CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Once in awhile, as a reviewer, I come across some strange little gems. They won’t win major prizes. The may not even be distributed worldwide. In the end, they may not even be celebrated. But they exist. Trust me. A good example would be this little movie right here: “Chonmage Purin”. A quirky family oriented comedy about a time-travelling samurai who inadvertently lands in front of a present-day Tokyo supermarket.

To his amazement and horror, the unfortunate warrior slowly begins to cope with the fact that he no longer exists in his time period. Scared out of his wits, he is befriended one day by a single-mother, Hiroko Yusa ( Rie Tomosaka ), and her little boy Tomoya ( Fuku Suzuki ). And so, Yasube Kijima ( Ryo Nishikido ), ex-officer to the Shogun, finds himself in quite a pickle: either the place where he has lived all of his life has suddenly disappeared or he has completely lost his mind.

This small family unit is ill-equipped to deal with a problem of this magnitude but when a 200 ( or 184 if you want to be exact ) year old sword-carrying samurai appears out of thin air, who is really? The man himself is surprisingly cordial but is quick to lose his temper. Unable to fend for himself, he becomes increasingly dependant on his caretakers.

With each passing day, Yasube begins to feel more and more indebted to his new friends until he decides to offer them his services as a maid and cook. Undeterred by the prospect of doing menial tasks, he dedicates himself fully to his work, learning the tricks of the trade along the way. Until one day, he tries his hand at baking pastries…

Now, for the technical stuff. I can’t really say that there was any problems with the cinematography or the camera work but it just paled in comparison to the acting. It’s not award-winning acting but there’s so much charm oozing from every character in this story that it becomes severely enjoyable to watch.

There’s this sly complicity going on between Ryo Nishikido, Rie Tomosaka and Fuku Suzuki. It’s obvious that the three are having a blast acting in this movie. From time to time, you can almost imagine the moment when the director yells “Cut!” and everybody starts high-fiving each other, laughing out loud. And even though it’s more of a family flick than anything else, it isn’t cliché to the point of no return.

To conclude, “A Boy And His Samurai” came way out of left field but I’m sure glad it landed on my doorstep. It’s funny, at times heartwarming even, and it leaves you feeling satisfied. In “Chonmage Purin”, the ending is more than acceptable. So is the acting. So is the direction. So why not give it a try? ( The film I mean, not trying to conjure up your very own Edo-period samurai… )

TRAILER [ sorry, no subs ]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xjq1epi0fM