Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo Review
By David Kempler
Buzz-worthy
I took my seat, prepared to watch the latest incarnation of a Godzilla or Mothra-like creature, knocking over phone lines in Tokyo, while miniaturized Japanese citizens ran to and fro, screaming hysterically. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that Jessica Oreck's "Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo" is instead a cerebral and very low-key documentary that chronicles Japan's love affair with insects as pets and ties it to Shinto, Buddhism and Japanese culture.
In a pet store, we watch a young boy sweetly trying to pick which insect to buy. He is absolutely adorable and you can't help but compare him to how an American child behaves when looking at puppies. He bargains with the shop keeper until they settle on a rainbow beetle. The cost is $57. That's not a typo. This is an enormous business. Further confirmation of this comes when we learn that one young man who we follow catching bugs in the wild and selling them, tells us that he has bought a new Ferrari from his one-man bug business.
The Japanese love affair with insects runs far deeper than our love affair with dogs and cats. It involves a spirituality that is traced back to their fabled first emperor who named Japan the "Isle of the Dragonflies". Oreck also takes us through side trips to Zen temples, Buddhist shrines, nature preserves and art museums in order to explain how insects have become part of the fabric of Japanese culture.
"Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo" is at times riveting but it lingers far too long on the spirituality of it all. Oreck gets lost for fifteen minutes at a time on tangents of history and philosophy when I would have preferred that she stuck more with current-day Japan. After the first couple of references to the history of Japanese fascination with bugs, I got it. By going on and on about it, the impact was lessened. But, it's still well made and there is enough of interest here to keep you entranced enough that you actually accept the notion that bugs are our friends. The buzz on this one is pretty good.
