Director: Minoru Kawasaki
Year: 2020
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Three Monsters Gourmet; Monster Cuisine
Genre: Kaiju
Plot:
Returning to normal after several years have passed, a former participant in a battle against several giant monsters which attacked Japan recounts the trial and tribulations that amounted in the struggle between the team gathered together to stop the creatures from destroying the country.
Story:
While there's a lot going on here, most of it isn't that appealing unfortunately. The general premise of the creatures appearing and fighting throughout the city causing a race to find a way to stop them should be the main impetus of the film which isn't the case here. Instead, the focus shifts to an endless round of debates and conferences about the plans to attack the creatures or a pointless love-story between the members of the counter-attacking team that really steals large portions of the first half here. None of this is interesting or enjoyable as it really ends up taking time away from the monster battles to focus on these side-plots rather than the general purpose of the story focusing on the monsters.
Still, it does work nicely enough when it comes down to how the creatures appear in the first place. Being a spoof, it's certainly appropriate that a simplistic and generally ignored explanation for this being due to a special chemical he created and left in the water which turned them giant. While we do get a little more of a scientific explanation and analysis of how it works with the lab-techs exploring the use of the chemical, it's still kept to a minimum of the typical scientific jargon that would make a lay-man accept it due to the preponderance of such phrases. Rather, it feels right and fits into the type of genre effort this is parodying which works greatly here.
Likewise, the nature of it being a spoof means that the tendency to go off into rather weird or odd tangents is quite appealing and realistic. With the initial discovery of the childhood rival also on the monster-fighting team and spending time debating about the effectiveness of their individually-formed weaponry or how to best attack the new creature when it appears. That it soon turns into a commentary on the consumption of seafood and the gourmet food industry comes off far more hilarious than it really should while keeping the tone light and upbeat. This is done with the way everyone, from the team to the general public and even military talking-heads begin espousing on the nature of the food derived from the creatures or the back-alley deals made to acquire it.
Special Effects:
As this is considered a spoof, there's not much to display about this one.in terms of being considered straightforward or serious. The costumes for the three main creatures are worthwhile, appearing good enough for a giant monster TV show especially as their overly rubbery appearance and decidedly humanoid stances are a dead giveaway about the performer inside, especially with the squid Takolla and shrimp Ikalla getting a majority of the screentime. The crab Ganilla is a far more serious design that doesn't have the goofiness the other two display with a more realistic design and color-palette compared to the brightly-colored creatures. Even it's sideways hopping and snippy claw movements look quite realistic which makes for a lot to like here.
Beyond this, there's not much else to the special effects here. The few rampage scenes are kept brief and feature short-changed cityscapes that could fit into a genre TV-show with their limited depth and miniature explosions barely affecting the creatures. When it does focus on miniatures for the trap in the finale, this becomes far more enjoyable with the miniature stadium being employed for the four-way battle between the creatures and the defense forces' robot counterpart as the obviously green-screened fight is silly and over-the-top. However much fun the practical effects-work is, it just makes the CGI graphics here for the flames sprouting up from supposedly-crushed buildings through several decent matte shots depicting them fighting in the middle of the city which stand-out quite easily.
Other Factors:
Simply put, this is the hardest part to critique on since it's designed as a spoof so much of this will depend solely on how viewers react to that nature of genre filmmaking. Undoubtedly they'll get most of the themes and callbacks that are in-play here while also allowing for a greater understanding and appreciation for its tangents, yet for those that don't this will be a trying time. The focus on rendering the monsters absent for large sections of time solely to military talking heads talking about strategy, the romance between the members of the team or the diversion into the commentary on the gourmet food industry will just seem like wild tangents. This kind of approach can render the film as quite scattershot in some instances or even quite dull in others.
Overview: ***/5
A delirious and highly cheesy genre effort that has plenty of highly-impressive elements with its kaiju scenes yet tends to suffer a little from its spoof-like nature, there's a rather disjointed feel throughout here. There's enough here for kaiju fans who will definitely enjoy this one the most as they'll get the most out of the intent here, while those that don't enjoy that genre will have some issues with the film.
This review ran as part of our remote coverage of the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival. Click the banner below to check out more of our coverage:
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