Getting Any?

It sometimes comes as a surprise to people when they learn that Takeshi Kitano is best known in Japan as a comedian. The man with the most deadpan expression ever is mainly known for his gangster movies, and for the sometimes shocking portrayal of violence they contain. I'm surprised that people are surprised though, because even his most hardboiled gangster movies contain a strain of deadpan absurdist humour that is at least as characteristic of his films as the violence. Maybe a lot of people simply miss the humour - Americans aren't best known for their appreciation of subtle comedy after all

Watching GETTING ANY? it's hard to imagine anybody missing the fact it is a comedy though, as it is anything but subtle. Actually maybe that's not true - the humour is still often times subtle, but the movie as a whole is unmissably surreal and absurd.

The premise is simple. A not too bright loser has but one thing on his mind - getting laid. He really hasn't got much of a clue how one goes about this, though, and the movie largely concerns his increasingly stupid schemes to get some. First on the list... get a car. Should be simple enough, right? Not for this guy His plans get more and more ludicrous as the movie progresses, and lead him into some ridiculous and sometimes hilarious situations.

This is without a doubt the strangest movie Kitano has done, and it's as wild and inventive as any movie that springs to mind except maybe the odd Jeff Lau or Stephen Chiau film. The movie plays like a strung together sequence of sketches parodying numerous movies and cultural elements, rather like a Japanese Monty Python film. Like Monty Python, it's clear that there's a keen intelligence behind all the stupidity.

The movie is not without flaws, unfortunately - chief of which is that it loses focus for a long time around the half way mark. Our hero gets himself into a couple of dire situations and for some time the whole purpose of his adventure (getting some) is forgotten. It's still funny and ridiculous, but dilutes the experience somewhat and drags on a little too long. It perhaps becomes a little too absurd for its own good in the second half, coming too close to simply being random.

GETTING ANY? is a fairly lightweight contribution to Kitano's resume, but one so totally opposed to his unique style of film-making shown in films like SONATINE and HANA-BI that it simply had to be made. Kitano is far more than a one trick pony, even though it's mainly for one trick that he's known in the west. Unfortunately, GETTING ANY is probably altogether too strange to have widespread appeal in the US, and won't do much to broaden peoples' perception of him.

I love Takeshi Kitano's movies, not every movie he does is perfect but I appreciate the amount of style and effort he puts on each film to do something very singular to his vision. And it just so happens his take on complete satire and slapstick comedy is absolutely fun, but as I said- not perfect.

Getting Any? As the title suggests is about the quest of getting laid at all costs. We follow incel-like pervert Asao (who has his room plastered filled with porn posters) who gets out on the quest to get a car in order to get a gorgeous lady to have sex with him, cause if you have the car then ladies will swarm you to have sex right? Not really. We then follow this completely despicable guy get in all sorts of trouble and mishaps on the way to his quest which is just pure fun- everything from failed bank robberies, yakuza-involvement and scientific experiments- this movie won't end in the way you think it's gonna end and that's amazing! I love that the movie has some sort of criticism on the state of entertainment as a whole, Japanese pervert culture and more- it's never obvious but sometimes it can be on-your-face which is not annoying in this case. It even spoofs a lot of western cultural stuff like movies and music which is interesting to see in itself how the western culture gets translated in a whole new cultural setting in Japan.

The comedy is top notch- one gag after the other, the comedy sometimes can hang on different Japanese cultural references that I'm not familiar with but it's fun nevertheless. The movie despite it's subject matter is filmed in a very very gorgeous way, with crisp and beautiful footage (just look at the opening scene which is just fantastic). It has some "cheaper" looking shots but it's totally appropriate considering which movie this is. The music is also fun, altering between gorgeous tracks to some fun pop music of the era to folk and enka tracks.

This all sounds very fun and it totally is the first hour or so is very engaging and offers many moments to laugh. It is in its second half when it looses a bit of its track and steam, the yakuza segment can feel a bit way too long and the last plot could've been made much more snappier! Don't get me wrong, there are still some very funny moments in the second half I just felt personally that I kind of lost the plot for a bit, until the absurd final takes place which makes up for it absolutely. The portrayal of women in this film can feel a bit weird but considering the film's subject matter and such it's a bit understandable.

Either way I think this movie is totally worth a watch, it's funny, weird, silly and so much more. You will not be disappointed by this movie- I think it's on par with Takeshi's other satire movie "Kantoku Banzai" perhaps even better? Check it out!

First off two questions:

1.How well do you know Japanese pop culture? Have you seen Japanese yakuza films? Godzilla? Do you know Zatoichi and Lone Wolf and Cub? How about Ultraman? Have you watched things like Extreme Elimination on Spike (which is a Beat Takeshi TV show)? Do you know about their attitudes towards sex?

2.Are you bothered by base humor that goes for the lowest common denominator? Get you get past woman being nothing more than objects to take their clothes off? Do you laugh at poop jokes or for that matter just really dumb jokes?

If you know a bit about Japanese culture and can laugh at stupid jokes then this is for you.

Starting as one man's quest to get a car so he can have sex in it, this film morphs into a destruction of dozens of Japanese icons. It proves that Western eyes aren't the only ones who find much of Japanese culture silly.

If you have a passing awareness of what they are sending up and tearing down this is absolutely hysterical. Granted you won't get everything, but you'll probably smile from start to finish with frequent bursts of laughter.

One of the chief reasons this works is that there is intelligence behind the humor. Yes, the hero is a pig, and his attitudes towards women are terrible, but thats the point and much of the pain that he ends up getting he deserves for being the way he is. The jokes about the icons is often dead on, for example the film dismantles Lone Wolf and Cub in a minute and a half so perfectly I doubt that I'll be able to watch the movies with a straight face ever again.

If you know Japanese culture and love to laugh see this movie. You may not love it all, but you will laugh.

A word of warning- this movie would be rated R if released in the US. Not just for the sex and nudity, but for the scatological humor which cross over into the graphic.

For Japanophiles with a low brow sense of humor 8 out of 10. For everyone else 4 out of 10.

Not my favourite Takeshi movie but then he did make so many good ones so it's hard to pick. This one has a more scattershot approach and it also goes on a bit too long; the yakuza material around the middle part feels stretched and repetitive as a result. What starts out as a wacky sex comedy becomes more and more wacky as it goes on, leading to spoofs of various film genres as well as the Japanese film industry in and of itself. Quite unlike anything I've seen, even other Takeshi films.

One of the stupidest, most bizarre, and straight up perverted movies I've seen in a long time, but it was friggin' funny as hell. If you can handle 'stupid funny' then this movie is definitely enjoyable. Loosely organized around the fact that this perverted guy wants to score badly.... so he goes off and tries many different means to accomplish this task. The end degenerates into a big of a Godzilla parody, but still funny. be sure to stick around for the end of the credits too.