We are little zombies

dir. Makoto Nagahisa

Four children turned orphans at the age of 13. They met at the crematorium and formed their own band. Hikari - parents killed in car crash while they were otw to strawberry farm to pick Wild strawberry on a group tour. Rich kid with many material things but no parental love. He went back to get his ammunition- game boy.

Fatso - parents killed in blaze when their house caught fire. Dad taught him to make his own decisions. He went for karate and came back to no house. He went back to get his wok.

Cute kid- dad is a wife beater. He went to beat his dad up but lost. He came back one day to find that his parents had hung themselves. His two younger siblings no where to be found. He has a gift of music - playing guitar.

Chio girl- she instigated her creepy piano teacher to get rid of her parents. He was hitting on her and asked what she wanted. He did and was put behind bars. Her dad wants to marry her. Her mum wished she was not born because it makes people around her weird. She has 4 fingers on the right hand but plays the piano.

They go on an adventure and met some homeless people. Recorded The Little Zombies and it was a hit. Their manager, a kiddo security guard where the homeless people lived, took all their $$$. Their sold out their tickets and realised 2 other songs, inspired by the game boy, 8bit pixel. 

Through social media, the bus driver was driven to commit suicide as he was filled with remorse. So sad.

They were forced to cancel their gig by the adults. Hikaru (meaning light) has no choice but to go stay with his aunt and uncle. He ran away to Fiji with his friends. They bumped into all this people in the Metro who are like zombies carrying mobile phones and starring at the black screens. It's very real in describing today's world.

They ran into the train and stole a van by clobbering the people to death. These guys spoke about being hot just before a marriage but after marriage it's not anymore. The other guy rebuts that marriage is like an onsen. Love is represented by a heart icon- giving your organ to someone else. You must love the person that much. 

They reach Fuji along the road hikari parents died. Ran out of fuel, they have to walk. Akin to Kafka's Castle in the Sky where one never gets to her/his dream.

Along the drive they met with a car crash. Hikari initially chose to die but changed his mind. They broke out of scary octopus land. He remembered the day he was born and the joy of his parents. And cried.

The boys all dream of kissing the girl. Actually it's more like figuratively they were bitten (by a love bug) and girl kisses them. Next they say she's the embodiment of their mums. 

They all go back to being normal children. The camera pans out and we hear the changing of sutras and hikari snapping out of his day dream. It's merely just a dream!

Parasite

At The Projector

Family of 4- dad, mum, bro, sis. Really poor and live in the semi-basement at the bottom of the valley in South Korea.

Bro has a college friend who introduced him to tutor a rich family's daughter while he is overseas. He gets his sis to forge credentials and wins the mum's approval to tutor the daughter by talking about nonsense shit about valour. Of course the student likes him a lot and they kiss & make out.

He gets his sis in as art therapist for the younger brother. She wins over the mum by enforcing her rules-no mum supervision on first visit. She sees through brother's fake attention seeking ways and goes into bullshit talk about interpreting the drawings. Apparently he was scared in grade 1 because he has seen a 'Ghost' in the house. (This ghost turns out to be the one hidden downstairs in the basement). Sis is hired.

As she gets sent back home, she pulls out her panties and leaves it in the car. Driver gets fired because the parents buy the bullshit assumptions that the driver was having sex in the backseat. Dad gets hired as new driver.

Next they devise a plot to sack the longtime helper, an ajuma who also worked for the previous family and architect of the house. They plant into the head of the wife that she's got TB by scattering peach dust on the helper so she will get an allergic reaction. Wife witnesses her coughing and the driver throws in ketchup 'blood' when retrieving the tissue. She is asked to pack up.

After they have had some status, they throw water at the guy pissing outside their door when previously they always kept quiet. Sis does cool slow mo video of it. The poor can also have eye for art. The somewhat richer people have the guts to kick out the poorer people.

The family goes camping for kiddo's birthday and this poor family hijacks the home to eat and drink and sleep and roll around on the parquet and lawn. Mum makes dad a laughing joke by saying he will scatter like a cockroach when trouble arises. In his fit of anger to this truth, he thrashes all the liquor bottles but laughs about it with wife as a joke. Wife is bitter but plays along for the sake of the children.

Previous housekeeper wants to be let in because she forgot something. That scene was so scary because she looked somewhat crazy. She went in to the basement for a long time but didn't come up. No choice so mum goes down and finds her trying to push open a door. She helps and find a deep deep basement where her husband is kept.

Husband's pineapple business went bust and he can't pay the debts. Now he's hiding here for 4 years 3 months. It's the same company dad worked at before. They get caught in their lies here and are held hostage because of video evidence. Hostage becomes powerful people because of this and poor family is held captive. Couple can relax and do massages and eat and sing songs in praise of North Korea Kim ideology.

Poor family makes a dash for video and ties up the couple in the basement. Rich wife says she's otw home and wants ram-yon with sirloin steak cubes. In 8 mins they'll be home. They do a mad rush to pack up. Boy goes under the bed of daughter and the sis is under the coffee table. Dad is in the basement tying them up. The former maid is pushed down the stairs and injured. Together with her allergy she eventually died.

Boy, sis and dad hides under the coffee table. Kiddo camps on the lawn and rich couple makes love on the sofa. After they have fallen asleep, they escape home to find their home under water. Dad rescues his Sports medal and bro the wealth stone which college student gave. At the refugee camp, dad says the best plan is to have no plan at all.

They are called to the kiddo's birthday party. Owner reminds dad he is paid overtime so he just needs to be a Red Indian role and not step his boundary by questioning his love for his wife. He's using money to exert his power. Sis brings out cake and mad man escapes from basement after dragging the brother around like a dog. The bro went underground with wealth stone maybe to give it to the couple for luck. But crazy man smashes his head with it. He stabs sis, kiddo. Family rushes to help sis. Driver is summoned but he dumps his role to save his family.

When asked to give his car keys, rich Dad looks down on the mad man with utter contempt. Poor dad's saving grace is stabbing the rich Dad after he had stabbed mad man. 

He really runs like cockroach after that and went back into the basement to hide. 

Bro and mum gets away by warning and probation. Bro woke up laughing at all this joke-Sis died, dad missing, a doc who didn't look like one, a policeman who didn't look like one. Bro returns the stone to its rightful place in the river. Maybe the stone didn't bring any wealth but trouble? Bro receives the messages from dad via Morse code and vows to earn a lot of money to buy back that house. 

Parasite roles keep changing in this show. Even the rich are parasites. They leech on the poor to ascertain their self-worth. They are also using each other to fill that void of emptiness and try to be a loving family- husband to wife, husband to son. 

Top End Wedding

Starring Miranda Tapsell and Gwilym Lee

From Australian High Commission

A film about culture (family), community and country. With sub-themes of marriage, LGBTQ

4 years to research and produce, a relatively short time

Miranda just got promoted to be an associate and her bf quit because he is told he is not focused as a lawyer. He proposed to her the day he quit which is the day she got promoted. She has to get married in the next 10 days because her slave driver of a boss, "Cruella", says so. 

They fly from Adelaide to Darwin in search of her parents. Her mum up and left in search of her Aboriginal identity. She left Tiwi Island when she had to marry someone else but wanted to marry someone she fell in love with on the island (a white man). 

So the soon to be husband and wife go around Darwin to search for mother. Father cannot get his act together either and shuts himself in the cupboard, listening to his favourite tune. He says the problem is talking and not listening, the lack of listening becomes worse when their children left the home, and then it became so bad that over time, they were not talking. 

Miranda traces to Tiwi Island after a fight and cancelled the wedding. Groom SOS Cruella to plan the wedding, which she did successfully. On the island, she meets her grandparents though her grandmother has dementia and cannot recognise her own daughter. Her mum is full of regret that she took so long to come home. The culture of the place is beautiful. It is rich in tradition, beliefs, vibrant clothing, headgear, dance. 

She makes up with her bf and they fly to Tiwi Island with the whole gang and got married there. Home is where the people is, with the community and family.