Currylingus

Blah, blah, Kenji lives an orphan's life. Performs odd jobs. Manages to saddle himself with his dead friend's delusional sister and a Chinese stowaway child. Finds the mother who abandoned him at an early age, and her new family, by chance. Mum is bat-shit loco. He struggles with vengeance issues.

I only started tuning into the plot about forty-five minutes in. And, really? With characters like these, fuck a plot. Also, this is the first Japanese movie I've seen in a cinema hall in many years, so I'm completely biased.

The first of two Japanese films on my ballot, Sad Vacation made me want to laugh and kill. But not at the same time. First, I wanted some blood. Not because of uncontrollable rage but due to insensitive annoyance on my part (Kenji's mother's neck needed a good wringing). Then, right after the kill, before the blood splatters turned cold, I wanted to laugh. Not due to dissociative identity disorder but because bubbles make me giggle. How else would plot resolution be possible in contemporary Japanese cinema if it wasn't for bubbles?

So, like, such as that, was, like, essentially, a good review.

And another thing. Meet my/your new favourite Japanese import: Tadanobu Asano. He has played "Kenji" in every one of the five flicks I've seen him in, but he's good at that sort of humorous brooding. Get thee to a Survive Style 5+ viewing, stat.

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