As
a blond American boy, Bobby already stood out in rural Japan, even before he
got trapped in a sinister amusement park of body horror. Even if it were called
Cronenberg Gardens, it still wouldn’t give fair warning of the heinous crimes
against nature that happen there. There will be a lot of mutated kids in Ujicha’s
unbelievably weird cut-out “geki-mation” animated feature Violence Voyager (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film.
Bobby
and his pal Akkun want to visit a former schoolmate who moved to the other side
of the mountain, so they head off along a sketchy trail, despite the warnings
of responsible adults, like the hermit, Old Man Lucky-Monkey. Alas, they take a
fateful detour when they start following the faded signs for the mysterious
amusement park, Violence Voyager. Although the park looks abandoned, it is
still functioning and the proprietor will even let them in for free.
Initially,
they enjoy the role-playing adventure of fighting mutant cyborgs until it gets totally
and painfully real. Soon, they connect with other young survivors, some of whom
have been badly disfigured by the robot monsters’ noxious secretions. Eventually
they learn (the hard way) the real purpose of the park is to either use them as
food or convert them into more distorted cyborg creatures.
There
are probably more dead or deformed children in VV than any other animated film in the history of recorded
civilization, but as the old saying goes: “you can’t make an omelet, without
breaking a few twelve-year-olds.” In fact, Ujicha gleefully revels in gore, bad
taste, and disregard for propriety. It is so over the top, you cannot take it
too seriously. Yet, there is something about the Violence Voyager park that
hits us on an archetypal meadow, like it could be nestled in the Hudson Valley
of one of Washington Irving’s tales, albeit one that was warmed up in Hell and
drizzled with viscous bodily fluids.
Regardless
of taste, you have to give Ujicha credit for being the contemporary master of
geki-mation—a form of cut-out animation that also utilizes zooms and
pan-and-scans for effect, as well as some highly practical effects, like blood
and slime. He is sort of like Lotte Reiniger crossed with Tom Six. It sounds
crazy, because it is, but there is still something indescribably unsettling
about his figures.
