This is a satire of the movie industry from the perspective of Japanese actor/director Takeshi Kitano.
I am no expert on humour in Japan, but this movie seemed to be a satire written for a society without much of a history of satire. The humour is very, often excruciatingly, broad. As just one example, there's a restaurant scene in which two women are trying to get a free meal by planting a cockroach, however they witness another patron being violently beat up by two huge waiters which changes their minds. The fight goes on far too long and is more violent than funny. The exact same idea was used by Chaplin in his film The Immigrant, however, Chaplin's version was far more sophisticated and subtle. And it was made in 1917!
By no means do I feel this is a bad movie, but the humour reminded me of the way Milton Berle would get laughs on his TV show in the 50s by dressing up as a woman. And it had that same nascent feel that Berle had when he was creating the first comedy for TV. As if this movie is an experiment and part of a learning process. I saw the movie at the Toronto Film Festival and I admit there were people in the audience who laughed throughout.
To be fair, there are scenes that are very funny by any standards. For example, the karate school scene is quite good. And I think you could enjoy it just to get a perspective on Japanese culture. Kitano is making a serious attempt at creating satire and it could be enjoyed for that attempt. But don't expect Dr. Strangelove.
I am no expert on humour in Japan, but this movie seemed to be a satire written for a society without much of a history of satire. The humour is very, often excruciatingly, broad. As just one example, there's a restaurant scene in which two women are trying to get a free meal by planting a cockroach, however they witness another patron being violently beat up by two huge waiters which changes their minds. The fight goes on far too long and is more violent than funny. The exact same idea was used by Chaplin in his film The Immigrant, however, Chaplin's version was far more sophisticated and subtle. And it was made in 1917!
By no means do I feel this is a bad movie, but the humour reminded me of the way Milton Berle would get laughs on his TV show in the 50s by dressing up as a woman. And it had that same nascent feel that Berle had when he was creating the first comedy for TV. As if this movie is an experiment and part of a learning process. I saw the movie at the Toronto Film Festival and I admit there were people in the audience who laughed throughout.
To be fair, there are scenes that are very funny by any standards. For example, the karate school scene is quite good. And I think you could enjoy it just to get a perspective on Japanese culture. Kitano is making a serious attempt at creating satire and it could be enjoyed for that attempt. But don't expect Dr. Strangelove.