Japan’s quarterly magazine Eiga Geijutsu (Film Art) has announced its “10 Best and 10 Worst Japanese Movies” for year 2023, and to everyone’s surprise, blockbuster monster film ‘Godzilla Minus One’ has been named 3rd worst Japanese movie of the year.
Haruhiko Arai’s ‘Hanaktashi’, starring Go Ayano, has been ranked as the number 1 film by the magazine. The best movie of 2022, per magazine’s ranking, was Sho Miyake-directed Yukino Kishii starrer ‘Keiko: Clear Your Eyes’.
Eiga Geijutsu is a film criticism magazine that has a substantial reader-base in Japan. The selection process in these Top 10 lists includes votes from film people; critics, writers, directors, producers, theatres staff and ordinary office workers as well.
“Godzilla Minus One”, 2023 Japanese epic kaiju film helmed by Takashi Yamazaki, follows post-war Japan with a reappearance of a giant monster, Godzilla.
The cast includes Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.
The film follows the genres and themes set by films like Godzilla (1954), Jaws (1975), Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), and Shin Godzilla (2016).
“Godzilla Minus One” received critical acclaim for its visual effects, direction, storytelling, characters, musical score, and social commentary.
It became a huge hit at the box office, grossing over $100 million worldwide against an estimated $10–15 million budget.
The film also became the first international film to get to the $50 million mark in North America since 2019’s Korean release ‘Parasite’.
The film has received multiple award nominations, highlight being the 2024 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, first ever Japanese film to get a nod in VFX category at Oscars.
To celebrate the franchise’s 70th anniversary, the film premiered at the Shinjuku Toho Building on October 18, 2023, and was released in Japan on November 3. Toho International later released it in North America on December 1. The film’s success led to the creation of a black-and-white version, titled “Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color,” which premiered in Japan on January 12, 2024, and was distributed in the United States by Toho International on January 26.
The magazine Eiga Geijutsu has rated ‘Moon’ (director Yuya Ishii), and ‘Monster’ (director Hirokazu Kore-eda) as the worst films in 2023 followed by ‘Godzilla Minus One’ at 3rd.
“Eiga Geijutsu” is infamous for being a contrarian magazine though.
For the past two decades, they constantly pick titles praised by other media and publications as their worst.
They take contrarian as their publication motto.
So this doesn’t really mean anything lol