Godzilla Minus Zero director Takashi Yamazaki on going ‘deeper’ in Japanese monster sequel

For the veteran filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki, a childhood spent gorging on 1970s and 80s Hollywood sci-fi in the Japanese city of Matsumoto – where his father worked as a baker – left a lifelong impression. “Ever since I was really small, going to the cinema felt like a special event for me,” says the 62-year-old director, whose early cinematic diet consisted of titans such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Back to the Future. “These films almost served as my origin story,” he...