Just watched: Adrift In Tokyo

If you're feeling depressed that an actor as good as Odagiri Joe should end up in an ill-fated series like Kazoku no Uta, you can take some comfort in the fact that his 2007 film Adrift In Tokyo has finally been released on DVD.

It's directed by Satoshi Miki, and if you've seen any of his other work then you know what to expect. A storyline that meanders from event to event, with a surreal sense of humour. In this film, Joe plays a student deep in debt and Tomokazu Miura pays the thuggish debt collector who's demanding repayments. Then one day, the collector pays the student one million yen to walk with him across Tokyo. But he won't say why.

As the two men walk from one peculiar event to the next, they start to bond, and in the end they have to pretend to be part of a family. While all this is happening, we also see the co-workers of the debt collector's wife becoming increasingly worried about her absence. But, unable to believe that anything really bad has happened, they never take the situation seriously.

There's also a great cameo from Yoshitaka Yuriko as a schoolgirl who is convinced that the two main characters are father and son, and also Koizumi Kyoko (Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi) as the schoolgirl's aunt who is also part of this pretend family.

It's a slow, dreamlike film and Satoshi Miki's signature use of logic runs throughout. Not a great deal makes sense, but once you get over that, it all makes sense.