Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Fine, Totally Fine: Film Review

Title: Fine, Totally Fine (Zenzen Daijobu)
Director: Yosuke Fujita
Year: 2008
Screenplay: Yosuke Fujita
It is time for another venture into the world of live action Japanese cinema.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I decided to watch Fine, Totally Fine, I was more interested in just having something to review, although I seem to have stumbled upon something quite marvellous.

The story follows three characters who are suffering from varying degrees and varieties of haplessness. Teuro Tohyama is an almost-thirty horror-fanatic who works away his days on various manual labour jobs and covering in his ennui-suffering father’s second-hand bookshop, dreaming of the day when his vast research into scare-mongering can be put to use in order to revolutionise the ‘Haunted House’ industry. His long suffering colleague-in-horror Hisanobu Komori is nowhere near as out-and-out awkward as Teuro, but suffers heavily from being “the nice guy”. Despite being considered easily the nicest person in the hospital where he works as a clerk, he often is too easy on his employees, where he is required to be more of an iron fist authority figure. In this way he comes into contact with Akari Kinoshita, who turns up for her interview to work in the hospital with torn clothes, covered in mud and with a bloodied nose, due to being assaulted by tourists for dropping their camera whilst attempting to take their photo. It might seem slightly reductive to declare “and hilarity ensues”, but this is certainly the case.

The film is a strange piece that is difficult to categorise satisfactorily, which may frustrate you if categorisation is your thing. It is undoubtedly described elsewhere as ‘zany’ or ‘kooky’, but having a visceral dislike of such vulgar words, I will refrain. The film is, at heart, a comedy, although its softly mellow tone and measured pace locates it far from the forcibly false laugh-a-minute grotesques that usually pass for a comedy film. Having said this, the film manages unusual changes of tone and pace, which wouldn’t usually sit well together, yet Fine, Totally Fine manages to combine eclectic techniques without feeling disjointed or cluttered.

Certain scenes play out at delightfully tedium-goading length, with no cheesy reprieve to distract from the understated and drawn-out deadpan. These scenes are all the funnier for it, with one such example having Teuro state blankly in disbelief as his father is on television playing a song on a ukulele declaring his love of rice. At other times the film dabbles masterfully with surrealism, having a huge bubblegum ball noiselessly flatten an obnoxious child, in what I can only assume is a knowing homage to The Prisoner. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the film is that it is able to seamlessly incorporate ludicrously silly yelps and yells into the film without detracting from the low key nature of the rest of the storytelling. Also included is some amazingly acted cringe-inducing gracelessness, the physical equivalent of The Office or Curb Your Enthusiasm. One such scene has Akari wrestling cack-handedly with a cardboard box, in an attempt to tape it shut.

Though there are some examples of scenes drawn out to a trying degree (which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, though they certainly are mine), the vast majority of the scenes do not outlive their welcome, with strange events often cutting to a new scene with fantastic comedy timing. The leisurely tempo of the film is helped along by the ponderous pace of the backing track. The key track is a soft and whimsical example of chilled out picking on the classical guitar, and the soundtrack also features what may very well be a pastiche to the hugely famous theme for the Gallery.

The minimalistic tone and slow pace of the film doesn’t restrict the acting to strictly po faced seriousness, and there is certainly a rich seam of purposefully dopey acting in places. I was able to pick up a number of dodgy puns, even with my own spurious understanding of Japanese, my particular favourite involved the term “warui” (can be pronounced wah-ree), which translated directly to “bad” but can be used to apologise, in the phrase “warui Antoinette”. That said I am known for having something of a penchant for hideous puns.

There is also a plethora of completely strange lines, such as during the recording of an awful home movie (within the actual film) where a woman declares, to camera: “I once ate a cat, I will always bear that sin”. Although some glib pseudo-words-of-wisdom also appear, such as when an old friend is beseeching Teuro’s father to be more like his son, declaring: “Life’s more fun when you’re an idiot”.

Certain characterisations are taken to a glorious breaking point, as in attempting to portray a man as incredibly rich, a short sequence shows a pristinely groomed snowflake-white cat with pink bows on her head tentatively nibbling on a steak.

What I am perhaps failing to convey is quite how funny the film is. I was fully expecting to dislike the film, in fact I chose it with the hope of providing a review which wasn’t rampant hyperbole and prove that I am capable of disliking films. What Fine, Totally Fine has proven is that just like books, films should not be judged by their covers. I am something of a comedy elitist, and it is rare for a film to poke me in my funny bone quite as solidly as this one has. I found myself genuinely and regularly guffawing inelegantly at the screen, incredulous at the seemingly effortless way in which the film was able to snake-charm laughs from next to nothing.

Other sources have criticised Fine, Totally Fine for being anticlimactic, but readers familiar with my preference of conclusion will know that a generic Hollywood culmination is not to be appreciated. It is also possible that some would declare that the film is, in places, pretentious, though this is also nothing to be concerned about, as usually ‘pretentious’ is used incorrectly in order to slam any creative endeavour that veers from the norm. Which is an incredibly pretentious thing to say.

Fine, Totally Fine is a genuinely funny and heartening journey, following a series of skewed and awkward, yet also legitimately human, characters through their everyday attempts to function in the world around them. To conclude, it is excellent and it is bloody funny.

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