The internet, cell phones, satellites. True. But also the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra. Science, but also monsters. Progress, but also monsters. We can destroy the germs that cause bad breath, yes, but still: monsters. A double-barreled blast of 80's VHS nostalgia, Death Kappa is the ultimate lo-fi giant monster movie. Produced by the same evil geniuses who made Machine Girl, Death Trance and Tokyo Gore Police, it's directed by Tomoo Haraguchi, a special effects and creature craftsman who did the effects on Kore-eda's Air Doll as well as spiral-madness motion picture, Uzumaki, and even Gamera 3. It stars Misato Hirata, famous for her appearances on Ultraman, and the teeny tiny miniature cities pancaked under giant monster feet are courtesy of Isao Takahashi, veteran of almost every major kaiju movie since Godzilla '85.

Talent to be sure, but something else is also needed: a kappa! This mischevious Japanese yokai (folk spirit) lives in rivers, likes to play jokes and loves cucumbers - it's like a leprechaun crossed with a turtle plus a bit of unicorn. When Kanako returns home in disgrace after failing to make it in Tokyo, her grandmother takes her in and makes her the caretaker of their tiny village's kappa: she must feed it cucumbers and clean its shrine. But something is wrong with the local kappa...a secret cell of WWII scientists are trying to turn it into an amphibious weaponized fishman! One atom bomb later, Japan is under attack by giant monsters. Again.

Smarter (and stupider) than it has any right to be, Death Kappa is a simultaneous wallow in nostalgia and a razor sharp satire of same. But don't despair, giant monster tropes are not the only thing being deconstructed here. Tokyo is also deconstructed, too, turned into toe jam beneath the enormous, dancing, webbed feet of....Death Kappa!