TERRAFORMARS

Misfits Head to Mars for Battle of the Bugmen

Venue(s): Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills
Visit the theater site for details: https://hlo.tohotheater.jp/net/schedule/009/TNPI2000J01.do
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/terraformars/
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyCI77-c-FU
Tariff: Visit the theater site for details: https://hlo.tohotheater.jp/net/schedule/009/TNPI2000J01.do

Title: テラフォーマーズ (Terraformars)
Director: Takashi Miike (三池崇史)
Duration: 108 mins

Bet you didn’t plan to spend Golden Week with giant, humanoid cockroaches, aka terra formars — but the folks at Warner Bros. have different ideas for you. Whether they’re hoping to tap into the global fanbase for Yu Sasuga’s Terra Formars manga franchise, which has sold 14 million copies since its release 5 years ago, or whether they wanted to give Takashi Miike an English-subtitled platform since he’s not heading to Cannes this month, who knows?

What we do know is that this is 2599 and a would-be-extermination squad from earth — 15 rebels, ex-cons and other reprobates, and thus expendable — are en route to Mars on a secret mission to get rid of the big bugs (inadvertently created 500 years ago) so Japan can colonize the planet.

Their boss, Ko Honda (Shun Oguri), a sartorially splendiferous gay blade with a sadistic bent, stays in touch from earth, and informs the crew that they’ve been genetically modified for survival. By injecting themselves shortly before battle, they can temporarily mutate into half-human-half-bug creatures with special “insect powers.”

These mutations, and the pseudo-scientific voiceovers that accompany the transformations, are the most fun thing about the film, even if each hybrid creature is a little less exciting than the last. Cartoonish and colorful throughout, Terraformars quickly turns into an endless brawl, however, as the hordes of carbon-copy cockroaches constantly attack and overwhelm.

Look for a great performance from Lowlife Love star — and Miike favorite — Kiyohiko Shibukawa as a hilarious yakuza gangster, and a thrilling-sexy transformation by Oscar-nominated Rinko Kikuchi, whose warrior-ego is a jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa), known not only for its glittery green sheen but also for its unusual reproductive behavior, which involves stinging a cockroach and using it as a host for its larvae

Extra thrill: Terraformars is the first-ever Japanese film to shoot on location in Iceland, so keep in mind that all that fabulously Mars-like scenery is not CGI.
Visit the theater site for details:

Toho Cinemas Roppongi