Monday, July 13, 2015

A Farewell to Jinu (2015) Japan Cuts

The title means goodbye money but despite the best effort of the main character a great deal is spent.

Takeharu moves to a remote village in the hopes of living without money. However despite his best efforts to do so and remain by himself he finds himself drawn out by the inhabitants of the village.

Wonderfully funny and very alive adaption of  the manga called Kamuroba Mura e (“To Kamuroba Village”) by Mikio Igarashi this is a film that is two hours with good people.  To be certain things get surreal, one of the characters is the town's god (no really), but at the same time it all makes wonderful sense.

I was hooked almost instantly. Somewhere at the start as Takeharu was waiting for a bus and the people waiting there were talking about turning 18 and coming of age I found it all somehow charming despite the fact that the conversation talked about becoming a hostess or a hooker. I have no idea why but it made me smile.

Actually almost everything in this film made me smile. This is just a wonderful group of loopy people who aren't that far removed from the people we run into in daily life.

This is one of my favorite films of Japan Cuts and a must see when it plays Friday at the festival.

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