Pure Japanese (2022)

Directed by

Daishi Matsunaga

Genre

action film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 28m

Rating

7.4 of 10 from 29 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A quirky sound effects guy with a hidden past rescues a high school girl from yakuza thugs. After her grandfather dies, she asks him to fight back and he unleashes long-suppressed violent urges.

broodingstylishunpredictableintensecatharticwryvisceral

What happens

Pure Japanese is a 2022 Japanese action film directed by Daishi Matsunaga and starring Dean Fujioka, Aju Makita and Tetsu Watanabe. It is also Fujioka's first created and produced film. The plot revolves around Daisuke Tateishi (played by Fujioka), an eccentric man with limited social skills and a devotion to Japanese culture who handles sound effects for ninja shows despite his exceptional physical abilities. One day, he rescues a high school girl named Ayumi (Makita), but she and her grandfather Ryuzo (Watanabe) are under threat of eviction from their home by the local yakuza. Following Ryuzo's death, Ayumi seeks Tateishi's help, and he releases the violent impulses he had kept sealed away due to past trauma. Pure Japanese emerged from Fujioka's decision to create and produce original video works after completing his role in the 2018 drama The Count of Monte Cristo: Great Revenge. Having engaged in entertainment activities overseas, he began to contemplate the question of "What defines Japanese people?" as he observed Japan from an objective standpoint. In response to this question, he formulated a hypothesis using the concepts of nihongo-bito (Japanese: 日本語人) and "Japanese language operating system (OS)", resulting in a script centered around themes of violence and religion. The shooting took place in September 2020 in the Nikko region of Tochigi Prefecture, as well as at the Nikko Edomura theme park. The film underwent multiple rounds of re-editing and script changes for the purpose of elevating it to a more multi-layered narrative. Pure Japanese was released in Japan on January 28, 2022, followed by a screening in the Nippon Visions section of the 22nd Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival in Germany from May 24 to 29, 2022. It became available for streaming worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on July 17, 2022. The film garnered mixed reviews. The Japan Times remarked that it was "likely to be misunderstood". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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