Tokusatsu – the Japanese genre of effects-heavy entertainment – is famous for being loaded with cultural and political critique, most especially in the realm of the kaiju or giant monster.
Rarely has that been more overt than in 2016’s Shin-Gojira, which used Godzilla to mercilessly lampoon Japan’s obsession with bureaucracy. Monster Seafood Wars takes on another cultural trait: a taste for fish. That’s common in every coastal or island nation (imagine Louisiana without crawfish, or Britain deprived of fish and chips – where even would they be?), and so it is with Japan. In this case, what would happen if a giant octopus, a massive crab, and a monumental squid, all started to wage war over the world of the surface dwellers? Wouldn’t the first question be, I wonder what they taste like? Come on, if a giant slab of freshly-severed calamari fell from the skies, someone is going to give it a taste. And, of course, it would be delicious?
Why wouldn’t it be? After all, the aquatic animals were intended as an offering to the local temple by Yuta (Keisuka Ueda), the son of a sushi chef, and so they would only be the best. Yet they were grown to city-crushing size due to a mysterious chemical (isn’t that always the way) that … well, there’s a lot of plot buried in there. Byzantine conspiracies are as much a part of kaiju films as evil geniuses cackling when they reveal their sinister plan – which, of course, happens here. Director Minoru Kawasaki knows the genre well, which is why he’s so perfectly able to spoof it. His deft script, cowritten with Nasakazu Migata and with a credit nod to late kaiju grand master Eji Tsuburaya (whose unproduced 1950s octopus-attacks-Japan script provided the inspiration) wanders off on digressionary paths, and intercuts with news footage and other POVs to comically undercut every overly dramatic moment.
And then, of course, there are the monsters themselves. More Kaijua Big Battel than Toho’s finest, they’re deliberately silly and squishy, a child’s version of what a giant seamonster would be. After all, Kawasaki is interested in kooky comedy, and the occassional jabs in the ribs in his delicate satire are always going to be padded with a thick layer of flexible foam. The micro-budget FX are supposed to be unconvincing, because the commentary is pretty broad, and riffs on the fact that kaiju movies are usually about 90% chatting in rooms, 10% gargantua-on-gargantua action. There’s literally a seafood tasting session that it longer than everything except the final, absurd showdown. So, just like a regular kaiju film. Just more ridiculous and delicious.
Monster Seafood Wars is screening as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Aug. 20-Sept. 2, www.fantasiafestival.com.
This article appears in August 28 • 2020.
