Japan Foundation
What To Do With the Dead Kaiju?
Directed by Satoshi Miki
Hosted by Director and Screenwriter, Satoshi Miki and Actor Eri Fuse.
Official selection
Hawaii International Film Festival 2022
Udine Far East Film Festival 2022
Director
Satoshi Miki
Writer
Satoshi Miki
Cast
Tao Tsuchiya, Ryosuke Yamada, Toshiyuki Nishida, Rinko Kikuchi
contact
Shochiku Co., Ltd.
The battle is over, and a brittle sense of relief settles over Japan. It has been ten days since the cataclysmic defeat of the gigantic monster that had wreaked havoc in Tokyo. The public alarms have ceased and the conscripted army is demobilizing. The mysterious force that slayed the beast, where no human military technology could, remains an enigma, but right now the main task is to pick up the pieces in the aftermath. There’s one piece, though, that presents a challenge—the enormous, rapidly decomposing carcass of the creature. Officer Arata of the Japan Special Force is assigned to the clean-up task force, an assignment made all the more complicated by political opportunism and romantic entanglements.
Satoshi Miki, a Fantasia regular and master of clever, quirky, empathic comedy (ADRIFT IN TOKYO, INSTANT SWAMP), poses a question rarely considered over decades of Japanese giant-monster movies: WHAT TO DO WITH THE DEAD KAIJU? Rife with references to Japanese geek culture, Miki’s irreverent yet affectionate leap into the tokusatsu genre honours its tropes while poking at its absurdities (and the shenanigans of the civil service) with the sharp stick of his unfailing wit. With Ryosuke Yamada (FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST) and ULTRA franchise regular Tao Tsuchiya as the cute couple at the core of the tale, the outstanding cast includes numerous familiar faces from Japanese genre film, including Joe Odagiri, Toshiyuki Nishida, Rinko Kikuchi (TOKYO VICE, PACIFIC RIM), and of course Eri Fuse (director Miki’s wife!), a comedic powerhouse as the audacious Environment Minister. – Rupert Bottenberg
Showings
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