They say you should never meet your idols. But it probably can’t hurt if they’ve endlessly hyped your movie. Earlier this month, Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki got to meet one of his cinematic heroes, Steven Spielberg, bringing a full circle moment for the Japanese filmmaker.
Takashi Yamazaki had the chance to meet Steven Spielberg at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, with the former receiving an invitation due to Godzilla Minus One being nominated for Best Visual Effects – a first for any movie in the franchise’s now-70-year history – and Spielberg up for producing Maestro. That’s monumental enough, but that Spielberg had high praise for the movie takes the experience to another level. In a social media caption, Takashi Yamazaki wrote (via Google Translate), “I met God. What should I do now? Cry…Moreover, he has seen Godzilla three times. He said he liked the characters. He also happily received a Godzilla figure…” Now the right thing for Spielberg would be to send Yamazaki an E.T. doll…
Yamazaki also said at the event (via The A.V. Club), “Steven Spielberg said, ‘Oh, you’re the director of Godzilla. I saw it three times.’ I couldn’t believe it, because Spielberg is like a god to me, just for what he’s done for the film industry. But it sounded very real. [Spielberg went on to say,] ‘I saw it once in my home, and then I had to go see it again in IMAX, then Dolby Atmos.’ You can’t make that up.”
OK, this is straight-up awesome for Yamazaki, who has been working in the film industry since the mid-’80s. After moving from visual effects departments into writing and directing in the early part of the century, Yamazaki marked himself as one of the modern visionaries of Japanese cinema. As such, he earned the spot to direct Godzilla Minus One, which takes partial influence from, yes, works by Steven Spielberg.
Godzilla Minus One stands as one of the best-reviewed movies of last year, earning an astounding 98% on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and audiences. It, too, received an 8/10 from our own Tyler Nichols. It is also the highest-grossing live-action Japanese movie in North America.
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