32 year old Tatsuo Fukuda otherwise known as Fuku-chan to his friends is a painter by day. He is also a kind soul who tries to help out in solving arguments between his neighbours and those in need. Fuku-chan lives alone in his apartment and his friends don’t understand why he is so shy and timid around women. What they don’t know is there’s a very good reason for that. The truth comes out when a female photographer named Chiho Sugiura enters the scene. Chiho wins a contest to meet an art photographer she’s always admired but it turns out to be a disaster as the man only has one thing on his mind and that’s to take advantage of her. This incident leaves Chiho shaken up a bit. Chiho is known to Fuku-chan as they used to go to the same school. Fuku-chan liked Chiho at the time and she knew and even encouraged his affection. However, she had no intention of being his girlfriend and as she was a part of a small gang they totally humiliated Fuku-chan. This shattered his confidence with the opposite sex so much that he has carried it into adulthood. Chiho is trying to atone for her past actions as she’s been told she’s got bad karma so she’s goes about in trying to win back his friendship but will this in turn make Fuku-chan even more unhappy or can they mend the bridge that were broken all those years ago?
Depending on your sense of humour, the opening scene of the movie will determine whether you enjoy this comedy drama movie or not but it made me laugh. It’s got one of Fuku-chan’s cheeky co-workers farting on the face of someone who’s taking a nap during a break! Despite this scene, this isn’t one of those low brow comedies full of toilet humour and it does actually got a good plot to it abut how something cruel perpetrated on an individual in the past can have a long term effect on the victim years later. In Fuku-chan’s case, his friends know he’s a nice enough person and they try and set him up with a woman but he can’t deal with any notion of romance and his friends have no idea why but it is all linked to one incident during his teen years. The movie is also a story of redemption, of a person regretting an action that may have seemed like fun at the time but now wants to correct that sin.
Chiho and Fuku-chan’s attempt at reconciliation with each other is the heart of the story. Seeing Chiho coming back into his life brings back bad memories for Fuku-chan and with good reason but slowly and surely the barrier between them comes gradually down with Fuku-chan becoming Chiho’s muse in a series of photographs shot by her. Even though she might not see Fuku-chan as a very attractive man, he does have a sort of unusual face that shows emotion very well and Chiho capitilises on this – capturing Fuku-chan’s natural expressions on camera. Whilst the story does have some seriousness to it, there are some quite wonderful comedy scenes in the movie and for myself the highlight of the entire movie is at a curry house in a scene that is so hilariously ridiculous and absurd. If you only have to see this movie to watch this scene it’s well worth the money but I do have to say that this isn’t a movie in which jokes fly at you every 5 mins or so.
At first I thought that Fuku-chan was played by YoshiYoshi Arakawa. I know from watching movies such as Fine, Totally Fine and Survive Style 5+ how funny the guy is and he’s on form in this movie as well but the person who got the leading role of Fuku-chan might raise a few eyebrows. When I first saw Fuku-chan I did notice there was something a little bit….how can I say….out of place about the character but I couldn’t put my finger on it until I went online and found out that Fuku-chan is played by none other than a woman. Comedienne Miyuki Oshima is apparently well known in Japan for impersonating men (not that I knew anything about that). She is fantastic as Fuku-chan who is an instantly likeable, warm character and has a child-like view on life at times. Everybody can relate to Fuku-chan’s hurt that he’s been carrying around since his teenage years. I’m sure it was the scriptwriter’s joke on Miyuki that there are several references to Fuku-chan’s well endowed penis! Asami Mizukawa is also very good as Chiho and it’s nice to see how prepared she is to make amends to Fuku-chan after a long time. The supporting cast is brilliant as there are numerous oddball characters in the movie such as Fuku-chan’s neighbours who are very funny in their own right . I felt that the only ‘normal’ people in the story was Fuku-chan and Chiho.
All in all, I was delighted by this movie because you might think it could be a formulaic romantic comedy on the surface but it’s far more than that. There are plenty of laughs to be had but ultimately it’s the drama aspect that really sets this apart. It’s a solid movie filled with great characters and a sweet story to boot. I really enjoyed this movie and I hope you do too. Recommended.
Sadako’s Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Sadako's Movie Shack 
I absolutely loved this one. Fuku-chan is a wonderfully nice protagonist to follow and Yosuke Fuita has crafted a great set of characters and bizarre situations to place around him – the curry scene is priceless! When Fuku-chan takes stock of his relationship with Chiho and there was the enka sequence with him flying on the kite, I couldn’t help but be delighted and I cried a little.
What was the audience like for this indie film and what was the cinema that screened it like?
I saw this movie again at my favourite ‘local’ cinema in Tokyo – Shinjuku Piccadilly. There’s basically two large cinema complexes in Shinjuku – Shinjuku Piccadilly and Wald 9 (I only go there if a movie isn’t shown at the other). The screening was only a quarter full which was to be expected as the movie had been out for a little while. Everybody there seemed to enjoy it and various people laughed at times when I didn’t understand what the dialogue was all about.