The well spring of J-Horror and Yakuza titles that once fuelled Tartan’s now defunct catalogue may have dried up of late, but those interested in Japanese cinema, as well as those bored by how generic it was all starting to become, will be pleased to discover that recent years have seen the emergence of a new wave of highly original and idiosyncratic comedies that are now starting to garner significant international attention. And with their breezy charm, independent production methods and off kilter, stylised aesthetics its hard not to see this as a backlash against the turgid waters of J-Horror.

Figures appearing at the forefront of this movement appear to be fish-eyed funny man Yosiyosi Arakawa (Fine Totally Fine) and directors Sotoshi Miki (Adrift in Tokyo), Nobuhiro Yamashita (The Matsugane Potshot Affair) and Tetsuya Nakashima, whose film Kamikaze Girls (2004) was a recent pop cultural phenomenon in Japan. British audiences are about to gain quite an insight into the bizarre world of Nakashima as Third Window Films (a distributor profiled in October’s issue) intend to release Kamikaze Girls and the multi award-winning Memories of Matsuko (2006) on January 12.

Garnering favourable comparisons to such international superstars as Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie), Tim Burton and Baz Luhrmann (Romeo and Juliet), Kamikaze Girls is an utterly hilarious roller coaster ride through the outer reaches of kitsch Japanese subcultures. Starring the doll-like Kyoko Fukada as Momoko, a girl who dreams of

living in Rococo period Versailles where “life was like candy”, but is condemned to live out in the sticks with her senile grandmother surrounded by cow shit and people who live and die in tracksuits.

Whilst trying to raise funds to fuel her obsession with the ‘Lolita’ fashion house ‘Baby the Stars Shine Bright’, Momoko inadvertently attracts the attention of girl biker gang member Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya), who, despite being her exact opposite in almost everyway, for some reason becomes firm friends with her. Momoko and Ichigo, the idiosyncratic loner and the violent collectivist, become a bizarre leather and lace clad team who embark on a journey to Tokyo to find the legendary seamstress Emma. The result is a film packed to bursting with wacky aesthetic devices, unhinged digressions and laugh out loud moments, all edited at breakneck speed to a J-pop soundtrack.

It would be unfair to describe Nakashima’s follow up Memories of Matsuko as a pure comedy, as it has quite a poignant story at its heart. It follows Shou, a deadbeat layabout who is given the job of clearing out his hermit aunt Matsuko’s apartment by his father after she is found murdered by a riverbank. When his old man declares that her life was ultimately ‘meaningless’ a chord is struck with Shou, and he sets about trying to reconstruct the life of a woman he has never met in an attempt to prove Daddy wrong. Half based on conversations Shou has with people who knew her, including her psychotic punk neighbour and an aging pornstar, and half on his own imagination, the film begins to reconstruct Matsuko through a serious of flashbacks that are at times humorous and at other times tragic. The song and dance routines Nakashima has running through the film are deliciously kitsch but sometimes jar with the poignant subject matter. On the whole Memories of Matsuko succeeds as a highly original and vibrant piece of filmmaking that bears some similarities in tone to the work of Shunji Iwai, particularly the wonderful All About Lily Chou Chou. Taken together these films show an emerging director of some talent, with a surprisingly broad emotional range.

Words > Andrew Wensum