After a strange encounter with a UFO, company worker Sato, who has no experience in romance, becomes the boss of a new employee Hikari Hoshino. Being confused about her nonsensical behavior, Sato has a suspicion that she may be an alien and starts watching over her.
New Generation is screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia
Overall, “New Generation” is a fairly enjoyable genre movie. The main aspect of it is a rather engrossing mystery that immediately brings us into the storyline quite well. Focused around the series of quick glimpses toward Hikari that sees her body morphing into bizarre inhuman deformities only to quickly dismiss it all as his mind playing tricks on him, the atmosphere present is quite intriguing. As the sequences are laced with scenes of UFOs floating over buildings casually or Hikari's bumbling of normal human interactions that go beyond normal training deficiencies that comprise the majority of the misunderstandings, the idea present here is quite ominous and potentially chilling. That gets enhanced rather nicely with the full reveal at the end when the atmosphere has switched over to a rather striking gore effect that comes off quite shockingly with no build-up to it. These factors bring about a lot to really like here.
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However, there are some issues to be had with “New Generation.” The main one is the lack of time to really bring its storyline into the proper context. Far too much of what's going on is implied within the world being presented, with the existence of aliens seemingly known but beyond the implication of the UFO Sato sees and no one else seems concerned about the entire possibility. Here everyone simply brushes aside most of his concerns and queries about Hikari like the bumbling nature around the bosses or her inability to properly perform simple secretarial duties as simply unfounded concerns that shouldn't need further comment. The revelation at the end does manage to alleviate some of it but there is a disconnect that arises from the lack of information, since the purpose for being here, why Sato is chosen, or even why sneaking amongst humanity as a secretary is a way to go about the mission.
A strong and stylish genre short let down slightly by some minor confusion in places, “New Generation” is a worthwhile movie that has more than enough to like about it. Give it a shot if you find this style enjoyable or are really curious about it.
