Junk World Trades Junk Head’s Mystery for a Cybertech Nightmare

For those new to Takahide Hori‘s surreal stop-motion science fiction masterpiece, Junk World is the prequel to Junk Head. Even if you haven’t seen the middle film of the trilogy, thankfully there isn’t much you need to know going in. What gets explained about the Mulligans, robots made by humans to serve as slave labour droids who eventually rebelled, covers the basics, and as for why one droid has declared himself god at the start of the film, well, that’s the mystery.

It seems one of them didn’t fully evolve beyond its programming. His name is Robin (Souko Matsuoka) and he’s loyal to Captain Torys (Atsuko Miyake), who leads a team of humans to a summit to negotiate new terms. That’s how the moment felt to me, anyway. The rest of the film goes through the motions of showing just how fragile that peace is, while introducing new threats along the way. And the timeline gets muddled fast, with time-travel jumps back and forth that had me feeling lost more than once.
I’m not going to try to make sense of it all, since the drop-dead gorgeous animation and concept are the real selling point here. There’s even some Team America style bits that may feel out of left field at first, but they end up nailing the aesthetic Hori’s going for: grossing you out or dredging up nightmares that would make even Clive Barker wince. When there’s a cult of personalities dressed in leather looking like they escaped the dimension the Cenobites live in, none of this should come as a surprise.

As for the group of Mulligans led by a clone named Dante (Hori), I couldn’t help but be reminded of Phil Tippett’s Mad God, that I reviewed a while back. Maybe that’s some kind of collective reinterpretation happening here, and what’s on screen is meant to be exactly that: a trip through every layer of Hell. And when it loops back around to Junk Head, showing how that robot ended up broken, it actually starts to make sense.

We’re watching the demise of humanity, and maybe technology right alongside it. The aberrations come out of genetic and mutagenic processes, and as for why that one robot survives and believes he’s god. There’s no real Christian allegory intended here. The idea only surfaces near the end, after the slaughter and a new peace is made and even I wondered, why bring this up now?

With worms crawling everywhere and half-robots popping up out of nowhere, the whole thing plays like a techno-organic styled sci fi fantasy. This is a film best watched with the analytical side of your brain switched off, rather than one you try to dwell on too hard. One comparison feels necessary: what’s presented feels like a retelling of Masamune Shirow‘s Appleseed filtered through the mind of Jan Švankmajer.

So, in the end, is it worth it? Ask me again after the third film comes out and I’ve seen the whole trilogy in order. Maybe then I’ll know where the story’s actually going, instead of just admiring the effort to bring this fever dream alive.

4 Stars out of 5

Junk World Trailer

Postscript: anyone who sits through the credits gets to see how parts of the film were shot, and it’s fascinating to watch. And yes, there is a post-credits scene, after all the crowdfunding backers’ names roll by.