NYAFF Report: DAI NIPPONJIN Review

A famous manzai comic in Japan, Hitosi Matumoto’s Dai Nipponjin may just bring the man some well deserved recognition abroad. Shot in a faux documentary style with crews following the day to day life of this unlikely superhero Dai Nipponjin is an absurdist treat, a sly parody of both day to day working class life and the Japanese television superheros of yore all played with a deliciously dry—almost arid—sense of humor.

The center of the film is Dai Saito, the man present in every scene—even the ones he is not physically in—as every line of dialogue, every piece of action ultimately refers back to him. And more than anything else Dai is just bored. Bored of his life, bored of his work, bored of everything, a fact reflected in the lacklustre way he goes about his battles—battles broadcast every night on late late night TV, where rating are sliding badly, and financed by a series of sponsors who brand their logos across his body. He spends his day in the park. Or eating Power Noodles. Or doing a whole lot of nothing, really, just waiting for the Department of Defense to call and loet him know that his services are required.

And when the call comes? It’s off to the local power plant where he steps into an enormous pair of underpants and is jolted with high voltage electricity through his nipples so that he can head out to bop evil over the head with his great big stick. And the evil? There’s the Squeezing Baddie, with it’s bad comb over. There’s the jumping Baddie with the face of Riki Takeuchi planted on the top of a single, muscular leg. There’s the Smelly Baddie, with an odor the strength of ten thousand human feces. You get the point ...

Matumoto has, quite possibly, the most incredibly deadpan approach to absurdist humor in the history of the world. Nobody cracks a smile. Nobody winks at the camera. The whole thing plays out with a sort of ho-hum, another day at the office vibe that heightens the ridiculousness of it all to even further heights. It proibably doesn’t have quite enough zip to win a truly widespread audience beyond the festival and cult DVD circuit, but for those who appreciate wry Japanese humor, this is pure gold.