Life seems to be good for Shintoto, an up-and-coming rakugo artist who has just had his first sexual experience at a local brothel. Lucky for him, he gets to date the beautiful sex worker he meets that day, and a younger high school rakugo aficionado is also vying for his attention. But for clumsy, heart-on-his-sleeve Shintoto, life doesn’t stay rosy for long.
Acting
Kumiko Akiyoshi balances warmth and mystery as Elizabeth.
Direction
Morita's deadpan staging of sexual farce with genuine melancholy.
Director
Yoshimitsu Morita
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rakugo is a 400-year-old Japanese storytelling art where one performer sits and voices multiple characters — this film treats it as both noble tradition and nerdy subculture.
Director Yoshimitsu Morita would later make 'The Family Game' (1983), a much darker family satire; this early work shows his fascination with social performance and repressed Japanese masculinity.
JP
