For years (decades, even), Kaiju films have all followed a similar plot. A monster of epic proportions is awakened by a tragedy. This monster, either of fame or infamy, leaves destruction in its wake, leaving humanity in turmoil. Many times, this monster is ancient, with a few select people fearing for this villainous creature. But what happens when the people themselves are the villains? When humans cause the death and destruction all in the name of the monster? This is the set up for Hiroto Yokokawa’s Hoshi 35.
Hoshi 35 takes the traditions and concepts that are most associated with the Kaiju genre and puts its own unique spin on it. Beginning with a flashback, the film introduces us to a village sacrificing it’s citizens for the Cosmic Monster, named Hoshikuzu. This idea of a Kaiju being worshipped is not anything entirely new to the genre, such as the Twins in the Mothra franchise or the tribe in Gamera vs. Barugon, but Hoshi 35 takes a very unique spin on it. The film focuses on how this village not only interacts with the
monster, but both the dynamics within the village itself as well as its relation to the real world.
Conceptually, Hoshi 35 remains very strong with this plot point. The vast majority of this film revolves around this village, starting with two seismologists, Mizuno and Yukari (played by Karin Nishina and Yoshinori Tanaka) discovering this village. There has been seismic activity in the area before, as we discover caused by Hoshikuzu. Along their journey, they begin to see the traditions of this village, with the village elder watching these “priestesses” drink poison as sacrifices to ward off the wrath of Hoshikuzu. The seismologists befriend three of the children of the village, those who are set to be the sacrifices the next time the village must defend themselves. Mari, one of the children, leaves with the seismologists, while Aki decides to stay.
Heavy stuff, I know, but I would argue this set-up is generally the best part of the film. Despite being a Kaiju film, I felt myself finding the most interest in the human characters, as opposed to the Kaiju itself. This is due to a few different things. For one, the cast of this film is incredibly strong. Lead by the wonderful Megumi Odaka of Heisei Godzilla fame, the cast features many Kaiju veterans, such as Akira Ohashi, a famous suit actor, playing the titular Hoshikuzu, and Megumi Kobayashi from the Rebirth of
Mothra trilogy. The cast themselves play incredibly well with each other, despite Odaka somewhat out acting everyone else. It allows veterans of the Kaiju franchise to feel seen when they recognize the actors they grew up watching.
This movie is actually very significant for Megumi Odaka; it’s her first acting gig in nearly 30 years after her retirement from the career. It also marks the 35th anniversary of her career, with director Hiroto Yokokawa stating that as a significant influence for the name of the film. Hoshi 35 was clearly made with a love of Kaiju films in mind, and it very much wanted to celebrate this beloved genre.
The other reason for the human characters being the most interesting part is, unfortunately, due to a lack of any actual Kaiju in this film. The suit action and puppetry in this film is excellent. Hoshikuzu, both as a young little creature and as the giant monster, is visually very interesting (even making me want a plushie of him as a child). The issue is, he is in the film so little that it does not even feel like a Kaiju film. Hoshikuzu feels as if he is put there to drive the plot along, without really feeling like a main point. Apart from the ending, little of the plot would change without Hoshikuzu, and that remains this film’s biggest problem.
As I have stated previously, the plot of Hoshi 35 is excellent, but the film only feels like 2/3 of a movie. This paragraph will have some spoilers, so be warned!!! While watching it, I found myself heavily invested in the characters and the concepts introduced. The lack of Hoshikuzu made me excited for what I believed to be the inevitable destruction of epic proportions, or at least a heartfelt scene of Aki trying to tame her old friend. And then…the film ends. Right when you get to the meat of the action, when Hoshikuzu
finally descends to Earth, the film is over. This, in my eyes, was a huge disappointment. With such a stacked cast and great Tokusatsu effects, I expected there to be much more. This ending left a lot to be desired.
Okay, now that the spoilers are over, how’s the rest of the movie? It’s good! The film looks low-budget, and you can tell they did not film this over the course of many days, with some shots just being graded differently instead of actually filming during night or day, but it does not affect the viewing experience too much. It’s low-budget, sure, but it’s a crowd-funded Kaiju film made by and for lovers of the genre. If you are a fan of the genre, it is easy to look past these simple constraints. I wish more practical effects were used in the film, but the color-grading is still enough to make the film very visually interesting.
Overall, Hoshi 35 is a great film conceptually that falls somewhat flat at delivering everything that it sets up in the beginning. Though a general audience may not find the film as entertaining as others may, it was not made for that purpose. As a film to celebrate the storied history of the Kaiju genre, it is exactly what is needs to be. By bringing in veterans of the Kaiju genre, Hoshi 35 is the perfect fan-service film for, of course, the fans. Despite all of this, it is just nice to have Megumi Odaka back on screens!
