Demeking (2009)

At first glance Demeking aka Demeking: The Sea Monster appeared to be a low budget kaiju flick. At second glance it was actually more of a slice of life with a possible kaiju as audience bait.

Hachiya Koichi works at the amusement park’s Squid Shack. He’s secretly training for the arrival of an outer space monster due to arrive in 2019. The local Exploration Group led by Kameoka stumbles across his boat carrying his kaiju fighting equipment. Middle schooler, Kame, and his three younger friends are looking for an adventure. Hachiya sends them on a scavenger hunt after he leaves town and the boys are sure they’ve been pranked. At least mostly sure.

First of all, the setup was a bit strange. The story was set in 1970 so Hachiya would be a very old man by the time the creature arrived in 2019. There was no time jump, so you do the math regarding a kaiju actually appearing. Most of the story focused on Kame and his young friends riding their bikes and hanging out. Kame was bullied at school and looking for belonging and meaning in his life. But believing a kaiju was going to destroy his town nearly 50 years in the future was too much for even his imagination.

As a slice of boys’ life I’d rate the film a 7.0 given its low budget. There was some nice cinematography and the friendships were realistic. As a kaiju film it would receive a 3.0. Around the hour mark there was a possible sighting for a few minutes. The filmmaker couldn’t quite make up his mind what kind of film he wanted it to be. Most of the screen time was spent on Kame and the Exploration Group. Given how little Hachiya was shown it was hard to tell if the film was playing it straight about the asteroid or if the pending disaster was all in his head. Perhaps if the extraterrestrial threat looming wasn’t 50 years in the future, there would have been more urgency to the story whether it was for real or the object of a disturbed mind.

10 October 2025

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