Gan no tera

How could a film with such wacky characters fail ? There's a Zen monk who drinks, smokes and openly keeps a young woman as a bed companion. There's the young woman, who also smokers, and has a go at seducing the junior monk as well. The junior monk is an unwanted, abandoned child, whose name literally means "thrown away". And there's a few other monks who also smoke.

The cinematography is impressive and dark, but the pace is quite slow, and the direction ponderous. Despite a few rather wacky events, the proceedings don't really hold interest.