Koara kachô

I have no idea why people say ''Executive Koala'' is hard to understand. Almost everything is explained, bluntly, and the story is pretty linear. Aside from being unfinished, this movie is pretty simple.

Described as a ''psychological thriller wrapped up in the packaging of a nonsense comedy--with giant animal characters'', I expected this to be humorous, at least slightly. No. ''Executive Koala'' wasn't even humorous accidentally! (Well, I guess if you find ax murder hilarious it could be.)

So it's not funny. But this is supposed to be a convoluted storyline that (in the words of one reviewer) ''...changes direction frequently, especially in the thirrd act, when the plot changes several times...''. Sorry, it fails there too.

I found the plot very linear, the story unfinished, and the movie fairly...simple. There are no ''plot twists and turns'', nothing ''funny'', and definitely nothing nonsensical.

In the end,''Executive Koala'' isn't a total waste of time, it's just EXTREMELY misrepresented by its advertising.

This movie is so very special. One minute I was thinking it was the worst movie I'd seen and a minute later think it was one of the funniest. Its a strange one, that is for sure.

I've not seen much, if any, Japanese movies so how much of the bad acting is just bad acting or cultural or deliberate, I can't say. Either way, it amused me. As did the pure absurdity of the whole story and where it went. I wouldn't call it a thriller cause I wasn't on the edge of my seat but I definitely wondered where we were going. And when we got there it wasn't what I expected, but isn't that what you want in a movie? I'd like to give a better description of this thing but it is so absurd and so random that I don't know where to begin. If you are wondering if you should watch it, let me put it this way. If you are a fairly mainstream movie going type person the answer is no. If you are a fan of the weird, the funny, the absurd, the surreal, or the slightly off kilter then i say go for it. Was it a good story? eh. Was I entertained? Absolutely.

I'm sure I missed some of the nation-specific satirical barbs in this off the wall Japanese comedy about cutthroat corporate culture and an anthropomorphic koala who may or may not be a killer. To this Western viewer, "Executive Koala" played like an Adult Swim entry with its unfailing, straight faced commitment to the absurd. Trying to cope with the disappearance of his wife, businessman and man-sized koala Tamura attempts to lose himself in corporate negotiations. He increasingly finds himself haunted by memories of violence and develops a tendency to fly into fits of unbridled rage accompanied by blinking, glowing eyes.

I don't want to spoil any of the film's surprises and would advise renters to avert their eyes from the DVD label as it gives away one of the film's best visual gags. Those viewers who complain about the cheap special effects--for instance, the zipper being visible on the Koala's costume--have failed to realize that these are both budget and style choices. Director Kawasaki, who previously brought us "Rug Cop" and "Calamari Wrestler," has developed a cheapo aesthetic and this is an undeniable part of the film's charm. Troma fans are sure to be delighted by Kawasaki, but will find a sweeter, more gentle film in "Koala" than those produced by Kaufman.

But a little of this goes a long way and the film's story is too flimsy to be compelling. The film works to a degree as it continually amps up the absurdity, but the plot is a tired retread of Hithcock themes with more concern about style than storytelling. It's DePalma for furries.

Just one year after the superb and absurd Calamari Wrestler, Minoru Kawasaki knocked it out of the park again with the equally gonzo Executive Koala. The former I watched about this time last week, and I've found both films to be two of the funniest I've watched all year. Kawasaki may be some kind of genius, and I very much want to dig into his filmography more.

Executive Koala follows a businessman who's also a koala, and he's worried he might be a serial killer... or possibly having vivid dreams that he's a serial killer. Honestly, the first 2/3s feels like American Psycho if it was set in Japan and Patrick Bateman was a koala. It becomes something else entirely in its final third, but I'm not sure I could explain how it gets there, even if I was okay with spoiling things.

There were a couple of points where Executive Koala almost lost me, but whenever that came close to happening, it would find a way to top the absurdity that came before, leading to continual hilarity throughout. Lots of this is genuinely hilarious, laugh out loud stuff, and it's the kind of comedy that's simultaneously genius and also very, very stupid. I just love most of what this and Calamari Wrestler offer, but both feel like acquired tastes for sure.

Bizarre hardly begins to describe this peculiar offering. Tamura is a divorced company employee about to embark on a new venture with his company. Suddenly is sweetheart is found murdered and he's the prime suspect. Did I mention that Tamura is a koala? No? Oh! The fact that he is a koala doesn't seem to have any bearing on the plot at all. It's more of a strange distraction from the films inability to focus. By the time it gets to amnesia, implanted memories, and a shady past, it is all a bit too much. Certainly enjoyable at times, but when switching from dreamlike martial art sequences and axe murder, you can't really fathom what it's aiming to do.