Driving out some of the vilest, meanest ghosts and demons is Igami’s bread and butter. But when he’s up against the girl next door, it’s like nothing he’s ever seen before…
Taking the stage for festivals in the weeks ahead is supernatural action horror comedy Jyukinshi. The film signals the directorial debut of Chinese filmmaker Lee Shu Mak, who co-produced previous programming for Switzerland’s 2300 Plan 9 festival, and will inevitably making the rounds when the festival returns in April. The film will also be on-hand to play for the 42nd edition of the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival which kicks off on Monday.
For Jyukinshi, Lee directs his Japanese genre framework from a script by Law Ng Yi. Famed genre director Yoshihiro Nishimura provides his services on here as producer and on the film’s the special visual effects flair. Bookending the crowd here is actor Yoshiki Minato (Girl/Haji, Tokyo Revengers), Luna Fujimoto (Blade Of The 47 Ronin, Sniper: G.R.I.T., Hard-Boiled Recipe), and Nishimura cohort Takashi Shimizu (Helldriver, Tokyo Gore Police), as well as action genre favorites like Hydra star Masanori Mimoto and Shibobi: Heart Under Blade actor Mickey Koga who’ve previously worked together on Takanori Tsujimoto’s Bushido Man and Seiji Chiba’s Ninja Hunter, and embattled One-Percenter star Tak Sakaguchi whose latest local film release currently remains in limbo as of just over a week ago.
Below are the programming notes from the the upcoming Brussels premiere of Jyukinshi. Read on, and endulge in the trailer just beneath!
The backdrop is Japan, archipelago of pagodas, temples, ridiculously manicured Zen gardens, fragile cherry blossoms, and many more fantastic photo ops. And, oh yeah – land of ghosts and demons! Igami, our hero, has a burning desire to make it as a manga artist. Sadly, lady luck is not exactly smiling upon his artistic path. Fortunately, his true calling is exorcism. And in this, he excels. He used to work for an exorcism corporation that fell victim to a serious bout of downsizing and an exaggerated predilection for evaluation talks. On his own, however, he is doing just fine in the kicking ghost ass department. When a yakuza boss invokes his help to beat a serious curse that was put on the man, Igame gradually becomes aware that a bug master is active behind the scenes. And a bug grandmaster at that. He tracks the villain to an evangelical church that turns out to be doling out less than Christian compassion to its members. Igami is surprised to find that his girl next door, Mitsuko, has been dealt a major part in the bug master’s evil plans. He therefore decides to dig deep into his stock of tricks and spells to thwart these plans.
Director Lee Shu Mak delivers a movie that could have been a manga or a Sushi Typhoon flick. Which is unsurprising, when you know the film’s produced by the Japanese godfather of splatter himself: Yoshihiro Nishimura, responsible for such demented gorefests as TOKYO GORE POLICE, MEATBALL MACHINE KODOKU (BIFFF 2017) and HELLDRIVER (BIFFF 2011)!
