Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims

Director: Kankuro Kudo
Starring: Tomoya Nagase, Shichinosuke Nakamura
Sadao Abe, Yumi Shimizu, Ryo Iwamatsu, Riki Takesuchi

Japanese Import

This is one strange film. It is essentially a Gay road trip movie as Yaji and Kita travel from Edo to the Ise Shrine. The journey is both real and allegorical as they explore all manner of hassles along the way. It begins with an Easy Rider type motor cycle ride except that the intro song is Born to be Gay. Along the way, however, things get darker as they explore problems of drug addiction, married gay men and relationships.

But don’t think this is all serious, the film is punctuated with truly bizarre musical numbers and regular drug induced trips and so is very heavy on the surrealism. This is a truly outrageous film which is touching, funny and entertaining at the same time. The characters populating this world are certainly eccentric to say the least …a flamboyant playboy police detective, dancing office-ladies, a bevy of schoolgirl groupies, a ghostly bartender, a dream world where people grow into mushrooms, drag queens and more.

The climax of the film occurs when Yaji is killed by Kita in a drug withdrawal rage and he ends at the river Styx near hell. We then explore a semi Buddhist afterlife as he yearns to return to his lover and must confront his past, including his dead wife.

The production values on Yaji and Kita are surprisingly high. The acting is solid, the sets, animations and graphics are superb and the soundtrack will certainly get you moving. It is hard to pigeon hole a film like this; it is a gay love story, a road movie and a surrealist pilgrimage.

It is a must see film !

Yaji and Kita, The Midnight Pilgrims is a Japanese import; it is widescreen (1.85:1) uncut (124 min.) and encoded for ALL REGIONS. It is in Japanese with English, Chinese and Japanese subtitles.

Extras include theatrical and TV trailers, plus bio information.