Review: We Are Little Zombies
The short answer… We Are Little Zombies is a fantastic flick that you should check out ASAP, and not just cuz of the cred or clout, since I have a feeling that it’s gonna (finally) blow up.
The somewhat longer (cuz this is a review after all) answer…
Like many with a keen interest in Asian cinema, I too have seen all the glowing reviews, and I too have found them to be a massive turn off. It certainly ain’t the subject matter’s fault, plus I should perhaps be used to the overbearing hype (soaked in a tingey & cringey glaze of fetishization that comes with Japanese exports) by so-called movie experts whose blind spot as it pertains to anything from the East is hilariously glaring (who also can’t be bothered to check and see if “Scott Pilgrim Enters The Void” has been used to death).
There’s nevertheless a point in which it just gets a bit much and kills any interest in the source of all the clamor, and even worse, you finally show up looking to nitpick. Thankfully, We Are Little Zombies is again an actually great motion picture that I also believe will become a cult classic. And yeah… it honestly is the movie that the Scott Pilgrim flick wanted to be/should have been.
The film is the story of four kids who become acquainted at a funeral parlor; each of their parents are dead, leaving them all alone in a cruel, cruel world, so they join forces… to form a party. Yup, like in a role-playing game; perhaps you noticed the trailer’s descriptor of “A Super Musical Adventure RPG Movie!” Actually, not every one is completely alone; Hikari, the movie’s lead, has an aunt that’s now his legal guardian… but he finds her stupid. Cuz all adults are stupid. Hell, reality is stupid. Hikari, along with the rest of his party, all ooze nihilism, largely due to how life for them was shit even when things were “normal”. Plus, given that it’s a movie from Japan and all, there’s of course plenty of staring into the abyss and the abyss staring back; it’s all fairly boilerplate. Yet wrapped in a Harajuku-coated shell, which again is not exactly groundbreaking, for those truly entrenched in the scene.
What was surprising is how legit effective and useful the aesthetics are; shots can look cool yet have substance as well! The sense of style is sustained and never gets boring or runs out of steam, which is rare. Best of all is how video games are part of the mix, and not just from a narrative standpoint, aka how Hikari almost always has his Game Boy-like device in his hands. We see the world through the eyes of a kid in which games are his entire life; Hikari couldn’t be bothered to shed a tear for mom & dad at the funeral cuz there was no bond, who instead showered their child in consoles & cartridges & discs in lieu of affection. As a result, he has a killer collection, literally everything from the Famicom to a PlayStation VR. Yet the real consequence is how his entire reality is imbued with game-like properties, like when explaining to his new friends how he’s been primarily a loner (”I’m used to being alone. I’m a single player.”).
Director Makoto Nagahisa adds various flourishes to the mix, like shots that emulate the viewing angle of classic JRPGs and 8-bit audio in certain parts; none of it bashes you on the head and it’s sincerely appreciated. But back to that DMG-esque handheld, which is simply referred to as a Pocket Game; the only tiny cart that’s ever inserted is, well, We Are Little Zombies. Naturally Hikari compares its plot (“It’s an old game about zombies who meet in a graveyard.”) with what’s happening IRL. As for the game itself, it’s supposed to look 8-bit and largely succeeds, without looking too 16-bit instead, like all too many indie games IRL.
The party members bum around town with what little money they had saved and scrounged up, but eventually find themselves officially orphans living on the streets, which is when they come across a merry band of homeless people. Who all play music? Not only do they supply the necessary equipment to upgrade the party into a band, known as (you guessed it) Little Zombies. Every party member plays an instrument, and Hikari’s is… yup, his Pocket Game; they’re a chiptunes act. When the guy working the graveyard shift at the junkyard that most of the equipment comes from broadcasts said performance on social media, Little Zombies are a viral sensation, overnight rock stars. Their next proper gig at a real deal venue has the band decked out in 6% Doki Doki-esque attire and even visuals you’d find at a chipshow; it honestly feels like a performance at Blip Tokyo or Square Sounds. This is also the point in which the filmmakers clearly did their homework, or at the very least, are clearly fans of Anamanaguchi.
As is the case with these types of movies, success for the band is fleeting; in an interview with the press, Hikari states that driver of the bus in which he parents died (due to negligence of said wheelman, who ended up surviving) is “the End of Level boss in the game of my life.” Cue yet another similar sight in many films from both Japan and Korea: on screen text that illustrates message board/social media banter, of internet justice being dished out, in this case the Little Zombies fanbase’s search for said driver. It might actually be the absolute best example of said trope I’ve seen thus far, something I obviously had to point out, despite it not being very video game-y (okay, gamers do stuff like that on Twitter in the real world) and kinda spoiler-ish.
Alongside the requisite downfall of the band, the rest of the film plays as one might expect… most Japanese movies about self-reflection discovery follow the same beats, so it’s all about what instruments are used… and this might be the first movie to feature a chiptunes band front and center? In the very end, despite not being groundbreaking, there’s enough polish, energy, charm, and sincerity to make We Are Little Zombies a damn fine film nonetheless. As it relates to video games specifically, it’s the perfect example of video game culture being an indelible part of everyday life, at least in certain parts of the world, or at least in the eyes of certain filmmakers. A viewpoint/attitude that many in the West, and not just in Hollywood, have yet to fully master, let alone grasp.
We Are Little Zombies arrives in both live cinemas and virtual cinemas tomorrow July 10th; swing by Oscilloscope Laboratories to see what options are available in your neck of the woods.
Originally published at blog.attractmo.de.
