Director Takashi Yamazaki sets his destroyer of worlds against a postwar Japan still recovering from the effects of the A-bomb with the little people left to work out how to save themselves

There are bazillions of Godzilla films out there, both from Japan and the US and this latest contribution to the franchise is one of the very best. It’s up there with the original 1954 film, the clever reboot from a few years ago Shin Godzilla, and my personal favourite, Godzilla vs the Smog Monster, AKA Godzilla vs Hedorah (1972), which rocks because it has extras in white gogo boots, head-trip sequences and, in the English dubbed version, a kicker of a theme song called Save the Earth.

However, like the other two aforementioned great Godzilla films, this one works because it puts the trauma of history at the very centre of the story, ultimately crafting a story about human beings pulling together to heal and defeat an inexplicable force of destruction. Minus One starts in the very last days of the second world war, a uniquely bleak moment in Japanese history. Protagonist Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is supposed to fly a kamikaze mission but, overcome by fear and an understandable desire to live, he lands on Odo island (a deep cut from Godzilla lore) to fix a made-up engine failure.