ロイド・カウフマンが日本にきたよ (Brendan Met Lloyd Kaufman!)

Hello people!

Lloyd Kaufman and his lovely beautiful wife Pat had stayed in Tokyo for 2 days in Dec 2013 to attend the premire of Astron-6's FATHER'S DAY and also, meet-and-greet/signing session, which is a small and enjoyable party thrown by the promoter of another recent Troma-produced indie flick MR. BRICKS - A HEAVY METAL MUSICAL.

Needless to say, it is the biggest historic event for us. However, It was so shame that I couldn't clear my schedule to meet him. As a horror blogger also a big fan of Troma, even though it was impossible to get there, I thought I need to do something special, very special. What would I do? After some consideration, I decided to ask Brendan (@TricoBren) who is my buddy and always chatting about Troma and Lloyd everytime on twitter. He accepted my request and provided me his exclusive report and review including a lot of charming photos and videos. Wow, that's awesome! Let's see how he met Lloyd, how Lloyd had spent his time in Tokyo, and Brendan's review of FATHER'S DAY.

Thank you, Brendan! Thank you, Lloyd!

December 18th 2013 shall forever be known as FATHER'S DAY here in Japan. Well, at least in Shinjuku, Tokyo. After a seemingly endless wait, Astron-6 finally unleashed their critically acclaimed indie flick on unsuspecting Tokyoites by way of a pre-roadshow event that saw none other than the godfather of independent cinema himself, Mr. Lloyd Kaufman, in attendance as he personally greeted all that braved the cold, wet weather to witness the spectacle for themselves.

The movie was preceded by a lively meet-and-greet and Q & A session with Mr. Kaufman (Or as we TROMA maniacs like to call, Uncle Lloydie) where he answered questions about the movie and about his experiences in Japan over the past 40 years. Sadly, despite getting a ticket for the event, my company "Bonenkai" (End of year party) ensured that I would be late and thus, I missed out on the entire thing. Yeah, "gutted" would be an understatement.

Astron-6 made waves with FATHER'S DAY in their native Canada and across North America back in 2011 so with 2014 knocking at the door, it was high time Japan got it's chance to get in on the action. Clearly influenced by fond memories of crackly 80's VHS tapes, the movie itslef somewhat of a throwback to the old grindhouse style of film that has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years. FATHER'S DAY however, stands alone amidst it's would-be competitors thanks not only to it's witty dialogue and amazing cast, but also because it manages to take a subject that we all find uncomfortable, and turn it on its head completely. Rape can be a touchy subject and can often make or break a film for some people when scenes are too realistic or depraved yet, FATHER'S DAY manages to entirely skirt around all those familiar emotions and actually makes it funny at the same time. How? Well, none of the raping actually involves girls...

FATHER'S DAY is the story of a deranged, cannibalistic rapist by the name of Chris Fuchman (Yes, you read that correctly) who targets fathers exclusively. Fuchman is being tracked down by a vengeful, eye-patch wearing vigilante known as Ahab (Adam Brooks) who seeks to exact revenge after witnessing "The Father's Day Killer" brutally rape and murder his father in front of him when he was just a child. Fast forward a few years into the future and Ahab, now an adult, stumbles across a lead to Fuchman's whereabouts and a chance to finally settle the score. Aiding him in his quest are his stripper sister (Amy Groening), a teenage male prostitute by the name of "Twink" (Conor Sweeney), and a priest of questionable faith (Matthew Kennedy of "Manborg" fame).

Though the basic summary of the film sounds straightforward, it really isn't at all. I'm not a fan of spoilers so I shall refrain from using any but the film takes us to places that you'd never see coming - specifically the final act of the movie. If the ending sequence of this movie doesn't movie catch you unawares then there's probably little hope for you. It's THAT batshit insane.

Story and plotline aside, FATHER'S DAY has some incredibly funny moments. Some of the funniest one-liners I've seen in years can be found here and of course, the gore is sublime. Any male that can watch this without gasping at the now infamous penis mutilation scene, could probably do with some psychiatric help. FATHER'S DAY pushes the limits and really doesn't care. Gore, tits, Gore, and comedy in spades. In short, this film is a masterpiece and when the credits rolled up the screen and the lights went back on, all the smiles on the Japanese fan's faces told me that I wasn't alone in thinking so.

My only criticism with the Japanese release was that there were NO DICKS. Don't get me wrong, I have a dick myself and am in no great rush to go out and look at anybody else's but the censorship in this movie is a little jarring. Naturally, the penis mutilation scene is covered up by a big black shadow and other scenes with white and black shadows. I know it's the law over here but it kinda detracts from the film somewhat. One particular part of the film where it's really obvious though is when Twink goes home and looks at himself in the mirror. There are magazine cutouts of nothing but penises around the outside of his mirror which is hilarious but in the Japanese cut, its all blurred out completely which looks REALLY odd.

Aside from that, FATHER'S DAY (No Penis Edition) is still the best movie I've seen in theaters this year. Go and see it at your local independent cinema as of January 11th (astron-troma.com) and don't forget: "Never call a man a tree."

The following day, Lloyd Kaufman and his wife Pat actually held a small meet-and-greet/signing session at the L'aube Lounge in Roppongi, the party was thrown by the promoter of another recent Troma-produced indie flick MR. BRICKS - A HEAVY METAL MUSICAL.

I was immediately excited upon hearing this as I was bitterly disappointed that I missed my chance to meet Uncle Lloydie at the FATHER'S DAY premiere the previous night. Miraculously I got out of work on time and rushed straight from Yokohama to Tokyo and got there before the guests of honor arrived. Go me!

Aside from being a meet-and-greet type of event, it was also a chance to promote awesome film, MR. BRICKS - A HEAVY METAL MUSICAL (Be sure to give the facebook page a like!) so copies of the movie, T-shirts, and other Troma memorabilia were on sale at discount prices.

photo courtesy of ヘヴィメタル・ミュージカル

When Lloyd arrived there was only about 6 of us waiting for him so we had the luxury of talking to him in a really intimate setting where we discussed all things Troma. needless to say, I was in heaven talking to him. To me it was like meeting God himself! More and more people started arriving and in total there were about 25 Troma maniacs in attendance. Lloyd was absolutely thrilled to talk to each of us and made sure that everybody got something signed and their picture taken with him and Toxie. He was a true gentleman.

photo courtesy of ヘヴィメタル・ミュージカル

Among the things I discussed with him were how hard it was to film Toxie 2 in Tokyo due to the horrendous dollar-yen currency exchange at the time, not to mention the logistics that were involved. He also mentioned that he is considering holding one of his "Master class courses" in Tokyo next year so budding film directors should keep an eye out for that! The evening came to a close when we threw a surprise birthday party for him serenading him with a loud rendition of "Happy Birthday" before presenting him with his birthday cake. When it was time to go, he left with a "Sayonara Troma Japan" leaving us all to reflect over our beer at what a wonderful moment we all shared.

THANK YOU LLOYD AND PAT!!

THANK YOU MR. BRICKS!!

Resident of Japan for 12 years and a TROMA fanatic since he was 7 years old. Proud member of the TROMA Japan Team and vociferous supporter of independent cinema. Brendan hopes to one day land a cameo in a B-movie so if anybody needs a Gaijin face in their movie, give him a shout!