Executive Koala: Review
Executive Koala (Koara Kacho) (2005) Director - Minoru Kawasaki Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini While mainstream Asian cinema has been getting its fair share of exposure these days, I often forget that there's always the low budget films being produced there as well, like any country. While I have seen films such as the now legendary Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the notorious Kichiku Dai Enkai and even the infamous Guinea Pig films, there are many I would never happen across unless I was told specifically what they were and how to get them. Synapse Films has picked up the rights to some of low budget King Minoru Kawasaki's films, films that stretch the very fabric of logic to its maximum in hopes of making an entertaining film. First up in the collection was Executive Koala. Executive Koala tells the sordid tale of Keiichi Tamura, your everyday average business executive at a pickling plant (used in cup ramen, mainly). The only difference is he's a six foot tall, grey suit wearing koala bear. Keiichi is well liked at the office and gets along well with the president of the company, a six foot tall white rabbit. He even has a normal girlfriend named Yoko. After spending a steamy night with Yoko after a long day at the office, Keiichi is visited the following day by two detectives, telling him that Yoko has been brutally murdered by way of being stabbed 33 times. One detective, Ono, insists tht Keiichi murdered Yoko, which he denies outright. Ono then brings up that his ex-wife Yukari has been missing for three years now, and accuses Keiichi of killing her, too. We discover that Keiichi suffers from psychotic episodes where he remembers happy times with his ex-wife only to then be assaulted by memories or killing her with a hatchet. He seeks counsel from a local hypnotherapist, as well as the president of the company to help him with his grief as Ono continues his investigation. Is Keiichi actually a cold blooded killer, or is he being set up by the unusually suspicious hypnotherapist? I don't really know where to start with this movie. From its bizarre soundtrack consisting of lounge pop to the fact that the movie is about nine genres in one, it's an absolute mess. Scenes are introduced only to end ten seconds later, serving no purpose at all. The story drags on for much longer than it needs to, elaborating on the useless facts that add nothing. The problems of the story are quickly resolved when it seems convenient and usually by inane methods. One scene in particular where Keiichi is dreaming of himself stalking a young woman in her bedroom goes on for about 12 minutes. Dream sequences do not need to be that long if they don't add anything to the story. Speaking of the story, it's atrocious. It starts off like a simple office drama, then moves on to being a psychological thriller. Near the end it's a crime drama, and once in a while it's a slasher film. It's a musical for about 8 minutes and in its climax a kung fu movie. Sound confusing? Believe me, it is. At the beginning it's all about Keiichi's internal suffering at the loss of Yoko and Yukari, interspersed with his struggles to make an overseas merger with a Korean company work. For a while it gets interesting as we learn that Keiichi may have a violent side hidden within, and for a moment this promises to be a decent film but then we're given the double cross and things spiral out of control into a whirlwind of the worst fight scenes I've ever seen in my life combined with the all time worst musical number in existance. You haven't seen a bad fight scene until you watch a man in a koala suit literally spin his arms in a whirlwind fashion at a girl who's fighting him by lightly pounding his face (after claiming she mastered the ancient Korean martial arts, no less). Then, in the film's only funny moment the frames are sped up to create the most unintentionally hilarious "fight scene" ever. This is especially soul crushing when you realize this film was meant to be a comedy. I realize this is low budget and whatnot, but you can't have characters claiming they know martial arts only to then showcase no athletic abilities at all. Even if it is a parody or comedy, it still detracts from the experience. I don't think I can get away with exposing the ending of the film, suffice to say that it's absolutely ridiculous and doesn't make even a shred of sense. I'm often pretty lenient with twists in movies, but this was completely inexcusable and I don't think even M. Night Shyamalan will ever top this. Judging from the back of the DVD case, it seems that Synapse may be trying to cash in on these films because they want to expose the kooky, crazy stereotype of Japan (the back actually reads "A film so ridiculous they couldn't make it in America - which is why it was made in Japan!"), but in all honesty all they've done is capture the side of Japan that not even Japan finds amusing. If they wanted to show us the comedic side, they'd have released Takeshi's Castle or The World of Golden Eggs. I can't quite put my finger on why they'd release a collection from such an obscure name, and I can't really put my finger on their target audience, either. There is a very small margine of people who will enjoy Executive Koala, the sort of people who own Killer Clowns From Outer Space and other complete schlock films that are so bad they're good. In that regard, I can't say that I can recommend this to anyone, unless you are a fan of Kawasaki's, in which case you probably already own this.
Executive Koala (Koara Kacho) (2005) Director - Minoru Kawasaki Reviewed by: Darren Cenerini While mainstream Asian cinema has been getting its fair share of exposure these days, I often forget that there's always the low budget films being produced there as well, like any country. While I have seen films such as the now legendary Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the notorious Kichiku Dai Enkai and even the infamous Guinea Pig films, there are many I would never happen across unless I was told specifically what they were and how to get them. Synapse Films has picked up the rights to some of low budget King Minoru Kawasaki's films, films that stretch the very fabric of logic to its maximum in hopes of making an entertaining film. First up in the collection was Executive Koala. Executive Koala tells the sordid tale of Keiichi Tamura, your everyday average business executive at a pickling plant (used in cup ramen, mainly). The only difference is he's a six foot tall, grey suit wearing koala bear. Keiichi is well liked at the office and gets along well with the president of the company, a six foot tall white rabbit. He even has a normal girlfriend named Yoko. After spending a steamy night with Yoko after a long day at the office, Keiichi is visited the following day by two detectives, telling him that Yoko has been brutally murdered by way of being stabbed 33 times. One detective, Ono, insists tht Keiichi murdered Yoko, which he denies outright. Ono then brings up that his ex-wife Yukari has been missing for three years now, and accuses Keiichi of killing her, too. We discover that Keiichi suffers from psychotic episodes where he remembers happy times with his ex-wife only to then be assaulted by memories or killing her with a hatchet. He seeks counsel from a local hypnotherapist, as well as the president of the company to help him with his grief as Ono continues his investigation. Is Keiichi actually a cold blooded killer, or is he being set up by the unusually suspicious hypnotherapist? I don't really know where to start with this movie. From its bizarre soundtrack consisting of lounge pop to the fact that the movie is about nine genres in one, it's an absolute mess. Scenes are introduced only to end ten seconds later, serving no purpose at all. The story drags on for much longer than it needs to, elaborating on the useless facts that add nothing. The problems of the story are quickly resolved when it seems convenient and usually by inane methods. One scene in particular where Keiichi is dreaming of himself stalking a young woman in her bedroom goes on for about 12 minutes. Dream sequences do not need to be that long if they don't add anything to the story. Speaking of the story, it's atrocious. It starts off like a simple office drama, then moves on to being a psychological thriller. Near the end it's a crime drama, and once in a while it's a slasher film. It's a musical for about 8 minutes and in its climax a kung fu movie. Sound confusing? Believe me, it is. At the beginning it's all about Keiichi's internal suffering at the loss of Yoko and Yukari, interspersed with his struggles to make an overseas merger with a Korean company work. For a while it gets interesting as we learn that Keiichi may have a violent side hidden within, and for a moment this promises to be a decent film but then we're given the double cross and things spiral out of control into a whirlwind of the worst fight scenes I've ever seen in my life combined with the all time worst musical number in existance. You haven't seen a bad fight scene until you watch a man in a koala suit literally spin his arms in a whirlwind fashion at a girl who's fighting him by lightly pounding his face (after claiming she mastered the ancient Korean martial arts, no less). Then, in the film's only funny moment the frames are sped up to create the most unintentionally hilarious "fight scene" ever. This is especially soul crushing when you realize this film was meant to be a comedy. I realize this is low budget and whatnot, but you can't have characters claiming they know martial arts only to then showcase no athletic abilities at all. Even if it is a parody or comedy, it still detracts from the experience. I don't think I can get away with exposing the ending of the film, suffice to say that it's absolutely ridiculous and doesn't make even a shred of sense. I'm often pretty lenient with twists in movies, but this was completely inexcusable and I don't think even M. Night Shyamalan will ever top this. Judging from the back of the DVD case, it seems that Synapse may be trying to cash in on these films because they want to expose the kooky, crazy stereotype of Japan (the back actually reads "A film so ridiculous they couldn't make it in America - which is why it was made in Japan!"), but in all honesty all they've done is capture the side of Japan that not even Japan finds amusing. If they wanted to show us the comedic side, they'd have released Takeshi's Castle or The World of Golden Eggs. I can't quite put my finger on why they'd release a collection from such an obscure name, and I can't really put my finger on their target audience, either. There is a very small margine of people who will enjoy Executive Koala, the sort of people who own Killer Clowns From Outer Space and other complete schlock films that are so bad they're good. In that regard, I can't say that I can recommend this to anyone, unless you are a fan of Kawasaki's, in which case you probably already own this.