KAIJU BUNRAKU (2017)

As the sun sets on the inaugural KaiJuly at Neon Splatter, here is a short film that has been held in the holster the entire time. KAIJU BUNRAKU is a utterly unique and impressive piece of filmmaking with a moving and very human story about a couple trying to survive in a land of monsters—all told using puppets. Directors Lucas Leyva and Jillian Mayer employ bunraku, an old Japanese theatrical format “in which puppeteers, dressed in black and visible to the audience, manipulate large puppets to the accompaniment of a chanted narration and musical instruments.”

The effect is a brilliant one of noticeable artifice, but the emotions on stage enchants audiences to no longer see those moving parts, leaving only the facsimile of real actors on stage—all while allowing the puppeteers to have a greater range of motion and the puppets to have a wider gamut of expression. The short played Sundance Film Festival and Fantastic Fest in 2017. For those interested, the soundtrack can be found here.

Enjoy what the filmmakers dub “the first Mothra film to make it to Sundance."