Written by Tetsuya Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, Memories of Matsuko), Lala Pipo is the directorial debut from Masayuki Miyano, based on a collection of short stories by Okuda Hideo. Six characters are focused on here with their stories all interwoven, all in some way related to the sex industry.
Hiroshi is the first character focused on here; an overweight writer that very much enjoys masturbation. Hiroshi has conversations with his penis (played by a green puppet) and sometimes listens through the ceiling to the couple upstairs having sex. Hiroshi’s character is quite an interesting one, with Hiroshi the film is merely warming up though and we soon move on to the next character, Tomoko. Tomoko is a shop assistant before she’s introduced to the sex industry by Kenji (another character focused on in the film), and her life is then changed forever as she slowly finds herself becoming more and more heavily involved within the industry. Tomoko is arguably the best character that the film has to offer, and Yuri Nakamura’s performance as Tomoko and Hiroki Narimiya’s as Kenji really do stand out from the pack here. Yoshie, Koichi, and Sayuri are the other three people focused on within the film; Yoshie has her moments, Koichi has a rather bland sexual superhero storyline, and Sayuri creates amateur porn videos to fund her way through life as she looks to embark on a career as an anime voiceover artist.
The film begins brilliantly and offers so much in its opening, after a bright start the quality level seems to drop a little here however and some of the transitions between storylines feel slightly awkward. Some of these six characters storylines just seem to work better than others, and although there are a few amusing moments here, Lala Pipo is certainly not consistently enjoyable from start to finish. First time director Masayuki Miyano is obviously enthusiastic about his work and this is something that comes through here, with so many storylines going on it’s hard not to have your favourites however, and when a particularly strong part of the film comes to an end and a less interesting character is introduced this is always a little disappointing.
The quality of acting here is at all times excellent, particularly from Yuri Nakamura and Hiroki Narimiya as previously outlined; despite some great performances and some very funny moments though, Lala Pipo is not a great film from start to finish, and there is definitely room for improvement here. Some of the characters could have done with a little extra work to bring them out and grab you a little more, Tomoko I personally found to be brilliant though, and although not necessarily a particularly likeable character, Kenji was another that I really did enjoy watching on screen, probably in large part down to the supreme acting talent of Hiroki Narimiya.
Having read some extremely positive things about Okuda Hideo’s book of short stories I now feel inclined to give his work a read to see how the book and the film compare, something tells me though that Lala Pipo doesn’t translate anywhere near as well on film as it does in the written word.
DVD Extras:
Extras include a making of featurette ‘Loveable People of Lala Pipo’, interviews with the cast and crew on the subject ‘What is Sex?’, and a trailer for the film as well as 16 others in the Third Window Films collection. The interviews bring up some pretty interesting (and in some places amusing) answers, the half hour long making of feature is quite enjoyable to watch, and taking a look at the trailers you may just spot another film from Third Window that captures your interest. All in all there’s a pretty solid selection of extras here, and this rounds things off nicely, providing you with a little more to keep you occupied once you’ve finished watching the film itself.
Rating:
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
