The new movie Godzilla Minus Zero is the first film in the Godzilla universe to ever receive an R-rating and it has nothing to do with the monster violence seen in the movie.
Godzilla Minus Zero, directed by Takashi Yamazaki, made box office history with the biggest opening ever for distributor GKIDS, as well as the biggest domestic debut for a live-action foreign-language film.
The movie received an A CinemaScore from opening-night audiences, matching the grade earned by the previous film.
Why the movie has an R rating
The MPAA gave the movie its R rating for “some violent content/bloody images.”
The scenes featuring those images aren’t because of the violence between monsters Godzilla and Ghidorrah.
The R rating was earned because of grisly scenes depicting the atomic devastation to Hiroshima during World War II. Post-war trauma is shown, including hospital scenes of bloodied survivors and victims, plus burned bodies at the bombing site.
“Logically, as a studio — and even as a director — you want as many people from the general public to be able to see your film,” Yamazaki told Variety. “So, an R-rating might seem like a barrier to entry, and conversations about, ‘Hey, could we have not gotten this down to PG-13?’ of course are going to happen. In spite of that, though, there were certain scenes that, for me as a director, were so essential to the film. Censoring it or cutting it was just not an option for me.”
“I think the R-rating, at one point, carried almost a negative connotation,” he continued. “In more modern films, it actually creates a sort of expectation and excitement of, ‘Okay, well, they’re not censoring anything. The director and the cast’s voice is there, as is.’ So it is very encouraging to see other films who have preceded us that have already found a lot of success with the R-rating at the box office. Hopefully, we can continue that trend with Godzilla Minus Zero.”
What is Godzilla Minus Zero about?
War reduced Japan to zero, and Godzilla plunged it into minus. Two years have passed since then, and the country has faced agonizing struggles to achieve recovery and finally reclaim its daily life. Just as humanity managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant. There is no third time. Everything ends here.
This is the first-ever Japanese production to be filmed for IMAX.
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