KODAMA: Samurai SWAT Battles Killer Yokai In Brian Tang’s Online Short Premiere!
Ask me if there are any independent filmmakers today who can match anywhere near the skill level of studio filmmakers today when it comes to action. I’ll gladly name a few, but you better believe filmmaker Brian Tang is getting the spotlight this week with fantasy action thriller, Kodama, which made its online premiere via the Shorts Of The Week YouTube channel as of Monday.
Arthur, a member of an elite SWAT Samurai team, embarks on a rescue mission into the spirit world in order to recover his father from vengeful Japanese Yokai spirits.
Kodama was successfully campaigned on Kickstarter from the top of 2022 with principal photography wrapping that Summer, and a cast led by Brandon Soo Hoo and Chris Tashima, along with Justin Chien, and Bruce Inaba. Tang collaborated with Joe Sill’s Impossible Objects VFX lab and an action and stunt team led by Joseph Le and Jay Kwon for a scintillating, twisty live-action short that blends folkloric Samurai and aesthetics with modern action, topped off with Tang’s stylish cinematography to make Kodama what it is today.
And just WTF is Kodama? Simply put, it’s a kick ass martial arts fantasy shortfilm with a concept that needs (and deserves) expanding at a studio level. This is action and martial arts cinema with energy that nearly matches the exquisite brilliance of stewards like Yuji Shimomura and Kenji Tanigaki.
With an awesomely cool premise, strong visual execution, terrific action-directing and, at 15min long, even more storytelling ambition than most of his predecessors, Tang had produced a piece that would have been right at home at the peak of the genre short craze – S/W Curator, Jason Sondhi
Kodama screened for SXSW in 2023 and garnered a nomination for the Grand Jury award, and remained off radar ever since. I suspected something might come of it but I don’t know for sure if a larger project is in toe, and it would be pretty darn swell if it was.
For now though, just sit back and snag a taste of Tang’s ferocity behind the lens and enjoy the next fifteen minutes of Samurai SWAT thrills, demons, portals, and electrifying action.
