Bondi Tsunami

Bondi Tsunami is the first Japanese surfing road movie in Australia, a psychedelic surfing adventure which has been described as a cross between Kabuki and MTV, the Wizard of Oz and Monkey Magic. Destined to become an Australian and Japanese cult classic, this guerilla style feature length road movie was inspired by the Japanese surfing sub-culture in Australia. The film follows four characters Shark, Yuto, Kimiko and Gunja man , as they travel up the east coast of Oz in a 1961 EK Holden Special, visiting beautiful beaches, vast landscapes and some of Australia's surreal tourist attractions.

However this is no ordinary surfing movie. Bondi Tsunami explores all that is funny, cute and weird about Oz and the Japanese in a series of slick music video style sequences held together by a rockin' soundtrack.

The film (which is in Japanese) was shot on DV Cam , with a small digital camera, and put together by a production crew of 4 people (Rachael Lucas, Anthony Lucas-Smith, Naomi Lucas-Smith and Michael Jones), with no funding and no trained actors. In fact the four cast members Taki Abe (Shark), Keita Abe (Yuto), Miki Sasaki (Kimiko) and Nobu- Hisa Ikeda (Gunja Man) were all working holiday students who had never acted before with the exception of Miki who had appeared as an extra in a bank commercial and as a panelist on a talk show in Japan.

The cast work amazingly well together for first timers,the characters have a punk/manga quality about them that is visually stunning on screen. Perhaps the true star of the movie is the aqua green Holden, a vintage station wagon with fins and slide across seats that remains in perfect condition. It is the ultimate Aussie surfing icon , and encompasses the great Australian youth dream of going on a road trip to The Gold Coast .