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King of Thorn

King of Thorn

Fantasy · Animation · Science Fiction · 2010

A mysterious virus, nicknamed Medusa, is spreading around Japan, turning its victims into stone. Given the impossibility of finding an immediate cure, the government opts for cryopreserving a select group of patients until they come up with a solution. Kasumi, one of the chosen ones, has been asleep for years and her awakening, more than a bed of roses, is a bed of thorns, and happens in the midst of total chaos where monstrous creatures lie in wait all around.

Movie details

King of Thorn

2010 Fantasy · Animation · Science Fiction 1h 49m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.6 / 10

Community rating

A mysterious virus, nicknamed Medusa, is spreading around Japan, turning its victims into stone. Given the impossibility of finding an immediate cure, the government opts for cryopreserving a select group of patients until they come up with a solution. Kasumi, one of the chosen ones, has been asleep for years and her awakening, more than a bed of roses, is a bed of thorns, and happens in the midst of total chaos where monstrous creatures lie in wait all around.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over King of Thorn?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kazuyoshi Katayama

Written by

Kazuyoshi Katayama · Hiroshi Yamaguchi

Kana Hanazawa

Kana Hanazawa

Kasumi Ishiki (voice)

Kohsei Hirota

Kohsei Hirota

Alexandro Pecchino (voice)

Misaki Kuno

Misaki Kuno

Alice (voice)

Tsutomu Isobe

Tsutomu Isobe

Ivan Coral Vega (voice)

Sayaka Ohara

Sayaka Ohara

Katherine Turner (voice)

Ayako Kawasumi

Ayako Kawasumi

Laura Owen (voice)

Toshiyuki Morikawa

Toshiyuki Morikawa

Marco Owen (voice)

Court is in session

Put King of Thorn on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.