Junk Head

I saw this film a couple of months ago when it came out in theaters, and I must admit it was a pleasant surprise! Though I do have some mixed feelings.

This film is heavily reliant on atmosphere and mood, which the visual do a fantastic job accentuating. However, it's a film that is widely open to interpretation. There is a clear-cut narrative and a solid plot, but there is no conclusive answer to any question the audience might have upon finishing the movie. None of the information revolving around our protagonist can be confirmed, but enough is revealed for us to interpret. That level of uncertainty adds a lot to the atmosphere of the film, along with the mute protagonist, the title, the claustrophobic set - all of it really feels purposeful. The depressing part of that is that you can't confirm if it was purposeful or not, and that only ties with what I believe to be one of the film's themes.

Tackling philosophical ideas doesn't hold the film back from having grain of humor, which - as unexpected and surprising as it was, made the experience more fun. There were a couple of genuine laughs in the theater! And some clever moments that spurred some internal "aah"s.

The lack of comprehensible language doesn't hold back any of the characters from actually having character either. Despite none of the characters speaking a language we can comprehend, there is a lot more character to them than any randy in Final Destination 4. There was a certain segment mid-way into the film that was extremely enjoyable for me to watch and kept me engaged enough to stay with the rest of the film. I hoped for more segments such as that one in the film's remaining runtime, but that was just wishful thinking.

Although my experience was mainly positive, I do have a couple of minor criticisms. The pivotal critique I have with this film is the pacing. There were a couple of moments in the film that failed to keep me invested due to the time they spent on the scene. Looking back, I believe the intension was to build tension, but it was not as effective as I hoped it could be. This enkindled moments where I couldn't tell whether the film was trying to go for "serious" or "comical". Although there were certainly comedic aspects to the film that felt appropriate, some other parts felt a little out of place. There's a constant battle between the shift in mood that left me a little conflicted. If anything, I can praise this film for being bold enough to have its own unique style. Here I am after all, writing a review upon watching this film a couple of months ago because it was just that memorable.

In spite of commending this film for tackling a subjects that appear philosophical, that was also one of my main issues with this film. You can't tell. It's nice to see movies that don't underestimate their audiences, but it's another thing to see a movie where you can't tell if the movie is trying to be simple or deep. I only dismiss the film as "philosophical" because I thought that's what the movie was going for. Now I can't really tell.

Going back to the positives, one of the things about this film that stood out to me was the gradual improvement in animation as the film progressed. You can see director Takehide Hori's improvement as a filmmaker as the narrative flows, and it's quite awe-inspiring when you watch the film for the second time and notice how the clunky the first 15 minutes might be.

Although this movie might not be for everyone, it's a movie that really lets you appreciate the work, effort, and patience this one man put in for 7 years.

While I can imagine some audiences calling this film pretentious, that shouldn't hold you back from actually seeing the movie to find out for yourself. If you go into the film with an open mind, I'm sure you'll be able to come up with your own interpretation. By the end of the film, I'm sure you'd have a new-found admiration for this director.

I personally wish for more people to watch it so I can discuss some of my theories on it. Or I'll wait for a blu-ray release. Everyone coming out of my theater had a pretty positive experience so I hope you can have one too.

From japan. Stop motion animation. In the future, humans have manipulated their genes so heavily, that they have lost the ability to reproduce. So they go study the life forms that can still reproduce. The marigans! In an underground labrynth. It has a sense of humor, where they fight over silly things, and accidentally poke each other with sticks. Two headed monsters that chase him. And poop... or is that vomit ? With huge sex organs. And when someone talks about going on a long and dangerous journey, husband and wife both start giggling... for no reason. This had started as a thirty minute short film released in 2013, and was later made into a full length feature. It starts out very captivating, but the story gets a bit slower later on. Very creative world of various beings, and I love the low, mumbling language they all use. One race morphs into trees. At one point, the kids use his head as a soccer ball. Fun stuff. Observing the various races and discovering what they all do was just as interesting to me as the actual storyline. Written, directed, and voiced by takahide hori. I'm sure that I missed many important parts of the film... i'll definitely need to see this again! The english subtitles are well done. Currently showing on kanopy. Written and directed by takahide hori. Be sure to stick around for the closing credits.. they show the photographer setting up an moving the stop motion sets and figures. So cool!

Heavily, wonderfully influenced by BLAME! (Blam!), by Tsutomu Nihei. Junk Head though, is much more whimsical, and delightful than the nihilism of Blame! (I recommend both). The creature design is fantastical, lighthearted, and at the same time, grotesque, and endearing. The story itself is more a series of set pieces, but that hardly makes it different from most modern movies. Just enjoy the trials, and tribulations of a small cyborg in an utterly unfamiliar world, populated by creative, inventive, scary captivating adversaries, and companions. On a side note, I do highly recommended, Blame!, the manga, and the movie that is based on the Electrofishers chapters of the manga.

In the distant future, mankind begins research on clones that live underground in search of lost genetic information.

"Junk Head" began its life as a short film in 2014, with Takahide Hori essentially making the entire movie himself – from writing to directing to sculpting and so on. Not surprisingly, it was a great success just begging for a longer representation of this world and its style. Three years later, Hori is back and again more or less running the show solo, even creating the music. Love it or hate it, you cannot help but respect the daunting amount of time that went into this.

What we have is a dystopian world, something like an inverted "Wallace and Gromit" where everyone is either dead or at least dead on the inside. Love, friendship and everything that makes life worth living is long gone. For this reviewer, the film seems very much like throwback to the 1990s when there was a steady undercurrent of nihilism and the idea of humans as machines in both film and music.

The music of "Junk Head" seems very inspired by the nihilistic music of the 1990s, the techno-industrial strain that went mainstream with Nine Inch Nails, but had dozens – even hundreds – of similar bands who were taking the concepts of despair even further. The music and films had a Nietzschean streak, and "Junk Head" picks up where that decade left off. If there is any doubt about this, we have to look no further to the humorous reappropriation of a classic Nietzsche idea, "God is dead… and we killed him." The world is not completely hopeless, however. There are hints that a "tree of life" exists in an area called Kaapvaal. This may be one of the more clever, subtle touches of the film's script. Most likely the name "Kaapvaal" means nothing to 99% of the people who will see the film. But a quick search reveals that it is the name for a section of the search located in southeast Africa. Anyone who is familiar with basic anthropology will know that the evolutionary "tree of life" has humanity beginning in southeast Africa. Rather than say "Kenya" or some other familiar country, Hori cleverly used an obscure name that would make the region timeless to changing national boundaries.

"Junk Head" is great fun, and a welcome addition to the growing world of adult animation. Unlike the recent "Anomalisa", this is a story for adults that blends fantasy, science fiction and humor. And, despite its dystopian themes, never manages to be depressing. We even get pixilated feces for some reason, which is always good. "Junk Head" screens at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 3, 2017 and is destined for great things.

The ending credits indicates "everything is made by me". I love it!

It took 7 years the director to make this stop-motion animation which he studied on his own. It has fabulous quality and dark joking. If anyone laughes this passion as madness, I'll give him the finger.

One of favourite things is "Kunoko" grows out of some weird organic matter which is cultivated artificially, it's similar to mushroom but isn't. I really liked the grotesque design of that plantation's staff. Another one is a driver of elevator like a motorcycle gang.

The criteria of happiness changes depending on where you live. "Bad luck" for you can be an envy thing for someone in other places and situation.

I was confused at the early stages when I watched it while drinking hot chocolate. Be careful about it.