Shugo Fujii tackles a familiar story line in his new film “Kingdom of the Apes”: An intrepid journalist investigates a coverup, incurring the wrath of the powers-that-be. It is a narrative that was injected with topical relevance in the 2019 hit “The Journalist,” directed by Michihito Fujii (no relation to Shugo) and later expanded into a 2021 Netflix series of the same title.
“Kingdom of the Apes,” which the former Fujii scripted and directed, follows the same basic theme with a story that revolves around an explosive news report on a new vaccine, set during the current pandemic. Instead of a drama about social issues, however, the film becomes a thriller with blood spurting and bodies falling. In other words, it is a film a lot like Fujii’s previous exploitation products, including his 2019 splatter flick “Mimicry Freaks,” which screened widely at festivals abroad.
The juxtaposition of the film’s high-tension portrayal of power games within a TV network and its scenes of manic violence and bloody murder made me wonder whether Fujii was attempting a horror comedy. As wacky as some of the action is — such as the construction of a precarious human pyramid to escape a locked editing room — the main intent is to shock. But in the setting of real-world network news, the jolts start to look like a bad joke. It’s as if the characters in “The Journalist” were to suddenly switch from backroom political intrigue to attacking each other with hacksaws.