Top Knot Detective

  • 86'
  • Australia
  • 2017

Samurai, robots, flying tiger sharks, time-traveling baseball players and alien monsters: the legendary – and above all notoriously bad – Japanese detective series Ronin Suiri Tentai had it all. In Japan, the series was strangely enough no more than a modest success. But in Australia, where it was released in the early 1990s under the title Top Knot Detective, the series became a gigantic cult hit.

More than two decades after the unexpected end of the series, after only two seasons, two Australian ‘documentary makers’ set off in search of answers to questions that have fascinated Australian audiences for years. What was the reason for the sudden demise of Top Knot Detective? And what happened to deviser, director, writer, producer and protagonist Takashi Takamoto, from whom nothing has been heard for the longest time?

A hilarious mockumentary about a hilarious cult series: one you would hope really had existed.

Directors
Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann
Countries of production
Australia, Japan
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
86'
Medium
DCP
Languages
Japanese, English
Producer
Lauren Brunswick
Sales
Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
Screenplay
Aaron McCann, Dominic Pearce
Cinematography
A.J Coultier
Editor
Steven Hughes, Dominic Pearce
Production Design
Matthew Willemsen
Sound Design
Xoe Baird
Music
Malcolm Clark, Lance Robinson
Cast
Masa Yamaguchi, Toshi Okuzaki, Mayu Iwasaki, Des Mangan, Hashimoto Kuni, Izumi Woods, Shimamoto Nobuaki
Directors
Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann
Countries of production
Australia, Japan
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
86'
Medium
DCP
Languages
Japanese, English
Producer
Lauren Brunswick
Sales
Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
Screenplay
Aaron McCann, Dominic Pearce
Cinematography
A.J Coultier
Editor
Steven Hughes, Dominic Pearce
Production Design
Matthew Willemsen
Sound Design
Xoe Baird
Music
Malcolm Clark, Lance Robinson
Cast
Masa Yamaguchi, Toshi Okuzaki, Mayu Iwasaki, Des Mangan, Hashimoto Kuni, Izumi Woods, Shimamoto Nobuaki