort of response to Oppenheimer A day. I do not think that Godzilla is a direct response to this film, even if both films highlight the same issues. But even if this film never sees the light of day, I think having it in the back of my mind as a powerful thematic element is important.”

While waiting to see what his next film will look like, Takashi Yamazaki gives us an appointment on March 10 to see if he will receive the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for his version of Godzilla.

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