Kaiju/godzilla media with interersting human-level stories

July 10, 2023 1:05 PM

Kaiju are cool. But the human-level plots often feel like a tacked-on excuse for giant monster fights. Because they usually are. What are the exceptions?

I'm interested in any kaiju films, novels and other media where you found the human interest stories to be as compelling and dramatic as the giant monsters. No reducing the giant monster to an irrelevant background detail either. I want to hear about media that has its giant monster cake and eats it too!

I'm not illiterate in the genre, but even if I've already seen/read your suggestion, I'd love to hear what made the B-plot pop for you.

posted by Lorc to Writing & Language (15 answers total)

Response by poster: I should have thought to say, my gold standard for this is James Stokoe's Godzilla: The Half Century War.
posted by Lorc at 1:10 PM on July 10, 2023

Does The Host, the Korean film from 2007 count. It’s plays with genre a lot: there are comic parts, melodramatic parts, sometimes the tone intentionally mismatches the content. The human part is a family story.
posted by vunder at 2:12 PM on July 10, 2023 [8 favorites]

Not sure if this is quite what you're looking for but Colossal (2016), starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis might fit the bill. It's not really a kaiju film with interesting human-level stories, it's a movie about human-level relationships but kaijus play an important role in the story that's a bit hard to describe without spoiling the plot; if you don't care about spoilers, the Wikipedia plot summary is fairly thorough.
posted by mhum at 2:46 PM on July 10, 2023 [8 favorites]

Have you seen the original 1954 Godzilla (the Japanese original, not the overdubbed American version)? Very character driven, scientists making individual sacrifice for the good of humanity.

Also might be a very different definition of human, but I live and die on the hill of Shin Godzilla being the most accurate film depiction of bureaucratic crisis response ever made.
posted by theweasel at 2:47 PM on July 10, 2023 [11 favorites]

I am a totally shameless, passionate apologist for Pacific Rim, which I'm guessing you're already familiar with but, hey, you did say to pitch everything. The metaphor of "two people must learn to work together to win" is so explicit it isn't even really a metaphor, but the overall story is all about the people and, if anything, the Kaiju often feel like a very elaborate set of plot devices to keep the (corny, hilariously earnest, dorky) human story moving along.

There is, uh, also a sequel.
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:47 PM on July 10, 2023 [8 favorites]

Seconding Shin Godzilla as an instant classic, and more about the humans than the monster fights.

I thoroughly enjoyed Big Man Japan (2007), directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto, which is really mostly about the human interest story (a deadpan mockumentary about the depressed main character) -- and was on the floor laughing at certain points. I wouldn't say the kaiju fights are an irrelevant background detail, but they're definitely not the focus.
posted by demonic winged headgear at 5:02 PM on July 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

I will second The Host, Colossal and Big Man Japan. I can see why folks are suggesting Shin Godzilla, but I found it very frustrating so YMMV.

What to Do with the Dead Kaiju? Wasn't received very well, but I liked it. It's similar to Shin Godzilla in that it is about human (lack of) response to a crisis. It is more of a comedy where Shin Godzilla is very serious aside from the satirical elements. I don't think this has had a western release so might not be easily watched unless you go to unofficial sources.

If you're willing to stretch into Mechs or Mechs vs Kaiju there is Bokurano and Evangelion.

Howl from Beyond the Fog (2019) is a short that is about 30min. It has grounded in human relationships. It's also all puppetry, so that's neat! It has a very charming making of mini doc.

I Kill Giants is a comic with a film adaptation. It might not have enough giant monster action to count, though.

My last suggestion is Daimajin (1966). This is a samurai film and follows the story of a family. Although, it's not the most original story, evil warlord, does bad things, awakens Kaiju, etc. It is pretty good, though, and is more centered around the human characters. The Kaiju is a kind of giant golem thing. I think it is an interesting entry just because it is set in a different era than typical.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 5:57 PM on July 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

I'll second forbiddencabinet in suggesting Neon Genesis Evangelion. Eva is excellent because it deals with the trauma of being an Eva pilot and the brutal reality of having to force children to get into the goddam cockpit time after time.

I'm currently watching Chainsaw Man, an series about contemporary Devil Hunters hunting monsters in Japan and around the world. The Devils are very inventive (and talkative!) and the Hunters are a... diverse lot. The titular Chainsaw Man is a teenager named Denji who adopted a Chainsaw Devil and eventually became integrated with it. Denji's history is remarkably sad, but he weirdly maintains a zest for life.
posted by SPrintF at 6:27 PM on July 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

How about The Kaiju Preservation Society by metafilter's own John Scalzi? It's a fun read with interesting people and a host of fascinating detail about the Kaiju themselves.
posted by eloeth-starr at 11:21 PM on July 10, 2023 [8 favorites]

I'd also recommend Colossal, Big Man Japan, the Host, Daimajin, Shin Godzilla and I'll add the less well known Gamera 3 : Revenge of Iris, no previous knowledge of Gamera is really needed to enjoy it and its character story is completely melded to the kaiju one.
posted by SageLeVoid at 6:44 AM on July 11, 2023

One Hundred Seconds to Midnight is a short story podcast episode where the human story is central.
posted by catquas at 7:19 AM on July 11, 2023

The video game 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. One of the best sci-fi stories in any medium, and definitely top of the top for video game stories.
posted by srrh at 8:53 AM on July 11, 2023

Four years prior to directing Godzilla, Gareth Edwards wrote and directed the indie version with Monsters (2010). It's a low-budget, partly-improvised, film-without-permits affair. The story is that a photojournalist is bribed to enter a quarantine zone in southern Mexico (quarantined because an alien meteor is rapidly changing the biome to include giant glowy floating tentacle momsters) to rescue the daughter of a wealthy person who was doing relief work in that area. The two lead actors work off each other very well (they were an IRL couple when the movie was being filmed), and in-between the hiding and running from strange alien creatures they have real personal communication.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:13 AM on July 12, 2023

Another Escape Pod podcast episode which very much fits this: Reggie vs. Kaiju Storm Chimera Wolf.
posted by catquas at 7:20 AM on July 12, 2023

The recent Netflix film version of ND Stevenson's graphic novel Nimona works I think. Very compelling human(ish) characters with a developed plot and a big scary monster fight.
posted by goo at 3:51 AM on July 28, 2023 [1 favorite]