In what i assume it’s attempt at doing a “post-kaiju” type of treatment to the kaiju formula, while also echoing somewhat the old austerity-driven Daigoro VS Goliath, the movie by director-writer Satoshi Miki makes it clear from the title this isn’t a tale about how humanity pushed back against the monster, but instead about its aftermath, and it’s a fitting concept that makes sense as an evolutionary attempt for the genre in question, after Shin Godzilla basically laid the groundwork.
The plot starts with the big bad kaiju dying, with the people cheering, and the carcass of the creature is nicknamed “hope” for the many potential uses it could have.
But as you’d imagine, it soon begins to rot away and (stink aside) fears of explosions begin to arise, so it’s up to a selected crackpot team of weirdos, dubbed the Tokumutai, to dispose of the kaiju’s carcass with the future of Japanese’s economy at stake….
Yep, my first instinct was to think of Shin Godzilla, i mean, it’s nearly impossible not to since there’s basically no other notable example of this new type of kaiju film, and i don’t even to assume Japanese audiences were as well, because many lamented expecting that and not really getting it, leading to japanese audiences dubbing it “the Devilman of the Reiwa era” (i did not know there was a live-action Devilman movie, nor it that such a bad rep), which can actually could be translated with “ the 1997 Spawn movie of 2022”, as far i can understand it.
Here i would have loved to say i disagree, that japanese audiences didn’t get or accepted what it actually was, as in a more straightforward comedy-drama, instead of a political satire……but heck, honestly it just further cements how great Shin Godzilla was, and how it just gets better even with little aging done. Sometimes you just have to see how bad the execution of a concept could be to appreciate when someone “nails it”.
What to do With The Dead Kaiju has a good premise, and the first 20 minutes are promising, as they set up for a potentially interesting thriller-drama about the aftermath of a kaiju rampage, as there’s still questions and mysteries about the creature, the tone is serious but not boring, then it starts throwing burocratic gags and political observation comedy bits.
And i mean throw because the comedy feel done in ye old “throw shit at the wall and see what sticks” method, minus the caring what sticks, and on top of that, most of the figurative ranged fecal weaponry is cheap gags and jokes, which often feel, if not crowbarred in, not so seamlessly written into the overall serious tone, at best, and just turning to pretty low brow tier gags in order to eek out some cheap laughs, at worse.
It’s not really a movie of wit, which IS a huge issue for a satire/parody that ultimately it’s stuck in the uncomfortable between of not working as a comedy or a straight disaster flick with monsters, as it switches from mildly serious kaiju film drama to juvenile gags or visual jokes, like the running gag of reporters asking if the pus that exploded from the monster’s boils smells like vomit or poop.
It’s a Toei and Shochiku collaboration, which is a first, and as you would expect from that the effects for the creature’s carcass do look quite good (other effects not so much) as we do get a closer, extensive look at the kaiju’s corpse, which sadly sports a mostly generic design, but can be glossed over as it’s not the focus of the narration, ironically. Some decent cinematography, though.
I praise the effort in trying and despite understanding how frustrating it can be to watch since there is a lot of pretense but little actual substance, i don’t so much “hate it” as it’s kinda pitiful, as it basically wanted be the new Shin Godzilla but came to the satire showdown armed with a whoopee cushion and a one word script that says “FART”, before clawing together some clumsy comedy bit while also making the serious, realistic aspect of things impossible to accept, wasting its cast on characters you won’t care about and an iffy pacing that makes you really FEEL the 2 hours runtime, even more as the direction doesn’t manage to compensate for the lack of any impending climax, so it also has the peculiar decision to set it in the aftermath of a kaiju rampage backfire making it extra hard to get any sense of urgency to the proceedings, even more so since the movie – as already stated – has a difficult time really grounding the events into some kind of believable reality.
Even with a subplot that foreshadows some kind of big twist for the finale, it takes the movie way too long to work off this, to the point i almost forgot it was a thing at all, and even if it was a good twist (it’s not, it not too absurd in context, but it’s still not a good twist) it’s too little too fuckin late, by that time i had long checked out and didn’t really gave a shit about the romance or this subplot, that also technically doesn’t have a real pay off because it explains little and it’s not satisfying.
It’s not even that bad of a movie, strange as it may sound, it’s just a frustrating attempt that fumbles whatever it is trying to do, that actively sabotages itself due to the constant flipping between semi-interesting political thriller and its klutzy, low-effort comedy, and ultimately just leaves you with this sour taste of wasted potential, confused by how it approched its own premise, trying to be akin to Shin Godzilla but missing the mark in some ways that would be actually funnier if it wasn’t so mistifying as it tries both too hard and not hard enough, and to be totally blunt will leave most audiences offended by how embarrasingly low is this movie’s standard for “comedy” (or satire, for that matter) and yet how boastful is it of catching the lowest hanging fruits possible.
Repeteadly, in case you didn’t get it the first time.
Even if Shin Godzilla didn’t exist, this would have been a baffling disappointment anyway, let’s make it clear.
Not recommended.
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