My Summer Lair Chapter #337:Why Does Junk World Have So Much Value?
Before I explain the weirdness, here’s the backstory which…also offers lots of weirdness.
Junk Head, a Japanese stop motion animated post-apocalyptic science fiction movie was released in 2017. It was created (more or less) in its entirety by just one person over nearly seven years. Wow, right?
As a short Junk Head took four years to make. Later, Takehide made a long version for theatrical release and that took seven years to complete. I honestly can’t decide if that’s madness or so inspiring.
Talking to Takehide he revealed: “ I didn’t start making films until I was 40 years old. And I had absolutely no knowledge, no experience in the field and so I really simply thought, stop motion animation should be easy.”
Takehide Hori’s vision was set in the distant future world. Mankind via a cyborg explorer begins research on clones that live underground in search of lost genetic information. The mission’s goal is to restore humanity’s ability to reproduce. (Eventually, the artificially created intelligent species developed a unique society and they live in a grim and fantastical world.)
At the time Guillermo del Toro praised Junk Head tweeting: “Amazing short! Give yourselves a treat! A One-man band work of deranged brilliance! Monumental will and imagination at work.” del Toro is 100% correct.
Junk Head is the first film in a planned trilogy. The second film, Junk World screened at TIFF 2025.
Junk World, set over 1,000 years before Junk Head, kicks off with a meeting between humans and Mulligans, who maintain an uneasy truce after a brutal war. Among the humans is Triss, a commander with an eyepatch and a robot companion named Robin. The Mulligan leader is Dante, who has a fragile trust of humans, that isn’t shared by all the members of his race — as evidenced by an attack on the meeting by rogue Mulligan forces. Triss, Robin and Dante are forced to flee and during their escape, discover strange portals that allow them to travel in time. The battle then turns temporal as the varying factions begin to use time travel to outfox each other, going further and further back in time to influence the present.
It’s very Japanese. I dunno how else to describe it.
And because it’s so Japanese I asked Takehide, the director and creator why stop motion animation?
Japan creates incredible anime and remarkable live action. He told me how he started making movies at the age of 40. Before that he was producing work in illustration and sculpture. What’s so dope isn’t that he started a whole new career at 40, but rather that he was able to incorporate all his previous experiences and skills into this new project.
This is an unusual MSL experience because I had to use a translator. Despite the language barrier we had some laughs. And Takehide was able to explain some of his Junk World vision. It’s pretty fascinating.
Junk World @ W • T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Friday, September 12, 2025 at 2:45 pm (EST) at Hotel Intercontinental
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