Before we Vanish // 36th BIFFF

There’s something rotten in the state of Japan. A mild-mannered man has a close encounter with an alien, who thanks him kindly by taking possession of his body. His wife is not amused and she can’t fathom why he quits his job and bumbles about with a hollow stare and a stupid grin. Something is profoundly wrong, that much is clear. Meanwhile, we meet a freelance journalist investigating a murder case. He makes the acquaintance of a bizarre young man and a teenage girl, but soon realizes they’re extraterrestrials. It turns out they’re the advance guard of a large-scale invasion which will see Planet Earth completely colonized. The journalist now has the biggest scoop of the millennium, but what to do with it? Should he inform the authorities or rather seek his own glory by taking sides with the aliens?

Introducing Kiyoshi Kurosawa is like throwing water into the sea. With films like Cure, Charisma, and Pulse, the Japanese filmmaker helped make J-Horror a worldwide phenomenon. In Before We Vanish, which is hilarious and tragic in equal measure, he leaves his comfort zone and ventures into science fiction for the first time. But not without infusing the genre with his trademark eerie look and feel!