The 65th Venice Film Festival, in partnership with the Udine Far East Film Festival, presents:

Monster X strikes back: attack the G8 summit!
di Minoru Kawasaki
GIAPPONE, 98′, original version: Japanese, subtitles: Italian/English
con Natsuki Kato, Kazuki Kato, Akira Matsushita, Beat Takeshi

Thursday, 28th August, midnight, Sala Grande
Press/Industry Screening 9am Sala Grande

A parody of the Japanese daikaiju genre (in technical terms, a film with gigantic monsters) set during an imaginary G8 summit ravaged by Guilala, the monster from outer space. With a focus on environmental issues, the summit, which takes place in the summer of 2008 in Hokkaido, explores the various ineffectual efforts of the major world leaders (including the French President, who is exclusively concerned with matters regarding the fairer sex) to deal with planetary imbalances. The arrival of the monster from outer space sets off a frenzied race to take credit for saving the planet from the extraterrestrial threat, right up to the finale in which the Japanese leader is unveiled as an impostor, an emissary from an evil enemy dictatorship.

Born in Tokyo in 1958, the independent film-maker Minoru Kawasaki rightly deserves the epithet of “the Japanese Ed Wood”, thanks to his style based on demented ideas and his nostalgia for VFX techniques. International success came his way in 2004 with The Calamari Wrestler, followed two years later by The World Sinks Except Japan and then by The Rug Cop.