VIOLENCE VOYAGER (MIFF JAPANESE MOVIE REVIEW)




7/10

Bobby and Akkun are two schoolboys who stumble upon a remote amusement park. Not quite sure about entering they are lured in by a charismatic park manager... the entertainment inside looks a little silly even for the young kids like Bobby and Akkun... but as the boys delve deeper into the park its dark secrets begin to emerge and it’s not long until all hell breaks loose.

There are moments when you walk out of the cinema and ask yourself : what have I just seen?  VIOLENCE VOYAGER is a horror movie that is entirely made of cardboard puppets. This is not an animation, the puppets are just being moved across the screen, but it creates an eerie feeling that all is not what it seems (the same feeling the movie characters experience when they enter the amusement park). 


While the puppets’ expressions look silly and over the top and their voices are often grotesque and the dialogue is clumsy, what produces laughs from the audience is also scary as hell. This is what a Brothers Grimm fairy tale must look like in a child’s imagination, and for a grown up like me it is a Junji Ito horror manga coming to life.

There’s not much to say here, but to suggest you experience it for yourself. Created by one man this is a unique film that will either make you walk out of the theatre straight away or will have you mesmerised.

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