FANTASIA 2020: Monster Seafood Wars
fantasiaThe Kaiju genre in film has led to countless successes for decades with the newest addition to the genre coming in the form of Minoru Kawasaki's Monster SeaFood Wars. After being enhanced by a mysterious new formula, a giant squid and octopus do battle throughout Tokyo and it is up to the newly formed Seafood Monster Attack Team to stop them! Using his signature style of camp and humor, Minoru Kawasaki creates a legitimately enjoyable film that makes up for its cheesiness by embracing it as a key part of its own identity.
Where the early Godzilla films were able to shoot around the Kaiju monsters building up their threat and terror, it quickly became apparent that as cameras got better this wouldn't be the right direction to take. The visual of an actor inside a monster suit running around and destroying a small set is inherently comedic and campy which led to even the Godzilla franchise embracing its comedic elements over its horror. This is a mindset that has carried over into the modern Kaiju genre and has been a staple of Minoru Kawasaki's career. With films like The Calamari Wrestler and Executive Koala, Kawasaki has found a way to make stories stand out and work despite inherently bad production elements. One of the methods is allowing the audience to laugh with his films rather than at them. The screenplay purposely tries to be as over the top and insane as possible creating a world and experience that doesn't cause any of the lower production qualities to stand out as disappointing or out of place.
The film also wisely switches its focus from the battle against the monsters to the social aftermath. The choices to focus on those who fought in the conflict reflecting on it years after and YouTubers trying the meat leftover from the battles might leave some audience members perplexed, but it feels like a smart decision that helps the film stand out and explore these battles from a different perspective. The actual catalyst for the monsters appearing also stands out as unique and fresh compared to countless other films in the genre. For these reasons, one of the best compliments that could be given to Monster SeaFood Wars is how the film never feels like it is going through the motions. It is a film that feels not only self-aware but inspired to stand out as unique, which is something to be applauded.
With that said, the film undoubtedly has its flaws. One of which is the characters within the film. Where this is a movie that seems primed to have a fun cast of characters that stand out as unique with fun dynamics, they all feel remarkably bland and uninteresting. Due to the nature of the style of the film, it also lacks much emotional depth or impact. The film is not trying to be an extremely memorable film with a deeper meaning or context that might stick in the minds of viewers. Instead, it is a film trying to be an absurd comedy which it accomplishes. Where this lack of depth and importance might not hurt what the film is trying to be, it undoubtedly makes it more forgettable in the context of film overall and holds it back from being able to even be in the conversation of being a legitimately "great" film.
Monster SeaFood Wars is exactly what it appears to be. This is a campy Kaiju slugfest that at every opportunity strives to be something unique and special. For fans of the genre, this absolutely should be a film to check out and have a great time with. However, for those looking for emotionally gripping and memorable stories of depth and substance, this clearly isn't the film for you and it never tries to hide that fact.
