Kame wa igai to hayaku oyogu

Being a fan of Yu Aoi, I make it a priority to see all of her films....at least the ones that are available with English subs. So when I came across the hilarious online trailer for "Turtles Swim Faster Than Expected", I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Lucky for me, I found a copy with English subtitles and went into it with huge expectations. Little did I know that pretty much all of the funny moments in this film are already shown in the trailer. I could compare the experience to already knowing the punchline to a joke, but then having to go through listening to the setup.

The biggest problem with the movie is the story, or lack thereof. It does have an interesting premise, but definitely does not live up to its potential. I was quite disappointed with where the plot was going about half way into the film and the ending was just a mess! The film all too often strays away from the plot and gets down right ridiculous in some instances.

I'm glad to say that not all is lost. Juri Ueno's performance was spectacular and her on screen charisma is what makes this film at least somewhat watchable. Yu Aoi was just as charming and adorable as she is in every film, but wasn't used nearly enough. I also must comment on the song playing at the end. It was very catchy and put a smile on my face even though the movie as a whole was a big letdown. Don't get me wrong, there are some funny parts in the movie, but they are few and far between.

Overall I'm extremely disappointed even though the movie was still decent. Its more of the fact that it had so much potential and wasted it. An interesting premise + Juri and Yu would seem to be a sure thing, but instead the writers went with total absurdity + underdeveloped characters + pointless plot and thought that would somehow work.

I give the film 6/10 but that is largely due to the performances of Juri and Yu.

This film looked to be my kind of thing but so much of it just falls flat. It doesn't go much deeper than an attempt at being a comedy and unfortunately it isn't funny which means there's little left to pick out of it. It's quirky for quirky's sake. There's nothing funny about a dancing hairdresser who appears in one scene to show just how quirky he is. That's the level of comedy throughout. The acting is fine and there's some likeable characters but the story ultimately goes nowhere and is very much a vehicle to move the audience from one 'hilarious' quirky character to another.

Watch instead 'fine totally fine' or ' fuku chan of fukufuku flats' these are much more entertaining third window releases.

I was also unsurprised to see this is the same writer behind Adrift in Tokyo, a highly rated movie which I also found oddly bland and ultimately pointless.

Writer/director Satoshi Miki offers an amusing tale of a vapid housewife who is rescued from the monotony of feeding a turtle for her tanshin funin husband by being recruited as a spy for an unstated foreign power. Life gains meaning as she strives to hone her until now taken-for-granted ordinariness.

Juri Ueno as Suzume Katakura keeps it fairly reigned in, reacting with gasp of incredulity to the slightly surreal mayhem unleashed around her by the assembled well-known comedians. There is a dancing barber, a secret ramen genius, a tofu-making small arms expert, and her friend Peacock, the quirky, charismatic Yû Aoi, who wants to live in Paris with a Frenchman and a view of the Eiffel Tower. Aoi is a great talent and it is slightly disappointing that she is under-used here. Perhaps that is deliberate, to prevent her overshadowing Ueno.

The comedy is quick-fire and this is a series of loosely connected sketches rather than a compelling narrative. Production values are low and reek of micro-budget movie-making, but the comedy is funny so all is forgiven. The star here really is Miki's script and sense of comic timing (though more visuality and less narration would have been welcome). And a relief to see a J director with a sense of economy - the 90-minute running time is just right. Pleasant fare for those who share the director's light, frothy sense of humour.

This film's main attraction is Juri Ueno whose effortless charisma and charm make the film quite watchable if somewhat uneventful.

Ueno plays Suzume, a bored housewife who decides to train as a spy at the hands of a middle-aged couple. Some scenes are extremely effective, such as Suzume's attempt to order something so normal that the waitress won't remember what she ordered, but they are the exception rather than the norm.

The films moves along smoothly enough, including a de-rigeur chaotic climax with which the film concludes.

The film is enjoyable enough. Ueno is always a pleasure to watch, and the quiet charm of the film leaves you with a smile on your face.

I am kind of surprised to see such low rating and bad reviews.

To be quite fair, I found the movie a fantastic entertainment. I hardly ever laugh so much during the film as I did yesterday.

First of all, I would not say that plot is nonexistent here. It is pretty chaotic, but that was the point here, and this is where the charm of Turtles lays.

I see it in a way as a parody of the detective movies with a simple plot (a crime happened, police is chasing them, the criminal is caught). Here we have no crime, the whole spying looks a bit surreal until the very end, the detectives talk nonsense most of the time, the clumsiness of the investigation is hilarious.

Many scenes look just random, but again this is why they are funny. Dancing hairdresser or the lottery with 'fabulous' prices might not add much to the development of the spy plot, but they help to create a great impression of a crazy life the main character is leading. It is the accumulation of the surprising elements and the unexpected that put the smile on my face.

You can also find bits parodying teen movies (Suzume crush on Katou, and their rendez-vous years later), and once again, I could not stop laughing how awkward, but how close to real life that was.

All in all, I think it is really worth giving it a chance, just sit back and relax, and if you don't expect a highly intellectual film, you might love it as I did.