Low-key, ironic and very sharp Japanese comedy which uncovers sexual deviancy and family dysfunction in the wake of a small-town crime. From the director of last year's Festival hit Linda, Linda, Linda.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2007
The Matsugane Potshot Affair 2006
Matsugane ransha jiken
The director of last year’s hit Linda, Linda, Linda returns with another deadpan quasi-comedy, this time focusing on family dysfunction, sexual deviancy and a couple of bungling crooks. A beautiful woman in a red coat is found lying dead in the snow after a hit-and-run accident in one-horse town Matsugane. Local policeman Suzuki Kotaro (Arai Hirofumi) is sent to investigate the crime, only to discover that his slightly dim-witted brother Hikaru (Yamanaka Takashi) knows more about the accident than he is letting on. As the two brothers are drawn into the incompetent activities of a Bonnie and Clyde duo hiding out in the town, the cruelty, incest and financial greed at the heart of the Suzuki clan is slowly laid bare.
“[Director] Yamashita Nobuhiro is one of the great comic talents working in Japanese films and also one of the most unusual. Unlike the many directors and actors who equate ‘funny’ with ‘over the top’, Yamashita is low-key, ironic and very sharp.” — Mark Schilling, Japan Times