The 12 Day Tale of the Monster that Died in 8

What can we do to fight an invisible enemy like Covid-19? Japanese special-effects wizard Higuchi Shinji thinks we should use our Godzilla toys as magic-conductive tools for this fight, and put an instruction video on YouTube. Iwai Shunji took up the idea and turned it into a 12-part internet series about the way model/actor/director Saitō Takumi (playing himself) passes his solitary-confinement days by raising three tiny monsters, so-called capsule kaijū: Avigan, Remdesivir and Ivermectin. This is something he and Higuchi remembered from their childhood days, from the well-loved special-effects TV series Ultraseven (1967-68), whose hero also grew little helpers. What looks at first like a sweet audio-visual jest with masses of in-jokes and references, reveals itself on closer inspection as an existential show of belief in cinema and television, their shared history as a source of magic, and of remembrance and play as forces of healing. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)