NYAFF 09 Review: LALAPIPO

[Our thanks to Renzo Adler for the following review.]

If you described the plot of Lalapipo without mentioning the film’s jovial candy colored style, it would sound incredibly depressing—and I mean on Requiem for a Dream like scale (I guess Nobody Knows would be the better comparison since we’re talking Japanese films). Lalapipo, the directorial debut of Masayuki Miyano, is written by Kamikaze Girls scribe Tetsuya Nakashima and is based on the novel by Hideo Okuda. The film deals with the oft lampooned, speculated, and analyzed subject of sexuality in contemporary Tokyo. Unlike films like Love & Pop or Bounce Kogals, Lalapipo is vibrant, full of humor, and is generally light hearted for the most part; yet still manages to sneak in some heavy scenes and deals with themes like alienation, sexual de-sensitization, violence, and then some.

Of course the film is obviously reveling in its own quirkiness and there are the inevitable cliché characters (I swear to Miike, if I see one more pimp with a heart of gold…) but the film keeps things snappy and interesting by doing a story told through the perspectives of a pimp, a girl entering the unseemly world of the Tokyo sex industry, and few other sad yet comical characters. Considering Japan’s lengthy history with pink films (often bizarre, softcore pornos) I was actually surprised how the film decided to imply and hint much more than explicitly show (a character communicates with his penis which is in the form of a cuddly puppet). It’s nice to see a film that balances the whole wacky Japanese movie act with actually dealing with the kinds of themes more associated with directors like Kiyoshi Kurosawa. At the end of the day, Lalapipo is a very interesting film, entertaining, and certainly the sort of thing that could only come from Japan. Besides, when was the last time that you saw a sex comedy that actually made you think a little?

PS: I have a very personal relationship with this film. I used to intern at Vertical Inc, the American publishers of the original book. For promotional copies I had to pack condoms into copies of LalaPipo and sent them to people like Art Spiegelman and the Christian Science Monitor. The more you know.

Review by Renzo Adler