Saddo tî

Having got to see this at the Natsumi mini Japanese film festival in London, I felt spurred to write a review of it, as at the time of writing there aren't any reviews for this movie on IMDB. This relationship-comedy from Japan has very much a "quirky independent movie" feel. Most of the scenes are very understated conversations between two or three people, often presented in one long unbroken shot.The tone of the movie is understated comedy with quite a bit of pathos. It's very funny: there were a LOT of laughs at the London screening I was at.

There is quite a large cast and they are all great. I often feel that the characters in Japanese films feel absolutely real, and this is the case here. The movie doesn't seem to have much structure at first, switching between different characters from scene to scene, but part of the fun is in how the interweaving storylines and relationships are revealed throughout the movie, leading to a climax that brings everybody together.

Recommended if you like understated films or independent films. If the opportunity arises (it can be hard to get to legally see a lot of East Asian films in the West) I'd love to see more stuff from this director.