Written and directed by Mike Wiluan, in the Pacific, 1942, a Japanese soldier and a British prisoner of war are stranded on a deserted island, hunted by a deadly creature. Two mortal enemies must come together to survive the unknown. Starring: Dean Fujioka, Callum Woodhouse, Alexandra Gottardo, Lucky Moniaga and Alan Maxson.
When it comes to monster movies, there’s a few different ways that you can go; focusing on the fear, the violence, the survival, the characters and the relationships, Monster Island mostly goes with the latter. It’s an interesting choice and there is the potential to make it work with the performances from Dean Fujioka and Callum Woodhouse but it feels like Mike Wiluan doesn’t give them enough meaningful moments to make it work. It becomes a highlight reel friendship, it doesn’t go beyond the surface so to be looking for an emotional resonance to guide the film, it feels like they overestimated it.
Part of that is the development on the characters, the focus tends to lie on Fujioka’s Saito, meaning he actually gets the time to build a sincere personality and layered quality to his character. However, with Woodhouse’s Bronson, it feels like they never developed his personality, instead relying on a few English clichés. It’s a shame as the two actually do have a decent chemistry, it’s very familiar and a little stereotypical but it works. The two of them make a good team and both have that classic bravery and camaraderie.
Another element holding them back from establishing a more meaningful tone is the visual. It feels slightly unaware of its own budgetary limits and it’s trying to push into something bigger, rather than keeping things intimate. The result of that is a rather lacking cinematography, which is missing out on a lot of colour and sharpness to make the most of its natural setting. The direction is solid but at the same time, it can move somewhat slowly and struggles to build energy and create a gripping atmosphere. Everything is being held back by its penchant for sentimentality.
However, while normally showing your monster too overtly can be a step in the wrong direction, in Monster Island it’s actually a good choice. That’s because the old-school design of the monster, throwing back to classic horror flicks, is charming. Especially given the 1940s setting, it feels like a clever choice, even more so as you could argue its story is going for something akin to the simpler, more wholesome cinema of that era.
It feels like Monster Island is more interested in making a cross-cultural buddy movie than a true monster flick. There are some good ingredients in the mix, particularly the design of the monster and casting Dean Fujioka who adds layers that the film would have otherwise been sorely missing. Unfortunately, it puts too much focus on that friendship, which is far too familiar, making the threat of the local creatures feel secondary and lack impact. The ending sums up the film’s issues quite clearly, it doesn’t go for punch or violence or shock, it’s extremely sentimental and rosy.
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