Oct
7
2007
The Matsugane Potshot Affair
Posted by luna6 Leave a Comment
Name : The Matsugane Potshot Affair / Matsugane ransha jiken
Release Date : October, 2006
Country : Japan
Director : Nobuhiro Yamashita
Starring : Hirofumi Arai, Takashi Yamanaka, Miwa Kawagoe
Runtime : 112 min
Editor Rating : 7.0
Users Rating: 7.17 
(6 votes)
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From acclaimed indie film director, Nobuhiro Yamashita, comes “The Matsugane Potshot Affair” – the follow up to one of the better rock n roll movies of all time and certainly his most successful film to date “Linda Linda Linda”. In hindsight there’s not a lot of similarities between “The Matsugane Potshot Affair” and “Linda Linda Linda” as they are two entirely different films. You could pick out the laid back humor evident in both films as a similarity, but the humor in “The Matsugane Potshot Affair” is far more twisted in black comedy manner.
The pacing of “The Matsugane Potshot Affair” is as much a focal point of the movie as the soundtrack was in “Linda Linda Linda”. The film develops with an unhurried feel, while any type of soundtrack music was entirely non-existent. This works wells for the first half of the film, while the second half’s more dramatic moments felt almost anti-climatic to the wonderful build-up.
The story of the Matsugane Potshot Affair concerns twin brothers, Kataro and Hikaru, as they live their lives in the small fictional town of Matsugane. Although the brothers are twins they don’t have much in common. Kataro is tall and works as one of the town’s two police officers. Hikaru on the other hand is much shorter in stature, dim witted and works in their family owned chicken farm.
Although not a lot seems to happen Matsugane, surprises come about when a mysterious lady is found dead near the side of a road. During the autopsy, Kataro haphazardly discovers that the lady is in fact alive. Once she regains consciousness, the police try discover what happened to her and why she was carrying a ice pick. The lady isn’t very forthcoming with her answers, but they do discover that her name is Miyuki and she was the victim of a hit and run incident.
Miyuki is eventually released from the hospital and meets up with her strange, thug like boyfriend Yuji.
They have lunch together at a dinner in Matsugane, when Hikaru (Kataro’s twin brother) walks in and sits directly across from Miyuki and Yuj. Miyuki seems to recognize him from somewhere and after staring at him for a bit longer, realizes that he was the driver from her hit and run accident.
Hikaru is then blackmailed into becoming the couple’s helper as they search for hidden golden bars buried beneath a frozen pond. Kataro meanwhile deals with family issues and the pregnancy of the local town prostitute, a girl he seems to love, but is impregnated by his father.
While the movie sets up that wonderfully bizarre premise, the element of surprise works distinctly in the favor of the film. You have no idea where the movie is going, but can’t help laughing at the quirky things happening. Some of the highlights were the way Miyuki talks her way out of the police interrogation, Hikaru being forced into becoming a diver and the whole crime caper involving Hikaru, Miyuki and Yuji. In a way these moments felt like a cross between the Cohen Brothers “Raising Arizona” and “Fargo” or placed within the Japanese cinema world “Green Mind Metal Bats” meets “The Taste of Tea”.
The humor is certainly unconventional which works mostly in the film’s favor. Some may laugh harder than others as the subject matter can be quite dark. A mentally challenged girl’s pregnancy, a decapitated head and a couple of odd sex scenes are some of the material provided for fodder.
Stylistically the film remains the same for the second half, but the tone becomes more serious as the character’s problems are brought out into the open. This is where I found the movie to be disappointing. If the film was made to show the backwardness of small town life, it came off as slightly high handed. It didn’t help that two of the characters were mentally challenged but both portrayed in unsympathetic ways. If the film was more of an examination into the brother’s relationship than it didn’t provide much of a payoff, as their relationship stayed mostly static throughout the film.
What you do get with “The Matsugane Potshot Affair” is an interesting film, that starts off immensely promising, but veers off on a singular path that will mostly arouse the attention of cult film fans. The ending didn’t pack much of a wallop for me, but in hindsight I certainly did enjoy the ride getting there.
Cast:
Hirofumi Arai – Kotaro
Takashi Yamanaka – Hikaru
Miwa Kawagoe – Miyuki
Yuichi Kimura – Yuji Nishioka
Tamae Ando – Haruko
Setsuko Karasuma – Izumi kuniyoshi
Tomokazu Miura – Dad
Midoriko Kimura – Mom
Mari Nishio – Sister
Hyoei Enoki
If you like this movie you may enjoy : The Taste of Tea, Green Mind Metal Bats
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2006 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews |