The concept of a ‘local film’ in Japan is nothing new, with more than a few examples from recent years of local governments either partially funding or helping to promote new films in return for highlighting a few local hotspots and shedding some light onto an under-seen region for the hopes of tourism from fans. Many such films don’t have the best reputation, but it’s a noted enough phenomenon, and at a time when local towns are in decline you can understand why they would try it. What if you were to parody the concept of wanting to make such a film, while ultimately making exactly that sort of film? And brought kaiju and a famed comedian into the mix?
You’d get something like Kaiju Guy!.
Ichiro Yamada (potrayed by Japanese comedian Gumpy) loves kaiju films. In middle school, he even made one all on his own to show off to his school in the cultural festival. Unfortunately, his clear passion, surprisingly-technical, and somewhat-dangerous pyrotechnically-intense short film was laughed out by his classmates, and he wants to destroy the evidence until a teacher tells him to keep going. He passionately declares at this spritely young age he will direct a kaiju film, only to find himself toiling away in civil service 20 years later and unable to muster even passion from the locals for the crafts that put the town on the map. That’s when the city mayor declares they should make a local film.
Seki City in Gifu is exactly the sort of city that would want to make such a production. It’s been on a steady population decline not just in the city itself but across the prefecture since 2000, and what was once the bustling core of the area resembles a nationwide problem in such places of being a ‘shutter town’: bustling shopping streets filled with nothing but closed storefronts with the shutters drawn. The life has gone, even though they have such a rich history and people who still care enough about the place they call home.
A local film doesn’t have to just be something made to bring new people to a town or city, either. Such a film is a chance to put the region on the map, but it’s also a chance for local people to come together to share the town they love. It’s a chance for local businesses to help out and even get featured in the story, making them prime tourist destinations for those wanting to location hunt their favorite spots. It’s a chance to show that they matter.
Kaiju Guy! is a comedy in the vein of meta indie hits like One Cut of the Dead. This is a film about making a local film, aware of the pitfalls of such a venture but equally aware of why it matters for creatives, locals and the city itself. It’s also a love letter to the kaiju genre that has surprising overlap with such desires. Kaiju cinema pioneered vfx and has historically been driven by human craftsmanship in their miniatures, men-in-suits, and heart.
If the point of a local film is similarly to bring such craft to the front, doesn’t such an overlap make sense?
This blend of self-aware satire at the state of media production coupled with renegade heart and craft is what makes Kaiju Guy! work, in particular thanks to the non-standard casting of Gumpy in the lead role. It’s a surprise that this is a first acting role for the comedian and YouTuber, someone who doesn’t fit the mold of a typical actor in his larger appearance and signature rounded glasses. A self-admitted ‘immature virgin’ according to his own YouTube channel, he leans into the way his appearance is ‘undesirable’ in the eyes of typical Japanese beauty standards to craft himself as an ‘authentic loser’ that nonetheless has the passion and enthusiasm to bring people on side.
After all, the chance to make a local movie after giving up his dream to fumble poorly through city work was not how Yamada wanted his life to play out, yet he can’t even convince a foolhardy and impulsive city mayor his idea is worth anything. They move slowly ahead with the mayor’s idea, and only a mishap in losing the files convinces them to rush through on the kaiju plan as the only thing they have left rather than anything of real gumption. All he appears to those around him, even his mother and closest coworkers, is a nerd without prospects who’s unable to grow up even as more competent people around him cover for his missteps.
Yamada as a character has similarities to Gumpy’s crafted persona, one that becomes likeable rather than annoying because of the heart injected into every scene in front and behind the camera.
Any love for kaiju cinema will be rewarded in what is at times a love letter to the tokusatsu works of Godzilla and Ultraman. This goes beyond the desire to create a low-budget suit and crush a few tiny buildings, but in how the creatures and threats call direct homage to multiple Showa-era films. How the film has a stand-in embodied by Akaji Maro portraying Ishiro Honda himself, the so-called father of Godzilla and tokusatsu, a man whose awareness for the techniques and extensive collection become an inspiration at their lowest.
Yet what ties the comedy and silliness of Kaiju Guy! into an enjoyable, brisk 80 minutes of cinema is that as much as it wants to have fun with the silliness of how such local films are made, it is still a local film that the team care passionately for creating. This isn’t a film made at the expense of the residents of Seki, but one sympathetic to the concerns of the people who live there, the universal worries of the shutter towns and a recognition nothing is perfect. All made with a desire to still highlight what makes this town such a great place.
Sure, the kaiju film is deliberately silly. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t bring in actual local schoolkids to make it. Sure, the kaiju itself is the most ridiculous monster imaginable. But they make sure it thematically ties to the town. This is a film that will very forcefully, for a mix of comedy and genuine desire to highlight these locations, push local businesses from the city to the forefront. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a local film go as far as to slap the company logo and address into the film as though you’re seeing a poster on the train, but it fits for the film.
This is a parody of the local film, but at its heart is more of a local film than almost any other. No wonder the film has sparked word-of-mouth success and found nationwide success. In that sense, it was a success in all the ways it wanted to be. It’s a true local film.
Japanese Movie Spotlight is a monthly column highlighting new Japanese cinema releases. You can check out the full archive of the column over on Letterboxd.
