Film description

Ryochi wanted to be a rock star. It didn't work out. Now he spends his days in a boring office, with colleagues who keep making fun of him. In a moment of despair, he buys a miniature turtle and calls him Picadon – atomic bomb in Japanese. He has no idea how explosive the consequences will be...

Sion Sono's insane imagery seems to have no boundaries. This time, the director combines kaiju eiga – a Japanese genre with monsters attacking cities – with a pastiche of TV music quiz shows and Hollywood family and Christmas movies. He throws in a generous pinch of slapstick, an office romance, and some spectacular explosions, as well as live toys and talking animals (for years Siono has been declaring that his favorite film is "Babe," though this time he was also inspired by "The Christmas Toy" from John Henson's Studio). All of this is served in a form of a musical – songs performed by Revolution Q, Sono's own band, combine Japanese rock and catchy tunes (the main theme stays in the head long after seeing the film), and at one point the protagonist appears on stage in a costume worthy of David Bowie.

The extravagant play with form has also – like it always does for this director – a deeper meaning. The Japanese monster films always had metaphorical, political subtexts. Here, too, the adventures of a tiny turtle become a pretext for a satirical comment on the megalomaniac inclinations of the authorities, preparations for the 2020 Olympics, and the insane consumptionism of the Japanese society. And there is more – in Sono's dark, surreal, brilliantly absurd vision everyone can find something for themselves.

Jagoda Murczyńska