We Are Little Zombies

‘We’re zombies. We’re dead. We’re dying. But we’re alive. I don’t know which. So we might as well do what we want.’

When the four young orphans first meet, their parents’ bodies are being turned into dust, like fine Parmesan atop a plate of spaghetti Bolognese. The crematorium chimney exhales their ash into the sky, and with it vanishes all that Hikari, Ikuko, Ishi und Takemura have known up till now. But having no parents also means no more school and no more karate or piano lessons. The first level of this new existence centres on salvaging a gaming console, an old electric bass and a charred wok from their former homes. Well, it’s enough to start a band and conquer the world. Anyways, reality is just too stupid to bother wasting tears on. Tragedy, comedy, music, social criticism and teenage angst are all subsumed in this eccentric cinematic tsunami.
by Makoto Nagahisa
with Keita Ninomiya, Satoshi Mizuno, Mondo Okumura, Sena Nakajima
Japan 2019 Japanese 120’ Colour

With

  • Keita Ninomiya (Hikari Takami)
  • Satoshi Mizuno (Shinpachi Ishi)
  • Mondo Okumura (Yuki Takemura)
  • Sena Nakajima (Ikuko Ibu)

Crew

Written and Directed by Makoto Nagahisa
Cinematography Hiroaki Takeda
Editing Maho Inamoto
Music Katsuya Yamada
Sound Design Junnosuke Okita
Costumes Satsuki Shimoyama
Make-Up Hitomi Mitsuno
Set Design Yukiko Kuribayashi
Script Adviser Akiko Onishi
Colourist Hisashi Nemoto
Casting Toshie Tabata
Line Producer Yasuo Suzuki, Tomonori Koyanagi
Production Manager Ryusuke Miyamori
Producers Taihei Yamanishi, Shinichi Takahashi, Haruki Yokoyama, Haruhiko Hasegawa
Executive Producers Keiichi Yoshizaki, Shigeto Arai, Michinori Mizuno, Hajime Inoue, Takaaki Kabuto

World sales

Nikkatsu Corporation

Produced by

Robot Communications

Dentsu

Makoto Nagahisa

Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1984. While working at a major advertising agency, he also directed his own films and music videos. His 2017 short, And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool, which he also wrote, was the first Japanese film to win the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. We Are Little Zombies is his debut feature film.

Filmography

2017 And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool; short film 2019 We Are Little Zombies

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019