FINE, TOTALLY FINE (Japan, 2007)

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

110 minutes, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by: Yosuke Fujita
Starring: Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Yoshino Kimura, Yoshinori Okada

Showtimes: THU July 3, 6.30pm at Japan Society [Buy Tickets];
SAT July 5, 6:30pm at Japan Society [Buy Tickets].
Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately

“The English title, FINE, TOTALLY FINE not only describes the mood of this quietly brilliant film but also sounds like a three-word review. This film is more than daijobu — it's totemo, totemo subarashii. Really really wonderful.”(The Japan Times)

“Life’s more fun when you’re an idiot,” says one of the characters in FINE, TOTALLY FINE and this movie is Exhibit A in the case against brains. Set in the dusty margins of Tokyo, FTF is a surreal comedy that’s a spiritual successor to previous festival hits like THE TASTE OF TEA, and it charts a lazy love triangle between the world’s clumsiest woman, Akari (Kimura Yoshino of Cannes hit BLINDNESS and SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO), who can’t even open a box of Kleenex without setting off destructive shock waves, a tamped-down hospital administrator Hisanobu (Okada Yoshinori) and his brother, Teruo (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa), a clueless part-time park keeper who is so unconcerned with the world around him that he doesn’t even realize he’s working part-time (“Why do you think you have so much free time?” a co-worker asks). Teruo is obsessed with building the world’s greatest haunted house, one that will terrify grown-ups but he’d rather spend his time talking about it than doing any actual work. It’s a star-making performance by Arakawa who has appeared in dozens of Japanese films playing everything from a cloud of flying sperm to Vinnie Jones’ translator, and who can get a laugh from something as simple as typing on his computer. Gormless and weird, his Super! Ultra! Deluxe! deadpan is this movie’s stylistic touchstone.

First time director, Yosuke Fujita, was a hospital janitor for eight years before making FINE, TOTALLY FINE and this movie is full of characters who are all turning 30 and going nowhere fast, and what stands between them and true happiness are the exact same things that ruin all of our lives: the magic marker that’s going dry just when you really need it most, a disappointing corndog or even that horrible person who won’t let you gracefully escape their boring company before three o’clock in the morning. This is a movie made by someone who is cautious about strong emotions and who treats them with a hushed respect. There isn’t a big moment of emotional catharsis here, instead the closest these characters come to nirvana is when they’re all sitting quietly together, listening to the rain. Life can be an unfair string of humiliating indignities, but sometimes it gives you these moments where you can’t possibly imagine wanting anything more.

Festivals/Awards
Nippon Connection Cinema Award: Winner, Grand Prize

HEY - IT'S THAT GUY!

He’s not here as a guest (maybe next year?), but we wanted to give a shout-out to one of the most iconic and recognizable faces working in Japanese cinema today, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, who has his first leading role in this year’s FINE, TOTALLY FINE. Born in 1974, Arakawa’s birth name was Yoshitomo, but he changed it to “Yoshiyoshi” (literally “good! good!”) when another stage name didn’t work out for him. He made his film debut in the low-budget 2001 horror / pink film hybrid GORE FROM OUTER SPACE, the same year he began working on the Tokyo Broadcasting System drama GAKKO NO SENSEI. From then on, Arakawa has had a knack for picking supporting roles in some of the most popular films in Japan and becoming a constant presence on TV screens due to his unforgettable face and adorable lisp. He seems to be everywhere, and at the NYAFF he’s appeared in PING PONG, JOSEE THE TIGER AND THE FISH, KAMIKAZE GIRLS, SURVIVE STYLE 5+, and last year’s Audience Award winner, MEMORIES OF MATSUKO. This year, he’s in at least three films we’re screening - LIKE A DRAGON, THE SHADOW SPIRIT, and FINE, TOTALLY FINE - and probably a couple more we forgot to count.