Kisarazu Cat's Eye: World Series (2006)

Director:

Fumiki Kaneko

Writer:

Kankurô Kudô (writer)

Release Date:

28 October 2006 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Bussan refuses to accept his death and returns to Kisarazu as a ghost to make peace with his friends. Unfortunately his reappearance brings unforeseen consequences.

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Death | Baseball | Tokyo Japan | Hospital

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Junichi Okada	...	Bussan
Sho Sakurai	...	Bambi
Wakana Sakai	...	Moko
Yoshinori Okada	...	Utchi
Ryûta Satô	...	Masta
Takashi Tsukamoto	...	Ani
Sadao Abe	...	Nekota
Tomomitsu Yamaguchi	...	Yamaguchi Sempai
Son Ha Yoon	...	Yukke (as Yunsona)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Troy Caspi	...	Zombie
Mark Chinnery	...	Zombie
Eiichiro Funakoshi	...	Moko's Father
Arata Furuta	...	Ozzy
Kami Hiraiwa	...	Miiko
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	Tabuchi
Chiaki Kuriyama	...	Ayako Sugimoto
Gerard Laracy	...	Zombie
Mcu	...	Mini Ozzy
Hiroki Miyake	...	Officer Takeda
Aiko Morishita	...	Rose
Daisuke Shima	...	Obitani
Junji Takada	...	The Mayor
Takayuki Takuma
Ikkei Watanabe	...	Utchi's father
Hiroko Yakushimaru	...	Miss Mirei
Red Yoshida	...	Mayoral Aide

Also Known As:

Kisarazu Cats' Eye: Sayonara Game (International: English title)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English | Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Eiga Kisarazu Cat's Eye: World Series Seisaku Iinkai

Movie Connections:

Features Field of Dreams (1989)

Manic Japanese 'Field of Dreams'

The original 'Kisarazu Cat's Eye', I gather, was a TV series about a baseball team,one of whose members had cancer and had just six months to live.

This film is set three years after his death and, despite the above description, is a comedy. One of the teammates hears voices, telling him: "If you build it, he will come." He therefore reunites with his ex-teammates to try and carry out what he supposes to be his ex-team-mate's wishes. First they try building a massage parlour, but that is not what the mysterious voice requires, so they try building a Starbucks coffee-house before eventually trying a baseball pitch. At this point zombies turn up and the film gets really crazy.

At first I thought I was only going to be giving it three stars but as the film went on, I began to enjoy it more and more. It is quite surreal and extremely funny in places. It is very confusing, with constant flash-backs, but not knowing the original series was not a serious hindrance to enjoying it. It was fast-paced and enjoyable, although the baseball game in the final section dragged on a bit.

The film lasts 132 minutes and I obtained my Region 1 DVD from Amazon.com. The subtitles are good. (At the start of the film, I was concerned as the English subtitles appeared on top of burnt-in Japanese subtitles which did not appear to make much sense. But then the camera pulled back to reveal the characters were watching a Korean TV drama and the burnt-in subtitles stopped.)

I bought the film as Chiaki Kuriyama is my favourite actress but, unfortunately, she only provides a very brief cameo. She plays a very tough army trainer (Yes, really!!!) in a military camp and is absolutely brilliant in her few minutes of screen time.

If I was asked to choose something it was similar in tone to, I would say the old Australian TV series: 'Round the Twist'.