Posted in: Movies, News | Tagged: film, godzilla, Godzilla Minus One, Toho

Godzilla Minus One Director on the Black-and-White Cut Differences

The director of the critically acclaimed Godzilla Minus One reveals how the black and white version of the film compares to the original cut.

In a few days, fans will be allowed to revisit the recent 2023 hit Godzilla Minus One in theaters – but with a black-and-white twist. And according to the film's director, there's such attention to detail in this cut that it has the potential to feel like a new, unique experience for moviegoers.

Godzilla Minus One Filmmaker Says the Black and White Cut Feels Like a "Different Film"

When speaking to The Wrap, the film's director Takashi Yamazaki discussed some of the differences between the original cut and the upcoming black and white version of Godzilla Minus One, telling the site, "The original 1954 Godzilla is, of course, in black and white. But that in and of itself made us interested in what a Godzilla film would look like created with modern technology in black-and-white. But simply removing the color alone wouldn't evoke the same type of emotion we were trying to instill in audiences, which is why we went back to the colorist and we actually mask[ed] different portions of each shot and adjust the contrast by hand, as opposed to simply hitting the remove color button. [This process makes it look] like it was composed by a professional still photographer."

Yamazaki then adds, "For us, removing the color in some way increases the reality, feeling almost like a documentary and making audiences feel that Godzilla actually exists. [This version of the film is] way scarier than Godzilla Minus One with color; even the team members working on it, we'd get goosebumps…Because, in many ways, it does feel like a different film."

In a previous interview discussing the most challenging components of the highly-praised film, Yamazaki revealed, "The biggest challenge was tackling, you know, those massive bodies of water. Just the water on its own was 500 terabytes." He then continued, "We're trying to set up all the computing power that's possible, but we're running them down, so we actually had to just… it was this cat and mouse chase of, you know, locking down VFX, but we needed more machines, more power, more everything."

The black and white version of Godzilla Minus One will officially hit theaters on January 26, 2024.

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