By KEVIN HOOVER
More often than not, different can be a good thing, particularly when it functions as a beacon to steer us out of the comfortability of the mundane. Horror fans are no stranger to different, and for those in search in something outside the killing fields of our conventional fare, IKÉ BOYS would like to plead its case.
IKÉ BOYS is a fantastical melting pot of styles, with the lovable-loser charm of Napoleon Dynamite marrying moments of Japanese anime, drama, and despair into a film that’s atypical of the general Rue Morgue readership. The feature debut of director Eric McEver sees a metamorphosis of the friendships shared by Vikram ‘Vik’ Kapoor (Ronak Gandhi, Lucifer), Miki Shimizu (Christina Higa, Am I OK?), and Shawn Gunderson (Quinn Lord, most familiar to horror fans as Sam from Trick ‘r Treat). After dozing off while watching the final work of one of Japan’s most revered anime directors, Vik and Shawn awaken to discover they’ve been ingrained with superpowers from their favorite films. Along with foreign exchange student Miki, the trio deals with conventional teen angst and the ritual of self-discovery, all set against a plot of world domination. Ahead of their premiere at Fantastic Fest 2021, the director and cast gathered to discuss their film.
As an expat Oklahoman living abroad in Tokyo, your feature debut is one that surely hinges on some of those experiences that are uniquely yours.
EM: This is my first feature film with commercial aspirations, and I thought, “what is something that I’m uniquely qualified to do, and do really well?” I thought about taking some theme that I believe in deeply and combining it with things that I care about, and the idea of believing in yourself and trusting in others is how I try to live life, so I combined that with Japanese culture. The short, cute little version of my life story is that I was a little boy who loved dinosaurs, and that led to loving Godzilla and, in turn, desiring around age 12 to make a Godzilla film. I stuck with that, which led to eventually studying Japanese and going to film school but also relocating to Japan for about a decade. My goal is that I want to make one of those films that when people have had a really shitty day, they’re going to want to turn on IKÉ BOYS and then an hour and a half later think maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all. It’s a process of trying to be as authentic as possible and trusting that it would tap into some universal vein that will reach others.
For such a young cast, you guys already have amassed years of experience in acting. When approached with your individual roles, what were your thoughts about tacking a film with such a variety of styles and tones?
QL: I haven’t really done anything like this before, so I was all in for it. I’ve found that there’s a pattern starting where past projects I’ve been in span different eras. I just finished a film that was set in the 1960’s, and I’m currently filming a series where my character is in the 70’s. IKÉ BOYS was set in the 90’s so I’ll cross that off the list now.
CH: I’m from Tokyo, so to get a script that is rooted in my Japanese culture was really cool and to be able to transform into superheroes sounded awesome. The script itself was so genuine and authentic, and I was excited just to be involved.
RG: I remember when we had the audition and thinking I could be my totally goofy self. One thing that really stood out to me in the script was having an Indian character that had nothing to do specifically with him being Indian. I appreciated that, where I didn’t have to have to play up this part of me, and that was something that I truly loved about it.
There’s a fairly sinister sublot surrounding a cult that runs concurrent to the other issues the characters are navigating. IKÉ BOYS also exists in the final days leading up to Y2K – a period marked by anxiety over what many believed would be mankind’s final stand. What necessitated incorporating such ominous overtones into an otherwise light-hearted affair?
EM: It’s no accident that IKÉ BOYS is set in 1999. For those of us who were around then, we remember it was a time where everyone was talking about the world ending. We’re in a pretty dark moment in history now, where the apocalypse is on everyone’s minds constantly, and it was important to me to show hope in a hopeless situation, but in a fun way. In order to do that, you have to make the hopeless really hopeless. At the heart of the film is this message of believing in yourself. It’s never stated explicitly in the film, but my concept for the cult is that they are supernatural beings that prey on negative emotions. When I was doing the design with my concept artist, we went down this rabbit hole of what we thought depression and anxiety would look like if they were manifested and that’s the physical form we ended up designing.
Although the film initially explores a relationship between all three main characters, around the second act we spend some time on individual character maturation outside of the group. Do you feel that the overall tone of story benefitted by giving these distinctive relationships room to breathe and develop?
EM: I think it’s important to tell everyone’s story so that we know who they all are individually. I read an interview with Orson Scott Card a long time ago where he was talking about if you’re telling a story about a group of people, every two people in that group is going to have their own relationship with one another. It’s important to me to understand who all three of the characters are individually and how they all relate to one another so that when the three of them are a unit, it’s stronger because of the sum of the parts.
CH: A huge part of the message of the movie is that sometimes have to go your own way to find what you really love and want. There’s something emotional about leaving or having distance from someone and realizing how much they actually care about you, l like when there are people in your life you don’t see for a long time but you know in yourself that you love them and you hope that they know. There’s that moment of realization for my character Miki, in that the others really care about me as my true friends and it’s something she’s never really experienced before.
RG: I felt that when the three of us did drift apart it was a good opportunity for the individual characters to come to grips with their own weaknesses and insecurities. That’s when the audience also sees them go through this very hard development process, and the minute they come together it all comes to a head.
What do you want people to walk away remembering the most about IKÉ BOYS?
EM: I wanted to make a film that when people are in a dark place, they turn to it and they get a little pick-me-up. That’s part of the reason why I made a film that was set 20 years prior to when I made it; I want it to last for years and years.
QL: In relation to my body of work, I’ve never really done something quite like this before. In it, I’m speaking English and Japanese on screen, and that was a bit of a challenge. But it was definitely something I wanted to try out, and I’m looking forward to more bilingual roles in the future.
RG: My hope is that IKÉ BOYS could be part of that buddy comedy or triumvirate comedy of style of young adult movies. If it can carve out a niche in that space, I’d be happy.
IKÉ BOYS premiered in the US at Fantastic Fest on September 26th, 2021.
