Hazy Life

A slacker movie, Osaka indie style. Tsutomu (Uda) is hanging around waiting to play pachinko when he crosses paths with Kee (Yamamoto), who sports women's shoes and a Leningrad Cowboys hairdo. Next thing he's installed in Kee's cluttered room helping to dub copies of porno tapes made at home by a couple Kee knows. Tsutomu has the odd violent thought, especially when caught shoplifting, but spends as much time as possible asleep. Yamashita's rather wonderful film goes mainly for deadpan comedy, but doesn't flinch when things start to go wrong for the amiably degenerate characters. The fantasy ending, with everyone reconciled as one big happy family under the cherry blossoms, could have been sardonic. But Yamashita makes it as heartening as the end of Kids Return.