Review: Junk Head

Summary

This painstakingly intricate animation is already a cult hit around the world. Now it gets retooled and reworked in a new release of Takahide Hori’s feature.

The term ‘labour of love’ gets bandied around a lot in review circles, often used as a shorthand for any difficult gestation process. In the case of Takahide Hori’s JUNK HEAD (ジャンク・ヘッド), there isn’t a more apt description. The self-taught animator reportedly spent seven years bringing this theatrical cut of his dystopian vision to international screens.

Expanding on his 2013 short Junk Head 1, Hori presents us with a future of humanity that are no longer able to reproduce due to the pursuit of longevity and gene manipulation. Their labour clones, now known as Marigans, rule the underworld 1,600 years later. Humanity wants to understand their offspring better and launches an expedition beneath the Earth.

Most of this is explained in a series of title cards before the credits. Which is probably a good thing given that the majority of the feature running time feels like a free train of thought. Re-editing the 2017 version released at the Fantasia International Film Festival that year, the long-delayed arrival of this weird and singular vision has taken on something of a mythical status among cult animation fans.

Like the earlier editions that this builds upon, one has to salute Takahide Hori for the amazing effort that has gone into the stop-motion/CG blend here. With an aesthetic that sits at the exact intersection of Despicable Me and a Tool music video, the painstaking level of detail found in every frame of this film is nothing short of phenomenal. Even when looking at walls of organic torsos — growing penis-like edibles that were translated as ‘mashrooms’ — there’s a beauty in the grotesquery (and vice versa).

It’s this look and feel that made the 30 minute version of this film such an immediate success with its advocates. Yet many of the in-built issues inherent to this stylistic approach are only exacerbated in a film more than three times that length. While the character designs and creature revelations are often ingeniously crafted, long stretches of the film are simply figures chasing each other around corridors. Even with the newly added interstitial bits, the (subtitled) mumble dialogue is another small barrier to engagement.

Yet it’s difficult to be too critical of a film that has had so much time and effort put into it. Hori and his small team of animators intend to return for an intended trilogy, rapidly expanding this world. It’s a complex vision that may not completely make the leap from its creators to the viewer’s mind, but from the warm response so far it’s certainly made the jump to their hearts.

JUNK HEAD is screening as part of the New York Asian Film Festival from 6-22 August and the 25th Fantasia Festival running 5-25 August 2021.