Demekingu (2009)

Director:

Kôtarô Terauchi

Writers:

Bobby White (subtitles)
Takashi Imashiro

Release Date:

7 March 2009 (Japan)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Mystery

Cast

Chiyoko Asami
Manami Honjô
Guts Ishimatsu
Ryoma Ito
Kohei Kiyasu
Takashi Matsuo
Takeshi Nadagi
Amane Nikai
Sato Panch
Goki Sano
Hiroshi Yamamoto
Zenjirô

Directed by
Kôtarô Terauchi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Takashi Imashiro
Bobby White		subtitles

Produced by
Syunsuke Fujiwara	....	producer
Masafumi Fukui	....	producer
Akira Ikegami	....	producer
Kanetou Kanemoto	....	producer
Norio Konishi	....	producer
Takafumi Ohashi	....	producer
Kyôsuke Ueno	....	producer

Original Music by
Tomoka Fujino

Cinematography by
Yoshiko Ohsawa

Film Editing by
Yoshitsugu Sagami

Art Direction by
Yuji Kasamura

Makeup Department
Kyôko Soya	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yuki Kondo	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Hideo Takeichi	....	sound mixer

Visual Effects by
Tsuyoshi Kazuno	....	visual effects supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Daisuke Ogawa	....	lighting technician

Other crew
Satoshi Takada	....	production staff

Production Companies

• DefStar Records
• JollyRoger
• OKWave
• Organic
• Tornado Film

Distributors

• JollyRoger (2009) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Cinema Epoch (2010) (USA) (all media)

Special Effects

• Studio Buckhorn (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Hoei Sangyo Co. Ltd.  film stock supplied by

Also Known As:

"Demeking" - Japan (English title)
"Demeking: The Sea Monster" - USA (DVD title)

Runtime:

South Korea:99 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

South Korea:All

Company:

DefStar Records

A good premise, but we needed more

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

To start, I have to at least give credit where it is due. Demeking the Sea Monster attempted to do something just a little bit different for a giant monster movie. There was to be a bit of mystery to the story here and the film was not intended to simply be a giant monster actionfest like many if not most giant monster movies. As with say, Monsters (2010), Demeking the Sea Monster was largely a science fiction drama, not a science fiction action movie. They got the tone right for this movie, but ultimately Demeking the Sea Monster falls short of being adequate entertainment for 99 minutes.

The story centers around Hachiya in 1969-1970 Japan, who comes across a letter that forewarns of a space monster that will attack Japan (ultimately all of mankind) in the future. Eventually spreading the information to a few people he trusts, the bulk of the film is really just a buildup to the monster's appearance itself. So again, if you want a giant monster movie for the action such as Godzilla, Gamera, Cloverfield, or others, this is an entirely different type of movie and you may want to skip this movie.

My disappointment lies in slow, lethargic pace of the movie. What happens over the course of the first 66 minutes (at which point the monster appears in Hachiya's dream) could really have been done in less than half that time and still had equal character and plot development. The same goes with the rest of the movie after his dream of its impending attack on Japan. After all of that the movie ends somewhat abruptly. Unfortunately, there aren't other redeeming merits such as a good score or interesting characters. I would've hoped they would've at least tried to create an interesting creature, but it looked like little more than a bipedal snail-like creature. Why not try something with more visual impact, especially when the monster appears (and only in his dream) for a few minutes? I wasn't opposed to this type of movie but its execution leaves something to be desired, drama or not.