Lala Pipo – “A
Lot of People”
Erotic Comedy
Third Window Films
R2 DVD
Japanese with English subtitles
Lala Pipo is a
truly strange film from Japan. Japanese directors (in this case Masayuki Miyano) seem to favour a comic-book look to this sort of
film and it suits their work quite well. I can’t imagine any other way that the
mix of stories could be credibly made into a film otherwise.
The
film starts out well enough. Kenji is a slick amoral young procurer of girls
for erotic bars (he calls himself a talent scout), He
“manages” them, and makes a fair living from it. He has just met a naïve young
girl, Tomoko, who is overcome by his charms and sees his offer of erotic work
as an escape from a deadend job. His ultimate aim is
to groom the girls for the porno film industry. He also has a good sex life
with the girls in the meantime. In the flat below lives Hiroshi, a lonely,
overweight young man who has no sex life apart from listening to what’s going
on in the flat upstairs and masturbating. His penis is tired of the daily
masturbation and tells him to get a girlfriend. The penis, incidentally, is
represented by a green fluffy toy-like creature.
He
takes his penis’s advice and meets the chubby Sayuri
who sees him as a kindred lonely type like her. Hiroshi is offended by the
comparison and beats her up (after having sex), but they both want more of each
other. Sayuri already has a job in specialist porn films
and eventually Hiroshi joins her. They film a whole series of fat girl / ugly
guy films that are a big hit.
Tomoko’s
mother makes an appearance. She has burnt her house to the ground with her
senile parent inside. The shameless Kenji hires her for porno film work and,
not knowing of the family connection, accidentally sends her and Tomoko
independently to the same studio to make a lesbian porn film.
Still with me? The last
character in this weird mix is Koichi, a young man who lives in a fantasy world
where he thinks he is an intergalactic superhero sent to earth to see if there
is anything worth saving. He wears a leather suit with a penis cover like a
miniature skyscraper. One day his imagined radio transmissions to the orbiting
spaceship “Station” are received and answered.
The
individual stories interweave and cross paths occasionally. Sometimes the
characters get what they want, sometimes they are punished. You will often find
yourself trying to work out just what is going on. Despite this, it is
hilariously funny. The humour is erotic, incongruous and often subtle. The
erotic scenes are done as much for fun as for erotic content, and are rather
tasteful. The cinematography is great and the storyline is really out of this
world. It’s an incredibly strange mix and really funny. I loved every minute of
it.
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