Film review: Japanese comedy Judge! is lowbrow but funny
Already this year actor Satoshi Tsumabuki has featured in supporting roles in two films (Yoji Yamada's The Little House and Koki Mitani's The Kiyosu Conference) that have made it to our shores.
JUDGE!
Starring: Satoshi Tsumabuki, Keiko Kitagawa, Lily Franky
Director: Akira Nagai
Category: I (Japanese and English)
Already this year actor Satoshi Tsumabuki has featured in supporting roles in two films (Yoji Yamada's The Little House and Koki Mitani's The Kiyosu Conference) that have made it to our shores.
But the versatile television, movie, and stage performer takes centre stage in this wacky advertising industry comedy whose director (Akira Nagai) made his name doing commercials, and whose scriptwriter (Yoshimitsu Sawamoto) planned advertising campaigns for Toyota and SoftBank.
A movie replete with visual and verbal gags, Judge! opens with the shooting of a TV commercial for kitsune udon. That's a noodle dish so named because Japanese foxes are supposed to love the deep fried tofu that's an integral part of it.
Since it's associated with foxes, the advert features a man in a fox suit. But because the people who commissioned it prefer cats to foxes, the animal ends up emitting "nyah nyah" noises that supposedly sound more cat-like.
The hapless Kiichiro Ota (Tsumabuki) is the ad agency employee in the fox suit who's tasked by his slimy boss, Ichiro Otaki (Etsushi Toyokawa), with modifying the commercial to suit its clients' requirements.