Rambling men

A mismatched pair wanders the streets in the
funny, meandering Japanese film Adrift in Tokyo

STRANGE STROLLING: Tomokazu Miura and Jô Odagiri

by MARK SLUTSKY

I honestly can’t say I’ve ever seen a film quite like Adrift in Tokyo, the latest release from upstart Montreal-based distributor Evokative Films. (One thing I can say is it’s definitely nothing like 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, despite the strange similarity in titles.) Adrift in Tokyo is an odd film, a gentle comedy that meanders through various neighbourhoods of the Japanese captial and takes plenty of unexpected turns along the way. It’s one of those rare movies where you truly have no idea what’s going to happen next.

Directed by Satoshi Miki, the film stars Jô Odagiri as Fumiya Takemura, a listless, shaggy college student who also happens to be ¥800,000 (about $10,000) in debt. He’s visited by debt collector Aiichiro Fukuhara (Tomokazu Miura, who played the father in Katsuhito Ishii’s wonderful The Taste of Tea), who gives him three days to pay up, but then offers a strange exchange to settle the debt.

If Odagiri will agree to walk with Miura around Tokyo for the following several days—for as long as Miura wants, basically—and just keep him company, he’ll be paid ¥1,000,000 for his trouble, erasing his debt and letting him off scott-free. But why? Odagiri soon finds out that Miura has just accidentally killed his wife, with whom he used to take long walks; after revisiting some of their favourite spots, he’ll turn himself in to the police.

So they do. Adrift in Tokyo has the same rambling feeling and structure as the two main characters’ walk. It’s practically picaresque, as the two stumble on weird, funny or affecting scenes and talk about life. But that description doesn’t really give the full flavour of this movie, which isn’t quite in the mold of, say, Before Sunrise. No, there’s a lot more oddball comedy and set pieces here, some of which are quite funny, and some of which baffled me (I feel like I probably missed quite a few Japanese in-jokes).

In some ways, the film did remind me of a Richard Linklater movie colliding with The Taste of Tea, though with not quite the same magic. Still, I would definitely recommend Adrift in Tokyo to stoners, lovers of Japanese culture or anyone interested in an amusing and totally different trip to the cinema

ADRIFT IN TOKYO OPENS THIS
FRIDAY, APRIL 10