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Hello, Film Experiencers! This is the rather-absent-of-late BeRightBack, posting a note from beneath the mountains of work I've been buried under for the past two months or so. As you may know, the Chicago International Film Festival is currently taking place in the Windy City. While I had been resigned to skipping it entirely this year, last night I was compelled to ignore my obligations and take in a Sunday night screening of Kanikôsen, the new movie by the Japanese director Sabu.

Known for candy-colored, slapstick films like Hard Luck Hero and Drive that rely on the narrative force of a madcap chase to connect a series of inventive set-pieces and visual gags, Sabu seemed a provocatively odd choice to remake the stern 1929 proletarian novella Kanikôsen by Kobayashi Takiji (the title is translated variously as "The Factory Ship" or "The Cannery Boat," although Sabu has insisted that his film be...

HONG KONG -- For the last couple of years, actor-director Sabu (DANGAN Runner) has been making films with Japanese boy band V6 (Hard Luck Hero and Hold Up Down), which became surprise festival hits. The exposure he got from his popular collaborations will get his new film, Dead Run, into any number of festivals and possibly a limited art house release outside of Japan: This is the kind of film that will sit well with upmarket foreign distributors. But anyone who's expecting the comic antics of the V6 films will be disappointed. In its place is some sensitive, assured filmmaking. Indeed Sabu's development as a filmmaker is one of the most interesting things about the film.

Road-movie master Sabu steers off his normal well-trod course to explore the drama found in isolation, integration and navigation of the path of life for high schooler Shuji (J-pop star Tegoshi Yuya). Shuji is a shore kid -- meaning he doesn't much fraternize with people who live on a landfill development off the mainland. He takes to hanging around with Miyahara (Toyokawa Etsushi), a priest and possible felon new to town, and the young woman, Eri (Kan Hanae), who spends most of her spare time in the church. Eri is aloof and withdrawn from almost everyone in the town, the suicide of her parents still hovering over her life. Shuji's brother Shuichi is another problem, a borderline genius who deteriorates into madness and manages to destroy the family.

One of Shuji's earliest glimpses of adulthood comes when Kenji (Terajima Susumu) and his moll Akane (Nakatani Miki) give him a ride home when his bike breaks down. The short drive is quite sexually charged and a little frightening for the young Shuji. Akane proves to be someone who nudges him into the nextphase of his life on two separate occasiona -- the most traumatic of which is largely Shuji's choice involving another boyfriend, Nitta (an oddly cold Osugi Ren).

Shuji's tale goes from standard teen angst to tragedy. The nature of Shuji's education grows increasingly dark after he heads out on the road to find Eri in Tokyo, culminating in a way that only a Sabu film can. However, Dead Run appropriately lacks the ridiculously clever happenstance that works so well in the director's more comic films. He avoids coincidence for his characters, and forces them to make more choices.

Working from a script adapted from a novel -- a first for him -- Sabu demonstrates his ability to navigate dense material deftly. There's a lot of danger in the world, and Shuji's dead run -- his dash -- through adolescence is fraught with pitfalls regardless of how tranquil the blue-toned landscape looks.

Dead Run does have moments where the line between deliberate pacing and dragging blurs. However, cutting scenes wouldn't work because there's nothing in the narrative that doesn't need to happen. Sabu simply hasn't allowed his tight, controlled hand free reign here, but Shuji's emotional growth is deftly handled for the most part, with Sabu's preferred road motif in full swing. This is a strong film, the director's most accomplished, mature film to date.

Dead Run does have moments where deliberate pacing morphs into dragging. However, cutting scenes could be difficult in a film where every scene contains something that needs to happen to carry both plot and theme forward. Nevethtless, this is a strong film, the director's most accomplished, mature film to date.

DEAD RUN

IMJ Entertainment, Kadokawa Pictures, J Storm

Credits:

Writer/director: Sabu

Based on a novel by: Shigematsu Kiyoshi

Producer: Miki Hiroaki

Director of photography: Nakabori Masao

Production designer: Kanekatsu Koichi

Music: SENS

Editor: Tomoyo Ohshima.

Cast:

Shuji: Tegoshi Yuya

Eri: Kan Hanae

Father Miyahara: Toyokawa Etsushi

Akane: Nakatani Miki

Nitta: Osugi Ren

Kenji: Terajima Susumu

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 123 minutes...