Junk Head 1 is a brand new (2013) animation of Takahide Hori. The storyline is explained at the official
Junk Head website.
A robot living in the upper world (one with an access to see pretty blue sky) is dropped in a capsule to the bottom of the city. A hooded man with a spherical mirror head (remember
Vidoq?) who lives at the top doesn't even know how deep the city is and who lives at the lowest levels. They only caught on a tape one of species which is supposed to be a rebelled 'clone' of a human. It has 1 head, 4 legs and a long penis (junk collectors named the creature Toro). It may have reproductive abilities which the top humans lost due to genetic modifications.
Various levels of the city are inhabited by human-like organisms wrapped in bandages. They do not like those above so once they see the falling capsule, they shoot it down sending an auto-aimed missile from a rocket launcher.
The capsule crashes and the robot breaks into pieces. His head falls into a pipe which drops it down into a corridor patrolled by a team of junk collectors. They grab the still active head and bring it to a doctor who does a few tests and discovers it's a human head. He decides to enrich it with a new body. He creates a child-robot who is sent to explore corridors together with the junk collectors. These places are inhabited by various creatures, ranging from little cleaning worms to a crossbreed between species you've seen in movies such as
Alien and
Hellriser I. When the robot is torn into pieces again, Toro finds and kicks him out seemingly to the very bottom level of the city. There are other human-like creatures wearing masks and many layers of clothes who also collect things. One of these finds the robot's head and takes it with him.
This is the end of the first part of
Junk Head which was created independently during 4 years of work. The following part will be made when the director collects enough of funds thus there's an
Indiegogo campaign.
The movie offers detailed visuals and colors kept in an industrial style as well as an intriguing plot. Matching light underlines a murky atmosphere of endless concrete corridors as well as other claustrophobic places. Different points of view, perspectives and blurring effects make both scenes and objects look even more interesting.
Junk Head is funny at some point but it also brings elements of horror. The characters speak their own made up language but English subtitles are available. There's also very good sound design. Perhaps techno music isn't the best choice but it surely underlines a lot of action.
(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Not for a commercial use. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)
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