episode.7 Eddie Murphy is a spaceship.
People seek experiences in movies that they cannot have in real life. They want to see something they have never seen before.
Science fiction films are particularly well suited to fulfill this visual experience.
The landscape of the far future, or the state of society in a slightly earlier age. The prehistoric and ancient creatures strolling through the streets of New York City in the time in which they lived, or even in a different time period.
Science fiction films have taken many forms in the past, with experts in their respective fields using their imagination to express unknown worlds and beings.
In particular, with regard to extraterrestrial life, they have been extraordinarily inquisitive, sometimes on the basis of scientific evidence and sometimes with the help of the surrealist artists' (H.R. Giger in "Alien" and Taro Okamoto in "Aliens in Tokyo") leaps of imagination, creating the shapes and ecology of impossible alien creatures, intelligent life, and the machines and structures that they use. If so, we have created their cultures and civilizations, and the machines and structures they use.
But in the midst of the vastness of the universe, is space life really all that beyond human knowledge? Wouldn't it be surprising if aliens with a familiar appearance happen to exist by coincidence? Not a few films have been made with this idea in mind.
For example, the intelligent life forms in the 1986 American film "Howard the Duck: Conspiracy of the Dark Lord" looked just like ducks (and later made a cameo appearance in the Marvel film "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014)). The aliens in "The Explorers" (1986) are very similar in appearance, but they were receiving Earth's TV signals from beyond the universe and were completely poisoned by Earth's culture - pop culture - and were worldly, which is exactly the kind of maliciousness that can make us shrug off our cinematic curiosity about unknown life. The film is full of malice.
As a student aspiring to become a filmmaker, I myself once plotted such a plot for a film proposal assignment.
In this story, an alien who looks exactly like Toshiyuki Nishida is sent to the earth in the process of evolution, and because of the lack of communication, the actor Toshiyuki Nishida (playing himself and the alien) is chosen for the negotiation mission. However, the real Toshiyuki Nishida discovers that the alien, who always has a big smile on his face, is an evil being whose smile is an aggressive gesture, despite the peaceful impression he gives. I think it's an interesting plot, but what do you think about it as an actual movie project, anyone?
Now for the main topic of this issue, "Dave is a Spaceship" (2008).
Eddie Murphy's role in the lead role is that of a spaceship. Not as a spaceman, but as a spaceship.
As for the unexpected image of an alien, as mentioned above, Eddie Murphy playing an alien in his natural form and personality would have been enough, but to add to that the cannibalistic setting of the role of a "spaceship" is a strange idea that could have been made by Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze from a script by Charlie Kaufman of "Malkovich's Hole" or "New York in the Brain. It would have been a strange idea for Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze to make a film based on the screenplay by Charlie Kaufman of "Malkovich's Hole" or "New York in the Brain," but the fact that the film is made as a simple mass-produced comedy is also very appealing.
The 4.4-centimeter-long tiny alien built a humanoid spaceship to mimic the environment of human civilization, and the spaceship, played by Eddie Murphy, is manned by hundreds of tiny aliens (the captain of the spaceship is also played by Eddie in a dual role), and each part, including hands, feet, and facial expressions, is controlled by a different alien, which makes it move in a frighteningly suspicious manner. The spaceship's captain is also played by Eddie in a dual role), and each part of the ship is controlled by a different alien.
The gap between the "Star Trek"-style clean, idealistic mid-century futuristic interior of the ship and the Eddie Murphy exterior of the ship is also funny.
At the time this film was made, Eddie Murphy was in the midst of a period of stagnation, when he was seeking a new style of acting that would showcase his physicality, such as the use of special makeup to mimic the form of a person in multiple roles, and the use of movement itself, while avoiding the storytelling that had been the starting point of his career. He was still searching for a new style of acting that would showcase his physicality. Later, he worked with the same director on "Jack Can't Talk 1,000," a film in which Eddie, cursed with a curse that brings him closer to death every time he utters a single word, literally shuts off his words (Incidentally, this film was so moving that it seemed to reflect the real life of Eddie, who lost his father when he was very young. I cried a lot. Don't be fooled by the Japanese title!) )
Speaking of creepy guys, Eddie Murphy's performance as a creepy young guy in "Big Movie" with Steve Martin back in 1995 (he played a double role with a successful action star in that film as well) is also really brilliant.
When one thinks about it, the potential of Eddie Murphy and his films, which can express the unknown with just a single point of view or actor's body, without relying on special effects or computer graphics that require huge budgets and human resources, is still unknown.
PROFILE
Born in Tochigi Prefecture, graduated from Tokyo Zokei University. He has been designing mainly graphics for movies, exhibition publicity materials, and books. Major works include "Paterson," "Midsummer," and "Tabi no Owari, Sekai no Hajimari" for films, "Shuntaro Tanikawa" and "Moomin" for exhibitions, and "Birds/Banana Yoshimoto" and "Small Boxes/Yoko Ogawa" for books.
