Unconventional trio - the serious Mikio, his mentally handicapped brother and a lively call girl - seek happiness through thick and thin. Laconic tragicomedy with crazy twists finally plumbs unexpected emotional depths.
Where can the unconventional trio who meet each other in an apartment in Tokyo find happiness? On a tropical island they dream of, or just with each other? After the funeral of his father, Mikio is left to take care of his elder, mentally handicapped brother. It pains him to have to lock him up sometimes, but Mikio is nice enough to order a call girl for him occasionally as well. As a result, they receive a visit from Marin, a cheerful and lively girl who hopes to make it as a singer in the hip underground scene of Tokyo.
From that moment on, anything is possible in Shiraishi Kazuya's directing debut, a candid tragicomedy filled with touching details. We even get to see a documentary film maker with a professional interest in handicapped sex. Through perverse twists, whimsical turns and the revelation of a tragedy from the past, this laconic low-budget film acquires an unexpected emotional profundity.
PROGRAMMER NOTES
Family seems to be the keyword in this film. Maybe lost family or dysfunctional, but still family.
Outside the film, the film is itself family of a small yet unusual series of small films. The core member of this family is Izumi Takahashi. Izumi Takahashi co-wrote the script of Lost in Tokyo and that must have contributed to the anti-logic of the everyday that make his films so special in their minor details (as writer, director or producer). Think of the small cult film The Soup, One Morning and Fourteen, which was a Tiger candidate and for which he wrote the script. In 2007 he also came to Rotterdam as a scriptwriter to explain in the series Script Stage what his vision was on writing for film.
And then there's a new cousin in the family who is first and foremost the film by Shiraishi Kazuya (a debutant, be he has worked with great directors as assistant), in which the contrary relationship to ordinary life fits in with the films mentioned by Izumi Takahashi.
A few good actors, a single apartment and the start of a story, that's all they need in this film family to show that family life changes. Even in Japan.
GjZ