On Friday evening my family and I watched a wildly original Japanese movie called We Are Little Zombies. We loved the 8-bit special effects and soundtrack, crazy colorful costumes, and original songs. It’s written and directed by Makoto Nagahisa and was the winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originality at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Here’s the synopsis:
When four young orphans — Hikari, Ikuko, Ishi, and Takemura — first meet, their parents’ bodies are being turned into dust, like fine Parmesan atop a plate of spaghetti Bolognese, and yet none of them can shed a tear. They are like zombies; devoid of all emotion. With no family, no future, no dreams, and no way to move forward, the young teens decide that the first level of this new existence involves salvaging a gaming console, an old electric bass, and a charred wok from their former homes—just enough to start a band-and then conquer the world. Tragedy, comedy, music, social criticism, and teenage angst are all subsumed in this eccentric cinematic tsunami.
Here’s how to see We Are Little Zombies in actual and virtual cinema
Here’s an exclusive clip, provided to Boing Boing by Oscilloscope:
