Hong Kong Filmart
Yosuke Fujita's "Fine, Totally Fine", a comedy about lovable losers scoring petite triumphs, has invited comparisons with the deadpan, Jarmusch-like ironic comedies of Nobuhiro Yamashita. That is true in so far as both directors like to make slackers central characters, and both refrain from noisy, exaggerated farce. Of the two, Fujita is less conscious about setting down an auteur's stamp. Like a craftsman, he patiently develops comic scenarios that utilize to ingenious effect props, sets and characters that make perfect sense only in the film's off-kilter world.
Sporting juvenile but impish humor in the spirit of "Mr. Bean" with little psychological baggage, "Fine, Totally Fine" easily transcends language and cultural barriers. This is a sleeper well on its way to becoming a cult fave in the specialty Asian theater and DVD circuit.
Though Fujita won the Japan Film Angel Prize for new scriptwriters, there's not much of a plot to talk about. The frisson really comes from the characters, each carrying a rich and esoteric universe inside. Park gardener Teruo thinks life is one continuous Halloween. He gets his kicks from scaring people, and dreams of opening a haunted house of Disney proportions. Played by comedian Yoshiyoshi Arakawa (the milky-skinned masochist in Miike's "Like a Dragon"), he gets laughs just by facing the camera. His buddy, hospital clerk Hisanobu (Yoshinori Okada), is such a compulsive Mr. Nice Guy that he hires Akari as a manual worker, even when she arrives at her interview right after diving into a puddle.
Akari (Yoshino Kimura) is aptly described as "a beauty with a really minus aura." Literally all thumbs, she breaks anything she touches, even her own finger when pressing the elevator button. But she is also a gifted artist who feels more at home in the company of the homeless. When she stumbles into the lives of Teruo and Hisanobu, she provokes a childish rivalry. But love moves in mysterious ways. Though she's a bull in a China shop, she finds her ideal partner in a pottery restoration expert. Yoshino Kimura is a revelation. It's hard to imagine the irresistible siren of "Sukiyaki Western Django" and "Sakuran" metamorphosing into a bumbling and diffident klutz, but her acting is so convincing that she becomes more charming with each new blunder.
The film carries it off by superb comic timing, delivering running gags that become more amusing by cumulative effect. For example, Teruo's numerous tricks to scare people, or Akari's goofs, like failing to wrap a kinky bondage magazine in front of an increasingly nervous customer are not that funny taken out of context, but combined with the characters' unique traits, they are side-splitting. Kudos also go to the creative set and props design, as each interior is distinctively decorated, arrayed with paraphernalia that reflects every character's personality and predicament. Most inventive is the horror figures or head models of Teruo that jump out of every other frame like his freaky clones.
FINE, TOTALLY FINE (Zenzen Daijoubu)
Tohokushinsha/Stylejam Inc/Pony Canyon/Yomiuri TV
Sales Agent: Stylejam Inc
Credits:
Writer-director: Yosuke Fujita
Producers: Naoko Arai, Kozo Kogoe
Executive producer: Naoki Kai
Director of photography: Yoshihiro Ikeuchi
Music: Ekomomai
Production designer: China Hayashi
Editor: Zensuke Hori
Cast:
Teruo Toyama: Yoshiyoshi Arakawa
Akari Kinoshita: Yoshino Kimura
Hisanobu Komori: Yoshinori Okada
Eitaro Toyama: Keizo Kanie
Running time -- 110 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Yosuke Fujita's "Fine, Totally Fine", a comedy about lovable losers scoring petite triumphs, has invited comparisons with the deadpan, Jarmusch-like ironic comedies of Nobuhiro Yamashita. That is true in so far as both directors like to make slackers central characters, and both refrain from noisy, exaggerated farce. Of the two, Fujita is less conscious about setting down an auteur's stamp. Like a craftsman, he patiently develops comic scenarios that utilize to ingenious effect props, sets and characters that make perfect sense only in the film's off-kilter world.
Sporting juvenile but impish humor in the spirit of "Mr. Bean" with little psychological baggage, "Fine, Totally Fine" easily transcends language and cultural barriers. This is a sleeper well on its way to becoming a cult fave in the specialty Asian theater and DVD circuit.
Though Fujita won the Japan Film Angel Prize for new scriptwriters, there's not much of a plot to talk about. The frisson really comes from the characters, each carrying a rich and esoteric universe inside. Park gardener Teruo thinks life is one continuous Halloween. He gets his kicks from scaring people, and dreams of opening a haunted house of Disney proportions. Played by comedian Yoshiyoshi Arakawa (the milky-skinned masochist in Miike's "Like a Dragon"), he gets laughs just by facing the camera. His buddy, hospital clerk Hisanobu (Yoshinori Okada), is such a compulsive Mr. Nice Guy that he hires Akari as a manual worker, even when she arrives at her interview right after diving into a puddle.
Akari (Yoshino Kimura) is aptly described as "a beauty with a really minus aura." Literally all thumbs, she breaks anything she touches, even her own finger when pressing the elevator button. But she is also a gifted artist who feels more at home in the company of the homeless. When she stumbles into the lives of Teruo and Hisanobu, she provokes a childish rivalry. But love moves in mysterious ways. Though she's a bull in a China shop, she finds her ideal partner in a pottery restoration expert. Yoshino Kimura is a revelation. It's hard to imagine the irresistible siren of "Sukiyaki Western Django" and "Sakuran" metamorphosing into a bumbling and diffident klutz, but her acting is so convincing that she becomes more charming with each new blunder.
The film carries it off by superb comic timing, delivering running gags that become more amusing by cumulative effect. For example, Teruo's numerous tricks to scare people, or Akari's goofs, like failing to wrap a kinky bondage magazine in front of an increasingly nervous customer are not that funny taken out of context, but combined with the characters' unique traits, they are side-splitting. Kudos also go to the creative set and props design, as each interior is distinctively decorated, arrayed with paraphernalia that reflects every character's personality and predicament. Most inventive is the horror figures or head models of Teruo that jump out of every other frame like his freaky clones.
FINE, TOTALLY FINE (Zenzen Daijoubu)
Tohokushinsha/Stylejam Inc/Pony Canyon/Yomiuri TV
Sales Agent: Stylejam Inc
Credits:
Writer-director: Yosuke Fujita
Producers: Naoko Arai, Kozo Kogoe
Executive producer: Naoki Kai
Director of photography: Yoshihiro Ikeuchi
Music: Ekomomai
Production designer: China Hayashi
Editor: Zensuke Hori
Cast:
Teruo Toyama: Yoshiyoshi Arakawa
Akari Kinoshita: Yoshino Kimura
Hisanobu Komori: Yoshinori Okada
Eitaro Toyama: Keizo Kanie
Running time -- 110 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The spirits of silent comedy kings Buster, Charlie and Harold come to the rescue of current superstar Jackie in New Line's thrilling, hilarious "Mr. Nice Guy".
One of several new dishes on a crowded opening-weekend menu, the English-language Golden Harvest production is a savory cinematic meal for youthful audiences but will last no longer than an In-N-Out Burger given the current appetite of the marketplace.
On a roll in recent years and now a regular attraction on the domestic front, kung fu master Jackie Chan is an amazing performer of stunts and an inventive showman with few peers, with memorable facial expressions to go with his always-impressive feats of climbing, leaping, dodging, running and holding on.
With so much violence that it gets a bit numbing, plus a "Monster Truck" finale that is a letdown, "Mr. Nice Guy" is not one of Chan's best films, but it's still an almost-nonstop extravaganza of fights and chases, ambushes and showdowns. Longtime fans and recent converts should not be disappointed.
In a wild scenario that commences with TV chef Jackie (Chan) helping an athletic newswoman, Diana (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), escape from the thugs of a local druglord (Richard Norton), "Mr. Nice Guy" is not long on character development, particularly the major villains. While Diana is a formidable woman, Jackie's less-conditioned girlfriend Miki (Miki Lee) and assistant (Karen McLymont) are mostly served up for screwball comedy entr'actes.
Major sequences include: Jackie crash-landing on a huge cake amid a big group wedding of Harley-riding guys and gals; Jackie and Miki barely surviving a hair-raising chase through the city that includes an out-of-control carriage and horses; and Jackie facing the usual uneven odds at a construction site filled with unusual fighting tools.
Director Samo Hung makes a memorable cameo appearance, while Vince Poletto and Barry Otto are effective as Jackie's allies. Besides the primary bad guys, who dress well, there are grungier dudes also after an incriminating videotape Jackie supposedly has in his possession. In shot after shot, the eye-popping spills and smashes by the Jackie Chan Stuntmen Team are alone worth the price of admission.
Mr. Nice GUY
New Line
A Raymond Chow/Golden Harvest production
Director:Samo Hung
Screenwriters:Edward Tang, Fibe Ma
Producer:Chua Lam
Executive producer:Leonard Ho
Director of photography:Raymond Lam
Production designer:Horace Ma
Editor:Peter Cheung
Music:J. Peter Robinson
Costume designer:Lui Fung Shan
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jackie:Jackie Chan
Giancarlo:Richard Norton
Miki:Miki Lee
Lakeisha:Karen McLymont
Diana:Gabrielle Fitzpatrick
Romeo:Vince Poletto
Baggio:Barry Otto
Running time -- 88 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
One of several new dishes on a crowded opening-weekend menu, the English-language Golden Harvest production is a savory cinematic meal for youthful audiences but will last no longer than an In-N-Out Burger given the current appetite of the marketplace.
On a roll in recent years and now a regular attraction on the domestic front, kung fu master Jackie Chan is an amazing performer of stunts and an inventive showman with few peers, with memorable facial expressions to go with his always-impressive feats of climbing, leaping, dodging, running and holding on.
With so much violence that it gets a bit numbing, plus a "Monster Truck" finale that is a letdown, "Mr. Nice Guy" is not one of Chan's best films, but it's still an almost-nonstop extravaganza of fights and chases, ambushes and showdowns. Longtime fans and recent converts should not be disappointed.
In a wild scenario that commences with TV chef Jackie (Chan) helping an athletic newswoman, Diana (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), escape from the thugs of a local druglord (Richard Norton), "Mr. Nice Guy" is not long on character development, particularly the major villains. While Diana is a formidable woman, Jackie's less-conditioned girlfriend Miki (Miki Lee) and assistant (Karen McLymont) are mostly served up for screwball comedy entr'actes.
Major sequences include: Jackie crash-landing on a huge cake amid a big group wedding of Harley-riding guys and gals; Jackie and Miki barely surviving a hair-raising chase through the city that includes an out-of-control carriage and horses; and Jackie facing the usual uneven odds at a construction site filled with unusual fighting tools.
Director Samo Hung makes a memorable cameo appearance, while Vince Poletto and Barry Otto are effective as Jackie's allies. Besides the primary bad guys, who dress well, there are grungier dudes also after an incriminating videotape Jackie supposedly has in his possession. In shot after shot, the eye-popping spills and smashes by the Jackie Chan Stuntmen Team are alone worth the price of admission.
Mr. Nice GUY
New Line
A Raymond Chow/Golden Harvest production
Director:Samo Hung
Screenwriters:Edward Tang, Fibe Ma
Producer:Chua Lam
Executive producer:Leonard Ho
Director of photography:Raymond Lam
Production designer:Horace Ma
Editor:Peter Cheung
Music:J. Peter Robinson
Costume designer:Lui Fung Shan
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jackie:Jackie Chan
Giancarlo:Richard Norton
Miki:Miki Lee
Lakeisha:Karen McLymont
Diana:Gabrielle Fitzpatrick
Romeo:Vince Poletto
Baggio:Barry Otto
Running time -- 88 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 3/19/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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