Lala Pipo – A Lot of People

Japan’s diverse porn industry gets an ill-advised cartoon makeover care of debut director Miyano Masayuki in a film which mines bawdy chuckles from such ‘hilarious’ topics as obesity, voyeurism, phallic symbolism, incest and – the pièce de résistance – forced man-on-man action. Insipid and puerile to the frame, this Day-Glo cultural crosscut follows six coarsely caricatured sex workers as they fulfil their erotic aspirations by any means necessary. A sweaty, awkward journalist converses with his penis (a woollen green sock puppet resembling Oscar the Grouch); a porno Power Ranger fires white lightning from an oversized robotic cock; a plump manga voice artist secretly films (then sells) her various sexual trysts. Masayuki’s bubbly, off-the-cuff technique jars horribly with the material which, it soon transpires, is devoid of anything approaching insight, compassion or substance. If this had been made in Britain during the ’70s, there’s no doubt that Robin Askwith would have been involved.