Waga jinsei saiaku no toki

A private eye film, in Japanese, shot in black and white with the hero going by the name of Maiku Hama whose office is in a movie theatre. How can you go wrong with a combination like that?

This is a really clever film that veers confidently between mild violence, comedy and a relatively interesting story line.

It's the little things that really make this film stand out - the scene where Maiku is beaten mercilessly with a stick by his sensei is hilarious. The cold blooded murders aren't graphic, but you'll remember them for a long time. The cinematography is first rate, especially the use lighting which really makes the black and white medium work fantastically well.

Highly recommended.

Okay, so we begin with the Mike Hammer parody, the office in a movie theater, and the detective (wildly overdressed) drives a Rambler. Then the mood turns serious and we're supposed to take this clown seriously after all. There was either a bad script or a director who didn't understand the script. The results are a few moments of humor, some pretty gory violence, and almost total incomprehension on my part. There may have been clever curve balls the director was throwing, and I couldn't pick up the spin of the ball. If so, ah well. But if I'm correct, this confection just isn't worth the time it takes to watch it. Good cinematography and clever "cute" ideas start the film off, but they wear out their welcome about halfway in.

Please do not mistake this film for pulp. Pulp is by definition tawdry, which this film is not. It isn't greasy. Or slapped together. Or sensational and passing and cheap. This film wasn't made to be read through like a paperback and discarded.

The style, beautiful. The lighting, meticulous. The mood made the hair on my arms stand up. Watch this film.

This is a fun little flick, a kind of retro private eye kind of thing, all very stylish and cool. It's kind of a blend of hard-as-nails gangster movie, chopped off fingers, gore and all, with a bit of Jackie-Chan-stylee daft comedy. Well worth watching, specially for anyone interested in modern Japanese culture and society, or Mike Hammer.

The Most Terrible Time In My Life is quite simply a real oddity of a film. The film is a hodgepodge of influences (namely Seijun Suzuki and Mickey Spillane), genres (Japanese '60s B-movies, film-noir, and comedy), and ideas. Really, the film should feel like a mess as it shifts on the drop of a dime from trying to appear like a serious noir to being a wacky comedy, but surprisingly it all manages to work.

Kaizo Hayashi, the director, even gets to work in his heavy influence from Seijun Suzuki without it feeling derivative (that right there, you have to admit, is a feat worthy of notice!). It is strange to watch a Japanese movie from 1994 that simultaneously feels like it is a mid-'90s Japanese film and an early '60s B-movie shot by Suzuki on one of his much less abstract and experimental endeavors.

But see, right there is one of the most charming and endearing characteristics of The Most Terrible Time In My Life; that the film feels old and new, original and old-hat, that it acts serious and then suddenly goofy and then back to being serious, that it can be hip and carefree and then gritty and a downer and back again--and all of this throughout the film somehow works.

This film is incredibly entertaining and interesting, and immensely enjoyable (plus the cameo by Jo Shishido *AS* Jo Shishido, who seemingly is not an actor in the world of the movie but instead the long-standing P.I. mentor to the protagonist, is mind blowing to anyone who is a fan of "Cheek's" films or his work with Suzuki). If you can get a hold of this film, you really should, it is well worth your time if you have any interest in film noir/neo-noir, Mike Hammer, Seijun Suzuki, or left-field Japanese cinema.