# We Are Little Zombies (WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES)
**We Are Little Zombies** (stylized WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES) is a 2019 Japanese comedy-drama film, 120 minutes long, written and directed by Makoto Nagahisa (長久允) as his first feature film. Four orphaned 13-year-olds who are unable to cry meet at a crematorium where their parents' ashes are being collected, form a band called LITTLE ZOMBIES, and set out to recover their ability to feel.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originality at the 2019 [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival) and received a special mention from the [Generation](https://www.edgepedia.org/generation) 14plus Youth Jury at the 2019 [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival).[2](https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/pdf-cms/2019010-0204en.pdf) • [3](https://mubi.com/en/films/we-are-little-zombies/awards)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Makoto Nagahisa (長久允), born 1984 in Tokyo; his feature-film debut[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) • [4](https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/film/146/we-are-little-zombies) |
| Premise | Four 13-year-old orphans who cannot cry meet at a crematorium and form the band LITTLE ZOMBIES to restore their emotional health[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) |
| Running time and format | 120 minutes, color, DCP; Japanese release June 14, 2019[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) |
| Main cast | Keita Ninomiya (Hikari), Satoshi Mizuno (Ishi), Mondo Okumura (Takemura), Sena Nakajima (Ikuko)[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) |
| Sundance 2019 | World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originality[2](https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/pdf-cms/2019010-0204en.pdf) |
| Berlinale 2019 | Special Mention, Generation 14plus Youth Jury[3](https://mubi.com/en/films/we-are-little-zombies/awards) |
| US release | Limited theatrical and streaming release July 10, 2020, distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_little_zombies) |
| Critical reception | Metascore 76 (11 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative reviews); 93% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 54 reviews[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/we-are-little-zombies/critic-reviews/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_little_zombies) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The four protagonists, Hikari, Ishi, Takemura, and Ikuko, meet by chance at a crematorium on the day their parents are cremated. Each has lost both parents in a different way: Hikari's died in a bus crash while on holiday, Ishi's burned in a gas explosion, Takemura's killed themselves to escape debt, and Ikuko's were murdered by a deranged stalker. None of the four can shed a tear, and they describe themselves as zombies, devoid of emotion.[7](https://intl.nikkatsu.com/sales/335.html)
Alone in the world at 13, with what the film's synopsis calls no future, no dreams, and no energy to move forward, they dress themselves in scraps from a garbage dump, turn favorite items from their empty homes into instruments, and form a band they name LITTLE ZOMBIES. The story follows their quest to retrieve their ability to feel.[7](https://intl.nikkatsu.com/sales/335.html) The band becomes a social phenomenon, gaining fans, reviews, criticism, and a social media reputation, and the four find themselves at the mercy of an unexpected destiny.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) • [8](https://www.ratingraph.com/movies/we-are-little-zombies-ratings-233543/)
The band members' instruments and roles follow the game-like character sheets on the film's official site: Hikari is the vocalist, equipped with a pocket game; Ishi plays drums on his mother's Chinese wok; Takemura plays bass with a Mercedes bicycle; and Ikuko plays piano, her listed equipment being a cold stare.[9](https://littlezombies.jp/sp/)
## Style and structure
**A video game as a form.** Nagahisa himself called the film a "super musical adventure RPG movie," and it borrows the structure of a role-playing game: each character must overcome challenges before moving to the next stage of life.[10](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/archive-5/we-are-little-zombies/) • [11](https://www.fccj.or.jp/committee-blog/we-are-little-zombies) Because Hikari is addicted to retro video games, his story and the band's are presented as a series of video game stages with chapter titles that one critic compared to *Scott Pilgrim*.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/we-are-little-zombies-movie-review-2020) Reviewers noted the film's dense pop-cultural references, from games to J-Pop, its 8-bit music and retro game animations, and its borrowing of cinematic devices such as Hitchcock dolly zooms and Scorsese voiceovers.[4](https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/film/146/we-are-little-zombies) • [13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/berlinale-first-look-we-are-little-zombies-rocks-out-sound-grief)
The style carries the theme. [Sight and Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/sight-and-sound)'s Ella Kemp wrote that pain, desire, and sadness do not exist in a world lived through the mechanisms of a video game, without the grief that defines mourning in reality, and that the candy-colored surface echoes the children's own emotional voids before the film builds to an earned catharsis near its end.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/berlinale-first-look-we-are-little-zombies-rocks-out-sound-grief) • [11](https://www.fccj.or.jp/committee-blog/we-are-little-zombies) The band's music, described as a cross between post-shoegaze emo rock and video-game-style chiptunes, was composed by Nagahisa himself, who is credited as the film's composer as well as its writer and director.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/we-are-little-zombies-movie-review-2020)
## Production background
Nagahisa was born in 1984 in Tokyo, worked at a major advertising company for several years, and directed music videos before filmmaking.[4](https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/film/146/we-are-little-zombies) He was a longtime [Dentsu](https://www.edgepedia.org/dentsu) ad planner, and his short film *And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool* (2017) won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, making him the first Japanese director to receive that award.[11](https://www.fccj.or.jp/committee-blog/we-are-little-zombies) • [2](https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/pdf-cms/2019010-0204en.pdf)
At a festival talk he said he was first inspired to write the film by the "[Blue Whale Challenge](https://www.edgepedia.org/blue-whale-challenge)," an SNS phenomenon reported out of Russia in 2016 that reportedly targeted young gamers with a series of tasks culminating in a challenge to commit suicide. Asked about the title's meaning, he explained that it represents the ways people have become incapable of communicating, reflecting the divide between adults and children.[11](https://www.fccj.or.jp/committee-blog/we-are-little-zombies)
The film was produced by Dentsu, Nikkatsu, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Parco, and Robot, with Nikkatsu as the Japanese distributor and Robot Communications the production studio.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) Hiroaki Takeda was the cinematographer and Maho Inamoto the editor.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810)
## Reception
The film premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance in January 2019, where every screening was reportedly packed, and it went on to play in the Generation section at Berlin and at festivals in Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sitges, and elsewhere.[2](https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/pdf-cms/2019010-0204en.pdf) • [3](https://mubi.com/en/films/we-are-little-zombies/awards) At the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema it won the Best Actor award.[3](https://mubi.com/en/films/we-are-little-zombies/awards)
Critics were broadly positive. Variety's review called it "explosively ingenious and energetic" and praised its visual and narrative invention; the New York Times called it "smart, noisy and flashily assured"; and the Playlist scored it 91, calling it a visual tour-de-force.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/we-are-little-zombies/critic-reviews/) On Metacritic it scored 76, with 11 of 13 critic reviews positive and none negative; on Rotten Tomatoes it holds 93% from 54 reviews, with a critics consensus describing a "stylish and visually inventive look at death, abandonment, and the grieving process."[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/we-are-little-zombies/critic-reviews/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_little_zombies) Some reviewers found the relentless style divisive: RogerEbert.com called it "something of an acquired taste," and The Film Stage's Sundance review argued that the style overshadowed the substance.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/we-are-little-zombies-movie-review-2020) • [14](https://thefilmstage.com/sundance-review-we-are-little-zombies-expels-style-that-overshadows-the-substance/)
After the Japanese release on June 14, 2019, the film reached North American audiences on July 10, 2020, in a limited theatrical and streaming release from Oscilloscope Laboratories.[1](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_little_zombies)
## References
1. [JFDB – WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/8810)
2. [Dentsu press release: Dentsu Creative Director Makoto Nagahisa Wins Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Originality (February 4, 2019)](https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/pdf-cms/2019010-0204en.pdf)
3. [We Are Little Zombies (2019) Awards & Festivals, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/we-are-little-zombies/awards)
4. [Nippon Connection – We Are Little Zombies](https://db.nipponconnection.com/en/film/146/we-are-little-zombies)
5. [We Are Little Zombies, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/we_are_little_zombies)
6. [We Are Little Zombies critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/we-are-little-zombies/critic-reviews/)
7. [Nikkatsu Corporation – WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES sales page](https://intl.nikkatsu.com/sales/335.html)
8. [We Are Little Zombies (2019) ratings, Rating Graph](https://www.ratingraph.com/movies/we-are-little-zombies-ratings-233543/)
9. [Official site, 映画『WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES』](https://littlezombies.jp/sp/)
10. [New Zealand International Film Festival – We Are Little Zombies](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/archive-5/we-are-little-zombies/)
11. [FCCJ – WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES](https://www.fccj.or.jp/committee-blog/we-are-little-zombies)
12. [We Are Little Zombies movie review, RogerEbert.com (Simon Abrams, July 10, 2020)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/we-are-little-zombies-movie-review-2020)
13. [Sight and Sound – Berlinale first look: We Are Little Zombies rocks out to the sound of grief (Ella Kemp)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/berlinale-first-look-we-are-little-zombies-rocks-out-sound-grief)
14. [The Film Stage – Sundance Review: 'We Are Little Zombies' Expels Style that Overshadows the Substance (Dan Mecca)](https://thefilmstage.com/sundance-review-we-are-little-zombies-expels-style-that-overshadows-the-substance/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license