Trivia / Godzilla Minus One

• Approval of God: Gareth Edwards, director of Godzilla (2014) which brought the franchise back into prominence for the Reiwa era, was in Japan during the time of release and got to attend one of the crew's openings. Edwards loved the final product, claiming to be jealous and arguing it should be considered among the series' very best. Michael Dougherty, director of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, reportedly called it "amazing", and Hideaki Anno, director of Shin Godzilla (the first Japanese film of the Reiwa era), lauded the film's technical prowess.
• Dawson Casting: Shiro Mizushima is clearly meant to be younger than Kōichi Shikishima. Mizushima is played by 33 year old Yuki Yamada, who is in fact older than Ryunosuke Kamiki.
• Dueling Movies: With The Boy and the Heron, another Japanese film about coping with the trauma brought upon by the grief, loss, and Survivor Guilt during World War II.
• Milestone Celebration: The film begins with a slate celebrating Godzilla's 70th anniversary since the release of the original film. The reason it's actually releasing on the 69th anniversary is because of Toho's stipulation with Legendary Pictures that their Godzilla films can't be released in the same year (with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire releasing in 2024). This is still technically the beginning of the 70th year of the Godzilla franchise, so it works out. The film also releases during the 50th anniversary of Shirogumi, the film's VFX vendor and Yamazaki's company of affiliation.
• No Export for You: Despite high expectations for this movie, including its box office success in the United States and an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, the film had a rather limited release in Europe, Asia, and some Latin American countries.
  • In Asia, the release was so limited that there was even a tweet done by GSC Cinemas indicating that TOHO, the film's production company, showed no interest in screening it within Southeast Asia.
  • In Latin America, the movie was only shown in Mexico and Chile, causing confusion among the audience since Konnichiwa Festival has been distributing films throughout Latin America since last year. One of the PR guys of the company, stated that due to various circumstances, they were not allowed to exhibit it across the entire region, despite their desire to do so.
  • This controversy even reached the owners of cinema chains. Munir Falah, owner of Cine Colombia, has expressed that, although they would like to bring the film to their theaters, it depends on the distributor negotiating the rights for each country, a task that has not been accomplished to date.
• Refitted for Sequel: Many of the concepts of the original Godzilla (1954) and Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again can be seen in this film:
  • Godzilla is portrayed as an openly hostile monster having it out for the humans, and isn't as affected by the Operation Crossroads test, similarly to the original Godzilla doing the same in Shigeru Kayama's original draft. Godzilla was actually meant to be an Expy of the Rhedosaurus from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, but Ishir⁠ō Honda completely modified Godzilla's character as a nuclear metaphor and a Hibakusha.
  • Unlike Ishir⁠ō Honda's input, Godzilla attacks Odo Island simply looking for food, but also attacks the island regularly. Godzilla is shown doing the exact same thing, minus hunting for food.
  • Keniji Noda is a middle-aged part scientist war veteran who finds a way to defeat Godzilla. Daisuke Serizawa was originally a middle-aged scientist former war veteran who finds a way to defeat Godzilla with the Oxygen Destroyer. In the original draft by Kayama, Daisuke Serizawa was supposed to be in his mid-to-late 30s-early 40's until he was played by then 26 year old Akihiko Hirata.
  • Shigeru Kayama was opposed to Imperial Japan's involvement in the Second World War, and uses Professor Kyōhei Yamane as a mouthpiece to air out his grievances by saying that Japan must use every available opportunity to atone for the war-crimes it committed during World War II. Keniji Noda voices similar grievances in the film and rips Imperial Japan a new one for treating their soldiers as A Million Is a Statistic.
  • In the original draft, there's no tragic Love Triangle involved. A Heroic Sacrifice was planned, but ends up subverted when the protagonist finds the courage to live. In the original draft, Serizawa chose to give up his life and take the secrets of the Oxygen Destroyer to the grave with him. It should be noted that the love triangle with Ogata, Emiko, and Serizawa didn't exist in the original draft; Ishiro Honda's modifications added more weight to the film, which is why the Token Romance in the original film had a lot more tragic consequences than without.
• Sleeper Hit: When Toho released Minus One in North America, they gave the film a tentative one-week run and did not give it an English dub, opting to show it subtitled-only. Despite this seemingly-limiting release method, as well as the film opening next to a Beyoncé concert film, it managed to debut at #3 in the box office with an $11 million debut, making it the best opening for a live-action Japanese film in NA. Thanks to Toho extending the film's theatrical run, it then proceeded to stay at #3 the following weekend (despite competition from The Boy and the Heron) and remained in the top 10 for four weeks straight, which box office analysts attributed to the film's remarkably strong word-of-mouth and social media buzz, as well as debuting in a month left barren due to the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes resulting in studios pushing films into 2024 due to limited marketing ability. The film has now grossed over $100 million worldwide on a budget of less than $15 million, making it the most successful Japanese Godzilla movie in history, with over half of that total being grossed in North America alone. Being the first Godzilla film to be nominated for, and then win an Academy Award (for Visual Effects) is just icing on the cake.
• Working Title:
  • The internal codename for the project was "No. 30", as it was the 30th Japanese-made live action Godzilla movie.
  • Casting calls for the film simply called it Blockbuster Monster Movie to hide the fact it was a Godzilla movie.

---