Asao, a perverted middle-aged man full of sexual fantasies decides a car is a necessity to act out these dreams. Along the way, with tons of screw-ups and blessings, he finds himself in all sorts of situations involving filmmaking, yakuza, crazy scientists and more.The Good?
This film is hysterical. It’s the Kitano Japan first began to know and love. He focuses on all-out slapstick cartoon-y comedy filled with sexual humor, pop culture parody and absurdly weird gags.
The film throws joke after joke at the audience constantly. The plot feels like a cross between Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run and a Roadrunner cartoon as Asao simply tries ploy after ploy to acquire money, a car and sex.
The humor is universal. For frequent Japanese filmgoers, you’ll be able to spot the Zatoichi, Lone Wolf and Jo Shishido references, but if you don’t, there are plenty of classic gags from people slipping on objects to just sheer sci-fi ridiculousness.
The Bad?
The plot structure is nothing to phone home about. It gets predictable and is simply a 90-minute compilation of random events with Asao that go horribly wrong. But it’s completely forgivable. It’s not like Airplane or Naked Gun had particularly compelling plots either.
The last twenty minutes go significantly downhill. There’s a sudden drop off in humor and the film drags a little. Maybe the jokes simply get boring. Maybe they ran out of material. Either way, it’s a sour note to end on.
B+
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