Writer, director and VFX wizard Takashi Yamazaki three years ago reinvigorated Japanese production titan Toho’s seven-decade kaiju franchise with Godzilla Minus One, which delivered amply on monster mayhem with sophisticated (and Oscar-winning) effects, but perhaps more importantly, grounded the creature feature in affecting humanistic drama. By dividing the film’s attention between mass destruction and the raw pain of post-WWII trauma, reconstruction and societal reintegration — not to mention the atomic allegory — Yamazaki boldly reimagined the property while honoring the roots of the series’ 1954 original. That same meticulously…
