8-ka de shinda kaijû no 12-nichi no monogatari

Sato (Takumi Saitoh) is stuck at home like everybody else while the coronavirus pandemic rages; on a whim, he buys a capsule monster online and decides to spend his time raising it. But the creature keeps changing - sometimes it's three monsters, sometimes it looks like it has horns, other times roots. He talks to his director friend (Shinji Higuchi) about it over Zoom chats, and also connects with friend Non who is herself raising an alien, and with other people out in the world. What he wants to know is, is the monster he is raising a danger to human life, or a boon?

This is the first completely pandemic oriented film I've seen, and it's quite lovely - very whimsical and gentle. Takumi Saitoh is essentially playing a version of himself, and the other characters also all seem to be doing the same. Told in black and white, there's little movement or change in the story, but that's what's lovely about it: we were all bound to our homes, not knowing what might happen next and just trying to get by from one day to the next, with the long-distance Zoom-mediated help of friends, and this short film encapsulates that pandemic time really well. Something of a gem, I think.