Underplayed Gems

Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1971)

Emperor Tomato Ketchup poster
Original title
トマトケチャップ皇帝
Directed by
Shūji Terayama
Genre
drama film, pornographic film, experimental film
Country
Japan
Runtime
1h 12m
Rated
III
Rating
5.5 of 10 from 32 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like this

How it feels

Children take over a city and impose their own rules in a bizarre uprising. The film mixes documentary footage with surreal staged scenes and a discordant soundtrack.

dreamlikeunsettlingsurrealavant-gardechildlikechaoticabstractexperimental

What happens

Emperor Tomato Ketchup (トマトケチャップ皇帝, Tomato Kechappu Kōtei) is a Japanese short experimental film made by Shūji Terayama in 1970. A 27-minute cut was released in 1971. A "director's cut" of sorts, attempting to recreate the film as originally made, was released as a 75-minute feature in 1996, thirteen years after Terayama's death. A twelve minute abridgement of the film, Rock Paper Scissors War (ジャンケン戦争, Jan-ken-sensō), was also released in 1971. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.