Kanjani Eight superstar Subaru Shibutani stars as an amnesiac gangster-singer in Yamashita Nobuhiro’s LA LA LA AT ROCK BOTTOM
LA LA LA AT ROCK BOTTOM (MISONO UNIVERSE) (Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2015)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Thursday, July 2, 8:00
Festival runs June 26 – July 8
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.com
www.subwaycinema.com
Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda, Tamako in Moratorium) returns to the New York Asian Film Festival with La La La at Rock Bottom, a charmingly goofy story about a low-level amnesiac gangster (Kanjani Eight superstar Subaru Shibutani) who only comes alive when he is behind a microphone, singing. Shortly after getting out of prison, the unidentified man is severely beaten and loses his memory. Wandering through the streets, he hears live music, pushes aside the lead singer, takes the mic, and starts singing until he collapses. He is taken in by the group’s manager, Kasumi (Fumi Nikaidô), who names him “Pooch” after her recently deceased beloved dog. Pooch is like a lost puppy himself, with music the only thing that soothes this savage beast. But as he slowly begins remembering things from his past, he has to decide whether he will make things right or continue to run from his responsibilities. Shibutani gives a low-key performance as Pooch, a quiet man who is almost zombielike in his approach to life, an excellent complement for fashion model and actress Nikaidô’s (Himizu, Lesson of the Evil) eager, hopeful Kasumi. “Looks like the future won’t be as peaceful as I imagined,” one of the band members sings at a karaoke club, and that holds true as more of Pooch’s past comes to light, but Kasumi is not about to let that ruin her plans. Despite some melodramatic turns and plenty of silly J-pop, there’s a warm gentleness to the film, best exemplified in a sweet scene in which Pooch and Kasumi have a battle to see who can spit watermelon seeds farther. It might not be quite as offbeat and unusual as Yamashita wants it to be, but it’s still a fun and inviting little film.
La La La at Rock Bottom is screening at the Walter Reade Theater on July 2 at 8:00 at the fourteenth annual New York Asian Film Festival, which continues at Lincoln Center through July 8 with more than three dozen new and old films from China, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Cambodia, and other Southeast Asian countries, including Ryuichi Hiroki’s Kabukicho Love Hotel, Kazuhiko Hasegawa’s The Man Who Stole the Sun, Dodo Dayao’s Violator, Boo Ji-young’s Cart, Im Kwon-taek’s Wolves, Pigs and Men, and Teruo Ishii’s Abashiri Prison.