The recipe seems simple: a drugs deal goes awry and then a thousand things go wrong. A pinch of Tarantino, yet most comes from the Japanese director/actor (he is the fat gangster) himself. Done often enough, but different. That’s how you prove your talent.
Hong Kong director Johnny To personally gave Okuda Yosuke a prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival for his energetic, low-budget gangster comedy Hot as Hell: The Deadbeat March. Johnny To then took an interest in this young film maker (born in 1986), who played the role of a heavyweight gangster in his own film.
The Deadbeat March is the third part of Okuda's Hot as Hell trilogy and is about two hysterical drug dealers, Tetsuo and Sabura, who surreptitiously adulterate cocaine with protein. They are part of the not-very-well-organised crime scene, are caught by undercover cops, meet a childhood sweetheart and finally end up in a literal bloodbath.
The film, dedicated to Tarantino, gives the verbal and visual jokes a tragic undertone. The desolate locations reveal a Japan that is not often shown. Okuda, who graduated from the Kawaguchi Art School in 2007, is one of the few independent filmmakers in Japan.
Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
If people compare Okuda Yosuke to Quentin Tarantino, it's his own fault. He dedicated his film to the most-copied American director of the past two decades and if I remember rightly, two prior, shorter versions of Hot as Hell were also dedicated to his hero. This could easily give the impression that Okuda Yosuke is merely a Quentin Tarantino imitator. Okuda might even not mind being viewed as one or even being one.
However, in the latter case I would have to disappoint him. His films only bear a superficial similarity to Tarantino's work. Okay, people snort more drugs than is good for them, the gangsters aren't the smartest and their humour often touches on the absurd, but his idol is a intelligent, entertaining recycler of American and Hong Kong B films. Unsurpassed. Even just thinking about copying him is ridiculous.
Whether Okuda is conscious of this, I don't know, but the major difference is that his film incorporates real life. It depicts a messy, urban, industrial, poor side of Japan that is seldom shown in films.
Ultimately, Okuda's biggest asset is himself. He plays the lead as a gangster who is too fat, too clumsy and too stupid. An excellent comedian, I would say, who literally and figuratively adds something personal to his film.