Litchi Hikari Club (Eisuke Naito, 2015)

[HungFist]

New film from Eisuke Naito (Prince of Milk, Let's Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage Club, Puzzle) one of the most interesting young Japanese directors. Based on "controversial sex-horror manga" (with apparently plenty of gay sex) by Usamaru Furuya.

"Litchi Hikari Club tells the tale of 9 young boys who are obsessed with beauty and the search for the fountain of youth. Their other mission is to take over Keikoh and exact revenge on the adult population for being the source of decay, death and ugliness. In order to gain eternal beauty, they created an iron-made "monster-hunter" named Litchi - programmed to search for beautiful young girls. Of all things, the robot is fueled by the lychee fruit, which symbolizes not only the club's carnal intentions but their desire for beauty and superiority."
- http://psycho-drama.com/index.php/revie ... ikari-club

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9AsXiHxGvU

Site:
http://litchi-movie.com/

Interview with Naito:
http://psycho-drama.com/index.php/177-i ... 1464-eisuk

Opens in February.

[Guro Taku]

I haven't read the manga but that summary sounds amazing, the stills look like Naito had a decent budget to work with and PUZZLE was absolutely one of the best surprises of 2014 for me. Hopefully I'll be able to catch it on the festival circuit next year.

[HungFist]

Dorome: Danshi hen & Dorome: Joshi hen
A duo of horror films by the always interesting violence director Eisuke Naito (Puzzle, Miscarriage Club, Litchi Hikari Club). They are literally titled "The Male Version" and "The Female Version". They're both feature films and run about 90 minutes each. Premiere in Yubari next month.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbEBaF1ybVM
- http://dorome-movie.com/
- http://yubarifanta.com/films/3232/?lang=en

[HungFist]

New trailer for Litchi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUdZbZSyFU8

[HungFist]

Article:
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan ... 1602120033

"...clearly accomplished with limited funds, but it offers a fine example of the superiority of resourceful practical effects over cut-rate CG."

Review:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/201 ... sBwH1J-Bnv

I have to wait for a few more weeks till it lands near me, but I'll be seeing it soon.

[HungFist]

Quick comments on Litchi

Litchi Hikari Club (Japan, 2015) [DCP] - 3.5/5
Odd, but interesting film by young rising talent Eisuke Naito, who can usually be relied on to deliver something spicy. This one is based on a fantasy/dystopia/horror/boy's love manga following a group of 14 year old boys who are seeking eternal beauty. They build a robot, Litchi, which is programmed to abduct beautiful young girls for them. However, their sexual desires are purely homosexual. The film is being largely marketed for female audiences with its popular "boy's love" theme - indeed, there were quite a few high school girls in the audience - while director Naito is what you'd label as "violence director". There isn't so much violence in Litchi Hikari Club, but when the violence hits, it's incredibly juicy and meaty splatter done without a drop of CGI. Litchi, likewise, is a fantastic steam punk creation brought to life using only practical effects. The characters, beauty seeking, ultra-cool, manga-like gothic boys can be somewhat alienating for many viewers, and their power/love struggle is the film's weakest point. The film also runs a bit too long. But damn if the ending isn't fantastic, and feature one of the greatest "human explosions" ever.

[HungFist]

I also saw Dorome: Joshi hen. A bit disappointed by this one. The film was clearly made for G-rating and geared for the widest possible audience, so don't expect bloody splatter here. Instead we have mud-monsters here. The monsters are made using practical effects and make-up effects, and the final monster is actually brilliantly awesome, but the mud splats do utilize (much better than usual) CGI.

A bigger problem is that the story moves at pretty slow pace and the characters are just not very interesting. The whole dating-trauma side plot is quite a drag. There are some insanely energetic moments here and there, as you'd expect from Naito, but as a whole the film just comes out a bit underwhelming. Not terribly bad, just underwhelming.

The Yubari audience actually loved it, and I'd imagine this should go down well with mainstream audiences.

I haven't seen Danshi hen yet. I'll give it a try when a chance comes, but in Yubari I decided to gamble and try another movie when it played. I thought Danshi hen might either jump straight to action and be a great improvement, or repeat the same mistakes for the second time. I wonder what it's gonna be...

[Guro Taku]

Japanese BD/DVD release (no subs) on August 3rd.

[Guro Taku]

Naito's two DOROME films are also hitting DVD on July 27th. They are available separately and together in a box.

Box artwork:



Individual covers:

[HungFist]

Cool. I should rent and check out Danshi hen just to see if it's better than Joshi hen

[Guro Taku]

Just watched LITCHI HIKARI CLUB and liked it as well. It has a pretty unique atmosphere and the practical effects are indeed a joy to watch. Any kind of CGI would have stuck out like a sore thumb in this world. Also, the use of German throughout the film was interesting and unexpected.