We Are Little Zombies

2019 Directed by Makoto Nagahisa

Their parents are dead. They should be sad, but they can't cry. So they form a kick-ass band. This is the story of four 13-year-olds in search of their emotions.

Keita Ninomiya Satoshi Mizuno Mondo Okumura Sena Nakajima Kuranosuke Sasaki Youki Kudoh Sosuke Ikematsu Eriko Hatsune Jun Murakami Naomi Nishida Shiro Sano Rinko Kikuchi Masatoshi Nagase Gô Rijû Takashi Yamanaka Shingo Mizusawa Daisuke Kuroda Shugo Oshinari

Alternative Titles

ウィーアーリトルゾンビーズ, Wī ā ritoru zonbīzu, Wî â ritoru zonbîzu

music drama

120 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Aaron ★★★★ 2

SUNDANCE 2019 #8
Scott Pilgrim Enters The Void
Review by davidehrlich ★★★½ 4

The first words of Nagahisa Makoto’s “We Are Little Zombies” are spoken by a deadpan and disembodied 13-year-old Game Boy addict named Hikari (Ninomiya Keita) as he watches his parents waft out the smokestack of a Tokyo crematorium. “Today, Mommy turned to dust. So did Daddy. Dusty as parmesan on a plate of Bolognese.” A gleaming wad of spaghetti appears over the giant chimney as if Photoshopped into the sky. Hikari lost both members of his small family a few days earlier when they were killed in a bus crash during the “worst-named package tour of all time: Destination Happiness!” The short-sighted tween — whose emotionless vibe falls somewhere between Detective Conan and a serial killer — isn’t impressed by…
Review by Sal S. ★★★★★ 12

"We are zombies, but alive."
In the third grade, I was placed in my elementary school's gifted program. Essentially, it was a program designed to pull all the "smartest kids" from each grade, and give them a class where they could learn more "advanced" education, that the rest of the class was deemed too unintelligent to learn. Being an elementary schooler, I obviously didn't think twice about this, but looking back, I find this idea of a "gifted" education pretty absurd. It's kind of insane to me that a group of child educators can look at a group of children not older than 10 years old, and think for a second that the best thing to do is to separate…
Review by Ella Kemp ★★★½

“Please cry. Please feel. Just kidding. All together now.”
Batshit bonkers movie, a coming of age/a coming to terms with grief like nothing I’ve ever seen
Review by Angeles ✨ ★★★★½ 7

This is the story of four unemotional people.
2019 Ranked.
Just like the quote said, We Are Little Zombies is the story of four emotionless orphan teens. It's about their life, their friendship and the band they start together.
It is a nice story and a really innovative coming of age. We Are Little Zombies is extremely surreal, frenetic and fantastic. I was really enchanted by its satire and its sense of humor, the visuals are incredible as well; the colorful neon letters and the dark humor contrast the depressing parts. It is also extremely meta, which surprised me a lot. The experimental angles and cameras movements, the popping pictures between scenes, the punk and profligate style. Everything is so…
Review by ZombAid ★★★★½ 2

To sum up the Movie in one word:
LOUD!
A charming, audacious and wild ride through the eyes of four children, that were fed with the right amount of nihilism.
From black and white, to digital color correction, from a fish lens to wide angle, practically every film technique that you can imagine was used. 8-Bit Soundtrack paired with very loud punk-rock-music kept the whole crazy editing together and the sum is a wonderful Japanese Movie in the veins of Memories of Matsuko and Sion Sono.
If the sugar-coating wasn't over the whole premise, it would've been almost unbearable. Yet with such a trippy approach, you can always win my heart over.
An impressive full length debut for Makoto Nagahisa!
Berlinale 2019 #4
Review by Ashlea 📔 ★★★★★ 17

"Life is like The Castle. I don't have a good feeling about it."
Find a girl that will cry unexpectedly at the lyrics of We Are Little Zombies as performed the first time.
And it isn't lost on me either that I missed this at MIFF 2019 due to being a single player.
This film hurts a bunch if you know what it feels like to lose your emotion to harsh circumstances.
It's an endlessly inventive film that therefore holds your attention.
Hikari cut me the most.
I like to imagine that this is the thought process that Kenzaburō Ōe and his wife went through while naming their son.
I don't know if I can trust Makoto Nagahisa around my feelings again!
Review by Logan ★★★★★ 1

Now that all the movies have been cancelled this year, can we just give We Are Little Zombies like...everything?
We Are Little Zombies is a film from Japan about 4 kids who meet at all of their parents funerals and they begin to hang out and eventually form a band together. So on a first glance, just from the poster and that description, it seems like it'd be a hyper stylised "band movie" told with this fictional band... and it is, for a while. But We Are Little Zombies has way more going on.
It's a blunt, anarchic look at the world through the eyes of kids who feel totally unloved and emotionally disconnected to by the world around them,…
Review by Cinema_Strikes ★★★½ 3

First of all, that is not a “zombie movie” per se. Just had to be said. Horror movie fans should check this out - everyone should - but don’t expect any gut-munching.
Rather, We Are Little Zombies is about a metaphorical deadening of the soul, focusing on four pre-teens on the cusp of maturity who meet after losing their parents - to suicide, to murder, to misadventure - and find themselves isolated and unable to express their emotions in any “normal” way.
That may make the movie sound treacly or unappealing but We Are Little Zombies feels more like Nobody Knows as directed with the video game aesthetic and pop visuals of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim and the savage angst…
Review by Zheddy ★★★★½

Melbourne audiences need to stop falling for Japanese fakeout credits. It's embarrassing.
Review by cinemuach ★★★★★ 2

It's a visual funhouse, full of surrealistic images, and lurid colors. AAAAAKKK SUKAAAAAK! Mirip banget kek Scott Pilgrim! Opening credit-nya gemas, final scene-nya sangat tida biasa! Banyak line yang quote-able! Love it love it love it!
Review by Ella Kemp ★★★½

Absolutely batshit cross-stitch portrait of death without emotion, kids without adults and rhyme without reason - in the best way possible.

Recent reviews

Review by Ana Serna ★★★★

I have come to realize that the best movies I’ve ever seen have been when I didn’t know what they were about or what was supposed to happen.
If I had know from the beginning that they were forming a band, maybe I wouldn’t have been interested. But the way it unwrapped...damn!
I felt like I was on acid re-living my own griefs, unable to cry cause... the mood wasn’t like it... although the stories were the saddest.
Perfect way to come into terms with death, incredibly taught by four little 13 year old children.
The only thing I hated was the post-credit scene.
Review by Cody Lindgren-Royce ★★★½

There’s a lot of great surface stuff here; fun visuals, likable kids in the lead roles, very catchy songs. I just wish there was a bit more emotion beneath it all. Maybe that’s the point, considering the kids declaring themselves emotionless zombies is a big part of the movie, but at 2 solid hours, the spectacle wears off a bit, and you’re left wanting a bit more to grasp onto.
But really, if nothing else, there’s some real bangers on the soundtrack.
Review by Rayhan ★★★★

We Are Little Zombies is a colorful smorgasbord of creative filmmaking, as well as an exploration of dark emotional themes that speaks not only to the relatable kids out there, but to anyone trying to listen to their adolescent children.
Review by Lukeifer666 ★★★★★

this was so so great. like Tetsuya Nakashima directed We Are the Best! no idea why it isn't getting more (or any) press. post modern pop art masterpiece and one hell of a feature debut. actual original, creative films like this one getting no mainstream love while boring ass self-serious dreck gets canonized hurts my soul
ranting aside, everything in this is just godamn fun! super creative filmmaking, good acting from the kids, and a great score (i wonder why more movies dont go 8bit). Love the brief CHAI cameo, too. Dullards will say it's "overstimulating" because the plot is hyperkinetic but like i said it's too much godamn fun while also having a sweet emotional core
I'd count this as retroactively my favorite movie of 2020 and one of the best movies i've seen in a while!
you can rent it for 5 bucks on oscilloscope's vimeo page
Review by Aaron King ★★★★

A very inventive film.
Review by Mazen Khaled

We are Little Zombies is one of the singularly strangest, most original films I’ve seen in a long time. A heartwarming tale of newly orphaned kids navigating their path through grief the only way they know how: electronic games, music, and mischief.
It’s a funny, irreverent look at death and loss and at the loneliness we are bound to. The story and visual approach cut through our cynicism with a seamless mix of fantasy and harsh reality.
Don’t miss this film.
Review by Ty Strange ★★★★½

Just watch it. One of the most energetic and unique films (That I have seen) that has come out in a while.
Review by aliaa_ ★★★★★

What a cinematic experience!
Film dengan teknik paling kaya dan kreatif yg belum pernah saya lihat sebelumnya.
Review by Huthaifa ★★★★

Didn't expect it to hit me on a deep level, that was harsh and AMAZING.
A reminder that feelings aren't simple.
I love how the movie structured like a videogame; there are chapters, with each chapter you get new information or interduce to a new character, you get invested more and more in their world. It's really clever way to handle the subject and the enjoyment of the scenery, and at the same time, grasp on that sense of existential nihilism while commenting on society. The movie is dark, shockingly dark sometimes, but it's quirky and funny. The camerawork style made it unique, and the songs are so catchy.
It almost feels like a cynical prophetic trip, just before you come to term with reality and accept it. A conflict in your emotion before you let it go.
Also the hyper fast editing was top notch, it's one of many things you'll remember this movie by.
Review by Cláudio Alves ★★★½

Preteens' grief exploded into a messy bit of garbage pop, tearing at the edges in a manner that's both hideous and delightful, energetic and vital. Musicalizes tragedy as cutting parody.
Review by Pablo I. Bonilla 3

Survival Mode: Diez películas coming-of-age recomendadas por Ella Kemp.
Nota personal: “La regla número uno es no dejar que las pequeñeces nos afecten. La regla numero dos es que todo es una pequeñez” – Robert Eliot.
“We Are Little Zombies” es un viaje surrealista sobre la muerte, la vida y la existencia desde una perspectiva nihilista con la creatividad de un niño.
Hikari pierde a sus padres en un accidente automovilista, en su funeral conoce a otros dos niños y una niña que también han quedado huérfanos. Deberían de estar tristes, pero no pueden llorar. Por lo que deciden crear una banda. Esta es la historia de cuatro niños de 13 años en busca de sus emociones.
Esta película se…
Review by Those Eyebrows ★★★½

“Smokers are just paying to take deep breaths. Adults are idiots.”