Junk Head

This painstakingly hand-animated science-fiction dystopia film has so much love and care put into it, which comes across in all 140,000 stop-motion shots, with every single one making for a worthy art piece within itself. This film takes advantage of everything the genre of stop-motion has to offer, putting no restrictions on the imagination of this film’s visionary Takehide Hori, who is the director, writer, lead cast member, head of cinematography, the editor and the lead composer, and it’s based on his own short film Junk Head 1! This is the very definition of a passion project, and the amount of love and care that has gone into this film is so clear upon viewing. The scenery and figures are exceptionally detailed which makes it impossible to look away, even as it amplifies the more grotesque scenes of the film. The lack of any real dialogue outside of unintelligible babble allows you to bask in the beauty of the film further – this film is perfectly engineered to be a spectacle for the eyes. The more attention you pay to it the more you appreciate how everything builds together to create such a surreal atmosphere. This film is truly breathtaking and will have you thoroughly invested from start to finish. The film takes place in a distant dystopian future where humans have been able to extend their lifespans extensively but have lost fertility which has put humanity on the brink of extinction. The audience follows a cyborg explorer who is attempting to learn about the secrets of reproduction from artificially created species living underground. We explore this underground world and gradually learn more and more about what lies underneath. With confirmation that this is just the first in a trilogy, this is certainly a film you cannot miss

James Patt