The 12 Day Tale of the Monster That Died in 8

  • 88'
  • Japan
  • 2020

What can we do to fight an invisible enemy like Covid-19? Japanese special-effects wizard Higuchi Shinji thinks we should use our Godzilla toys as magic-conductive tools for this fight, and put an instruction video on YouTube. Iwai Shunji took up the idea and turned it into a 12-part internet series about the way model/actor/director Saitō Takumi (playing himself) passes his solitary-confinement days by raising three tiny monsters, so-called capsule kaijū: Avigan, Remdesivir and Ivermectin. This is something he and Higuchi remembered from their childhood days, from the well-loved special-effects TV series Ultraseven (1967-68), whose hero also grew little helpers.

What looks at first like a sweet audio-visual jest with masses of in-jokes and references, reveals itself on closer inspection as an existential show of belief in cinema and television, their shared history as a source of magic, and of remembrance and play as forces of healing.

  • 88'
  • Japan
  • 2020
Director
Iwai Shunji
Premiere
International premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2020
Festival Edition
IFFR 2021
Length
88'
Medium
Digital
Language
Japanese
Producers
Miyagawa Tomoyuki, Mizuno Aki
Production Company
Rockwell Eyes
Sales
Rockwell Eyes
Screenplay
Iwai Shunji
Music
Toru Fuyuki, ikire
Cast
Hoshi Moeka, Takei So, Higuchi Shinji, Saitō Takumi, Nōnen Rena
Director
Iwai Shunji
Premiere
International premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2020
Festival Edition
IFFR 2021
Length
88'
Medium
Digital
Language
Japanese
Producers
Miyagawa Tomoyuki, Mizuno Aki
Production Company
Rockwell Eyes
Sales
Rockwell Eyes
Screenplay
Iwai Shunji
Music
Toru Fuyuki, ikire
Cast
Hoshi Moeka, Takei So, Higuchi Shinji, Saitō Takumi, Nōnen Rena