Fantasia Film Festival 2020 Screening – With a title like Monster Seafood Wars (2020) you know you are in for something cheesy and ridiculous and I was not disappointed. If you were heavy into stuff like Power Rangers or VR Troopers in the 1990s this movie may just bring a nostalgic tear to your eye. Screening as part of the 2020 Fantasia Film Festival, Monster Seafood Wars, a kaiju comedy that has shoddy special effects but a lot of heart, is directed and co-written by Minoru Kawasaki of apparent cult kaiju fame.

Not since Japanese comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto made Big Man Japan back in 2007 have I ever seen such a silly, cooky, and downright weird monster movie like Monster Seafood Wars. I love bad movies thanks to my sense of humor, and if you watch this movie you too will need quite a sense of humor to enjoy Monster Seafood Wars as it is one of those so bad that it is good, campy, B-movie treats. It is probably more sci-fi than horror, and it is not nearly as action-packed as other kaiju movies such as Pacific Rim or even the old Godzilla movies, but its charm lies in it poking fun at these movies in a loving way more so than being satirical.

Monster Seafood Wars begins with a young man named Yuta (Keisuke Ueda) on his way to the local shrine with seafood offerings on the back of his bike. When he is pushed off of his bike by a mysterious stranger, Yuta finds that his seafood has been stolen, and moments later, finds that they have somehow turned into giants and are now fighting each other and destroying the city. Fearing that the monsters will continue their path of destruction towards Tokyo, the newly formed government task force SMAT — Seafood Monster Attack Team — seeks out Yuta’s help after learning that he has been an expert on monsters since his childhood. The investigation finds that the chemical agent Setap Z is to blame for the gigantism, the very serum that Yuta had developed years ago.

Though I appreciate this movie’s efforts, the choice in story structure was not ideal, in my opinion. The movie goes from expositional interviews with people such as scientists and law enforcement explaining what happened after the attacks, back to the present time as attacks are actually happening. This non-chronological back and forth structure made the story difficult to follow at times as it seemed like events were either missing or not fully explained. How did Yuta have billions of yen to donate to scientific research when his father is just a local sushi chef, for example? It would have been better to have the story unfold with these characters but without random interviews, which would eliminate the data dump dialogues and also make a more coherent story. I thought the movie would lean into action, being a kaiju movie and all, but the pacing dips dramatically in the 2nd act when the movie takes a break from the action and goes on a long tangent regarding how tasty the monsters are. Most of the 2nd act is dedicated to this tangent, further sullying the movie’s narrative structure.

Monster Seafood Wars is certainly a B-movie at heart, however, it is saved by having a pretty good production quality and excellent performances from its actors who somehow kept straight faces throughout this absurd movie. The production quality only falters during the handful of monster attacks where some questionable CGI ekes its way in, but at least the kawaii kaiju are styled pretty well and the battle music is right out of an anime throwdown fight scene, making Monster Seafood Wars’ kaiju battle scenes still entertaining despite the poor special effects. Overall it is a funny send-up to the early “suitmation” creature features that Japan made famous, and its entertainment value outweighs its faults.

MOVIE RATING — 6 out of 10