Nihon igai zenbu chinbotsu

I read a brief description of this film and thought it sounded like an excellent premise for a hilarious comedy. Unfortunately, the first time I started watching it I gave up after about ten minutes. After I finally watched the film I wondered I why I'd tortured myself.

The films suffers from four major flaws: 1. Production values are non-existent. 2. It has an awful script without a coherent plot where all the characters are underdeveloped. Instead we get cheap gags that rarely raise a laugh because no empathy has been built up. 3. The Japanese actors are OK, but the foreign actors are awful and barely watchable. 4. The 'social commentary' is largely superficial and even where interesting issues are brought they swiftly disappear and get ignored.

It's a shame the film is so poor. With such an interesting premise a brilliant film could have possibly been made. Instead we get a truly bad film.

This movie is based on a short novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui that parodied a much more authoritative novel done by Sakyo Komatsu which depicted the sinking of Japan into the mantle.

Yasutaka Tsutsui is famous for writing novels lampooning real life situations such as Nihon Apachi Zoku (Apaches in Japan). He's also capable of writing much more serious sci-fi such as the famous "Girl who leaped through time" (Toki o kakeru shojo). This movie is based on a short novel that was only about 10 pages long which was a parody of the more famous "Nihon Chinbotsu" (Japan Sinks) by Sakyo Komatsu. It was meant to be a tongue in cheek satire, and even in the original novel, the title "Nihon Igai Zenbu Chinbotsu" , words Nihon and Chinbotsu was printed in a large font and "Igai Zenbu" was printed in a tiny font making sure that people understood the authors intent. When this novel first came out, Frank Sinatra was still alive, and at the opening scene he's the one who's singing in a cabaret in Tokyo. The novel itself wasn't meant to be high quality, and it had no artistic value. They've expanded on the story and made it into a movie.

The original novel wasn't any masterpiece, and the movie couldn't save it from its trashy origin. I'm not sure how Tsutsui himself views this movie as I'm sure he wrote the thing in few hours or at most few days just to muse himself.

Best skip this one and not take it too seriously even if you have the opportunity to see it.

Sadly, it's too scattershot and jarringly episodic to keep its crazy premise going (and escalating) for the almost 100-minute-long runtime. There are at least some fun scenes here and there though (it peaks with the musical number about Japan about 2/3s through the movie, with that whole sequence feeling a bit like a Tim and Eric skit).

UPDATE: Upon reflection, I'm bumping this up half a star. I just remembered there were two instances of world leaders singing weird songs, not one. Also, the ending is kind of effective. Plus it features the same plot twist as Monster X Strikes Back, which I also watched tonight. Plus the end credits feature what sounds like Kenny G playing My Heart Will Go On from Titanic.

You absolute madman, Minoru Kawasaki. Never stop.

This is the kind of movie I would have liked to have written myself about Japan and the foreigner experience. This is a well-written, original, totally tongue-in-cheek farce. Foreigners living in Japan spend all of their time talking about the strangeness of the experience, but it had yet to be made into good literature. It's hard to be funny (as a comedy or satire) for the full duration of a movie, and also all movies, in general, tend to founder and become clichéd in the second half, after their structural pretexts have been presented. But this one continues to deliver and be trenchantly funny and topical and original all the way through. That is rare for a comic piece. Highly recommended if you can get your hands on it, especially for anyone who has lived as a foreigner in Japan, or any Japanese who have had close relations with foreigners in Japan. People who don't know Japan will not understand the farce, and will not like this movie. People who know Japan will be rolling in the aisles.

I loved this movie. OBVIOUSLY it's a comedy, a great comedy. In the same vein as Monty Python or South Park, it's a movie that's meant to be offensive to pretty much everyone. Yes, it mocks the ignorance of Americans and how they are overly dependent on our military power. It also mocks China and Korea. But mostly it mocks Japan itself and the systemic xenophobia that still pervades the country to some extent. It's a highly random movie that combines the randomness and political commentary of shows like South Park, but adds the additional unique wackiness of Japanese movies. Also, it looks just as low budget as the Gojira movies of the 60s. Whether intentionally cheap-looking for stylistic reasons or due to low budget(I think this is the case), it adds a lot of laughs, especially when the Statute of Liberty sinks. To people who find this offensive, I can only say that you obviously don't understand satire or sarcasm. Maybe you should spend some more time studying Japanese culture or speaking to Japanese people and get a grasp of their humor. My advice, stop being offended at every little thing, relax, and enjoy a great camp movie. If you can't do that, maybe this movie isn't for you.