Donten seikatsu (1999) User Reviews

A bit Hazy

[ninjaalexs · 6/10 · 7 August 2010]

Hazy Life is about two slackers. One the self-dubbed Pachinko king, Kee; the other a lazy loner guy (Tsutomu). The two meet outside a Pachinko Hall and awkwardly hit it off and start living together. There's not much more to the plot than that.

The film was directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita whose been making a name for himself directing quirky dramas and comedies. The film is shot on DV (I think) and as a result looks a bit rough but it adds to both the realism and the chaotic nature of the film. Also I'm not sure if any of the dialogue was improvised but it seems likes it was. Both lead roles are believable and convince the audience that they could be both best friends and lovable losers.

The film is nowhere near as good as some other slacker comedies such as: Slacker, Nowhere and Dazed & Confused but it still has its charm and original flavour. It's also worth seeing for the petrol station scene.

Overall: Not much to recommend it to many people but if you like slacker comedies, raw filmmaking or quirky dramas you might like it.

Extremely boring

[Gordon-11 · 3 February 2003]

This is a film directed by two Japanese young men. It is about two young men living very crazy and lazy lives. One of them has got very outrageous hairstyle, while another looks stupid and does nothing at all. I think this film is quite experimental. First of all, the film rarely has conversations. Most of the time the actors are silent. Secondly, a lot of the times the actors just sit there or stand there, and do absolutely nothing. Thirdly, the film has no clear story. The two men eat, sit, walk, and there is nothing much else.

There are some scenes which are funny. There was a time when one of the guy goes to a vending machine to buy two cans of coffee. He bought a cold can for his friend and a warm can for himself. There are scenes which are touching too. The man with outrageous hairstyle goes to the train station to wait for his ex-wife and his young son to appear. He waited for very long but they never appeared.

Overall, I think this film is quite boring. The directors tried very hard to portray the guys to have nothing to do, wasting their time. This may reflect some young people's lifestyles, but the overall effect is that the film is too long and drags on for no reason. For example, two men can stand in front of a wall for a whole minute before they speak to each other. Or after a man has walked away from a room, they still film the room for 20 seconds. The film becomes too long. I think the story could have been 40% shorter if they cut out the redundant scenes.

It is interesting to see a alternative, non-mainstream film, and I support young people trying to make their own films. Active entertainment is always more fun than passive entertainment. The directors tried hard to make a boring script interesting, maybe next time they will do better.