My coverage of NYAFF 2009 continues!

Lala Pipo

North American Premiere
Running Time: 119 minutes

It’s too bad they only screened Lala Pipo once, because it might be the gem of this year’s festival.

Based on a book I previously reviewed here, the screenplay of the film was written by Tetsuya Nakashima, who directed previous festival favorites Kamikaze Girls and Memories Of Matsuko. If you had watched Kamikaze Girls like I told you to in 2007, Nakashima’s name on this film should be enough for you to run out and watch it. Just in case you’re still not convinced, this film has giant UFO catchers, a talking penis represented by a muppet, and a tokusatsu character whose energy weapon emanates from a giant foam rubber skyscraper strategically placed over his crotch.

The film departs from the book on several points: most noticeably, the middle-aged erotica author’s story is absent, although he does make a brief appearance. The karaoke box employee morphs into a sex-crazed tokusatsu fan, and amateur porn artist “Fat Lady” is suddenly a goth-loli and amateur anime voice actress. A little bit of simple animation is even thrown into the film, adding to the mixed-media feel.

The film uses surreal fantasy sequences in bright colors to reveal the inner lives of the characters. This is brilliant, as these sequences are hilarious and it makes the film’s twisted message easier to swallow. The dark humor remains, but thanks to the penis puppet you can feel a lot better about laughing.

Hottie Narimiya Hiroki (Nobu from the Nana films) gives the stand-out performance as the ever-smiling sex club recruiter. Tomoko Murakami is also great as the overweight goth-loli. Although my husband swears she looks familiar, I don’t think she’s been in anything we’ve seen.

The movie was so funny that I was a little disappointed that the erotica writer’s story was dropped. I understand why the karaoke employee’s story was turned into a tokusatsu send-up, but I’m not sure it was entirely necessary. The rest of the audience loved his scenes more than I did.

The book was kind of a downer, but the end of the film cross-cuts between the characters laughing. The pimp is the only one who doesn’t quite seem to get that life’s joke is on him.

Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit

North American Premiere
Distributed by Media Blasters
Running Time: 98 minutes

I’m always up for a good giant monster movie (maybe not Cloverfield) but I was in no way prepared for the awesomesauce that was Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit. For one thing, I didn’t watch the trailer or even read the description—I don’t even think I read the entire title. I just saw this awesome production still:

…and I knew I had to see this film. Check out those antenna! I didn’t bother to read up on director Minoru Kawasaki, whose other films include gems like Calamari Wrestler, Executive Koala and Crab Goalkeeper. For the love of god, I’d never even seen The X from Outer Space, the legendary B movie starring Guilala, the monster pictured above, whom the festival organizers accurately describe as a “radioactive space chicken.”

Those in-the-know will understand when I say that this a daikaiju version of Hetalia, but for those of you who speak English, I should explain further. The G8 is meeting in Hokkaido when suddenly Guilala attacks. At first the G8 begins to evacuate, but then the American president gives speech about staying and fighting and doing the right thing. From that point on, each G8 leader tries a different approach to stopping Guilala.

All of the world leaders, including Shinzo Abe, are lambasted, with bad prosthetic noses and gross stereotypes. France’s representative, for example, is more interested in seducing his Japanese translator than stopping the monster. He spends much of the film wearing nothing but a towel. At a key dramatic moment, Abe runs out with bowel problems and Koizumi (whom you might remember from the mahjong manga) steps in and takes over. Meanwhile, in a parody of giant monster films, a hapless tabloid reporter stumbles across a local Guilala cult in the woods. The simple villagers pray for the day that local god Takemajin (voiced by Beat Takeshi) will return and save them from Guilala.

Monster X is really significant if you saw Big Man Japan in last year’s festival. (I keep meaning to review it, but I haven’t yet.) In Big Man Japan, the native Japanese daikaiju is unable to stop foreign invading monsters, and is eventually one-upped (I know, I know, spoilers) by an American team of perfect giant heroes. In Monster X, the entire G8 is hilariously ineffective, and it takes a native Japanese god to fight off the invading alien beast. It’s a return to a native animism that saves the Japanese people!

I’m a big fan of the original Doctor Who series, so believe me when I tell you that these special effects are really great. The crappy quality of the original X From Outer Space film and BBC productions from the same era are meticulously and faithfully reproduced—so much so that I thought the first Guilala scene was a flashback to the original film. Kawasaki loves guys in rubber monster suits, and does not use CG to cut corners. The 2006 Gamera the Brave has its place in Japanese cinema, but high budgets are not what Kawasaki loves about kaiju.

Even though this film is a total parody, it’s done with tons of love. One scene on a mountain looks purposefully under-exposed. Several continuity errors in the final battle with Takemajin are a loving intentional send-up of 1960s and 1970s kaiju movies.

Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit is available now.