Nice surprise! I went into this cold and almost punted because the first act has after-school-special family drama stylings. Thanks to Nana Komatsu, and her legs, I stuck around. After the setup, it gets twisted
I had to jump out and look to see who directed this thing = Hitoshi Yazaki ... ah, now it makes sense
I don't know if standard fans of pretty boy/pretty girl dramas know Yazaki's work, and I puzzle around who this is directed at.…
There needs to be a porn genre for these things. They are far more popular than food porn or torture porn or poverty porn
I nominate: Grunting Man Porn
It's funny, accurate, and a little shady
... where bad guys act stupidly and can't shoot for shit
The girl quotient in this film is poor
I would love to see a version of this film with all the ridiculous gun fights and fisticuffs professionally edited out. The Duel is cool…
I applaud Koreeda for exploring "nice". It's got to be one of the greater challenges a filmmaker faces.
If you like Sono--and not just his crazy stuff--this is a must see. Sono gets this kind of material. It's all metaphorical about growing up, saying goodbye, and understanding that most of what you sincerely believe in is a myth. He's a sensitive guy who's batshit crazy. A guerilla poet. A misanthrope who loves the world.
