Wild Life

I don't want to be to harsh to this movie, yet somehow it's always worse when an inventive, intriguing film can't maintain it to the finish. So whilst this film is enjoyable and certainly worth seeing if you get the chance, I can't honestly recommend you go out of your way for it.

Like a lot of Japanese films, this mixes comedy and mystery (and of course the ubiquitous Yakuza) to good effect, at least in the first half. There's a certain sense of free fall as you try and work out with Sakai san what the hell's going on, as fractured time lines pull disparate scenes together in a satisfyingly 'arty' manner. The mixture of light, slapstick comedy with a darker edge seems just right. The actors have fun hamming it up, and the director pulls all kinds of visual tricks out of the bag.

Yet as things progress it becomes progressively flatter and more conventional. The story disappoints and there seems to be no real points made. As everyone falls about laughing as it draws to a close, you feel this is one joke you've been left out of. It feels like just another director with not much to say, but with lots of ways to say it. If it weren't for the large number of other, better Japanese films out there which are in a similar kind of vein then I would recommend this - but another surreal Yakuza movie? Full marks for trying - I look forward to seeing some of his other films.