| Up until the middle part where it morphs into a road trip movie, this film was going along at a semi-nice pace. The main character is some weird dude whose only explanation for his odd behavior is being Korean in Japan. Of course he is supported by weird supporting characters, including Mika Nakashima, who does an air kick at people to say goodbye. There is one bizarre scene where Korean Kid is having a conversation with his sister in his room when the camera fades in and out and they are still talking, however now both of them are in their underwear. Some time later the sister commits suicide. It is never told what caused it, but the brother decides to take his sister's body to see Korea as his last present for her. Obviously, he has to bring along his crew of strange friends he barely knows...
This is where the possible entertainment grinds to a halt. Unlike other similar movies with dead bodies as supporting characters, ("Little Miss Sunshine" or "Weekend at Bernie’s"--actually, anything starring Andrew McCarthy), there are not many laugh out loud hijinks involving the body or anyone in the car. Everyone doesn't act the least bit freaked out by the corpse. Mika actually starts to bond with it, she picks out her coffin dress and does her makeup. There is a long scene involving running out of money and trying to rob people. It gets boring and dragged out, these things happen. Sometimes the assistant director takes over or the director loses enthusiasm for filming. All Mika Nakashima fans should be happy because she looks prettier here than in "Nana." She is still very goth and skinny looking, but better than the drag queen makeup "Nana" had her in. A tradeoff would be that she is not in as many tank tops and short shorts. As a real kicker you get a sense of how short she is. Not just to her co-stars, but also to the extras and possibly those five pound bags of tortilla chips from Costco. |
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