Chicago Underground Film Festival 2009

Sold live in vending machines and department stores; plastic replicas included as prizes in the equivalent of a McDonald’s Happy Meal; the subject of the No. 1 videogame MushiKing, insects inspire an enthusiasm in Japan seen nowhere else in this world.

Beetle Queen solves the mystery of why Japan developed this enriching social relationship with insects while other first-world countries developed a terror of these many-legged beings. Working backwards from the present day, like a detective story, this film unlocks the mystery behind Japan’s love affair with insects. Interspersed with the philosophies of one of Japan’s best-selling authors and anatomist, Dr. Takeshi Yoro, and scattered with poetry and art from Japan’s history, this film becomes about much more than insects. The film quietly challenges the viewer to observe the world from an uncommon perspective that will shift the familiar to the fantastic and just might change not only the way we think about bugs, but the way we think about life. HDCAM.