Junk Head

Stop-motion animator Phil Tippett earned some belated buzz with the release of his long-gestating epic Mad God (2021) which premiered on Shudder last year.  The grotesque post-apocalyptic project might have been a hard sell commercially, but as a piece of adult-oriented, almost experimental, sci-fi / horror it was unique in its field.  But maybe not as unique as you think…

Takehide Hori’s Junk Head (2021), set in a very similar dystopian underground of monsters, mutants and the remnants of malformed mankind, is a more accessible take on the same material.  Expanded from a 2017 short, Hori lets his imagination run wild, but grounds the experience with manga-style fight scenes and a (semi) traditional narrative that makes his hero’s journey easier to follow…and easier to root for.

 

Dispatched into the underworld to uncover the secret of sexual reproduction, which Man has somehow lost, an unnamed heroic android falls into the web of a complex subterranean society who repurpose his body for parts.  Reborn several times as a servant, slave and companion, the android discovers a world far more alive than the one he left.  But also, a deadly circle of life in which man is closer to the bottom of the food chain.

 

With no understandable dialogue or subtitles, Junk Head takes on the challenge of earning its scares, sympathy and overall success through old-school silent cinema techniques.  And for the most part it works wonderfully.  The android’s journey is a comic series of Three Stooges-style misadventures and quick-cut action scenes featuring some unsettling H.R. Giger-inspired monstrosities that all share a phallic resemblance.  Things get confusing during some extended dialogue exchanges that seem to demand more explanation than we’re given, but no matter how many times you mash the subtitle button nothing shows up (believe me, I tried!).

 

But, as with Mad God, the look and feel of Junk Head’s stop-motion hellscape is probably its biggest selling point.  Hori creates a terrifyingly tactile underverse that reveals new details in every pit and corridor.  Like Harryhausen, he gifts his characters with surprising personality and even one-ups the master with some outrageous camera effects and slow-motion cinematic techniques.  Junk Head is animation that appeals to more than just the animation crowd; it’s a mini-model masterpiece.

 

The DVD release, which has been a long-time coming for domestic audiences, makes this a U.S. premiere outside of film festivals.  It’s a bare bones disc, however, with no extras – not even the original short – included.

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