The 12 Day Tale of the Monster That Died in 8
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.
Trailer
This content is available after accepting the marketing cookies.
Interview
This content is available after accepting the marketing cookies.
Film details
- Country of production
- Japan
- Year
- 2020
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2021
- Length
- 88"
- Medium/Format
- Digital
Dit zou je ook leuk kunnen vinden
-
Vincent van Go-Go
A pop art-driven, surrealist animation about war fears, industrial overdevelopment, and other civilisational neuroses.
-
The Village Detective: a song cycle
Four cans of badly damaged film become the starting point for a gallivanting journey through Soviet history, cinema and beyond.
-
There Are Not Thirty-Six Ways of Showing a Man Getting on a Horse
Investigation into the reality of classical Hollywood grammar and the myths Hollywood created about itself. A work of infinite jest.