Twilight of the Cockroaches



Twilight of the Cockroaches is a 1987 Hiroaki Yoshida-directed film by Streamline Pictures.

A colony of cockroaches lives in lonely bachelor Seito's messy apartament peacefully as he suffers depression and lets his apartament become a mess. The cockroaches worship Seito as a god, and the crumbs he leaves out like the slob he is are like manna from heaven for them. Naomi, a sweet 19-year-old cockroach, is engaged to the nice but boring Ichiro. She'd rather have the exotic warrior hunter from another tribe, Hans. Naomi and the other cockroaches live affluently and like humans, eating crumbs out in the open in the lap of luxury while Seito sleeps and wastes away. The real threat comes when Seito brings home a girlfriend, who is disgusted by his messy apartament. She brings in pesticides and other poisons. Mass genocide of cockroaches is brought on by Seito's girlfriend's cleanliness. Crushings, charrings, and mutilations of the cockroaches occur. Death by spray can, rolled newspaper, vaccum cleaners, and a stomping boot are witnessed from the terrifying point of view of a cockroach. What the humans see as basic hygiene is a holocaust to the cockroaches, a point driven home by visual references to Hiroshima & Auschwitz. Naomi and the other cockroaches can't figure out why their god Seito has turned on them.

The film is an allegory for what could happen to affluent Japan if they don't live up to their international responsibilities. It has a small but growing Misaimed Fandom reinterpreting it as the oppression of the Jews.

The film has had no DVD release, but was showed on Cartoon Network often in The Nineties. The VHS has been released, so you'll have to Keep Circulating the Tapes.

Not to be confused with Grave of the Fireflies.

Inspiration to the plot of the 1996 movie Joes Apartment.

Tropes featured in the film

 * Drowning My Sorrows: Seito
 * Foot Focus: Happens a few times to Seito's girlfriend.
 * Giant Foot of Stomping / Trampled Underfoot: The former from the roach's point of view.
 * Hikikomori: Seito
 * Humans Are the Real Monsters
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes
 * Love Triangle: A subplot.
 * Cockroach World
 * Naive Everygirl: Poor Naomi...
 * Neat Freak: Seito's girlfriend.
 * Roger Rabbit Effect: A rare Japanese example. The cockroaches are animated, and the humans are live-action.
 * Talking Poo: For a brief moment.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Cute?