6th Okinawa International Movie Festival

Director Yosuke Fujita delighted audiences with his 2008 masterpiece Fine, Totally Fine. Thus it’s no surprise that his new work Fuku-chan of Fuku Fuku Flats is a touching, funny and insightful tour de force.
 

Made with producers from Germany, Italy, the UK and Taiwan as well as Japan, this comedy has funny moments but reaches right into the hearts of viewers. Fuku-chan (Miyuki Oshima) is a sweet, shy and overweight building painter who lives a simple life. He is well liked by his fellow manual laborers and the favorite of foreman Shimachi (Yoshi Yoshi Arakawa). Fuku-chan lives in a modest apartment block (the ‘Fuku Fuku Flats’ of the title) with other down-and-outers Mabuchi (Tateto Serizawa), a graduate of prestigious university who has dropped out, and Nonoshita (Asato Ida), a paranoid young man who can’t relate to people. Fuku-chan seems satisfied but one weakness appears, he can’t deal with the opposite sex. After rebuffing various attempts by Shimachi to pair him off we learn he suffered a boyhood trauma that has left him incapable of dealing with females.
 

Told in parallel with this story is the tale of Chiho (Asami Mizukawa), a successful businesswoman who has quit a high-paying investment job because she won a photography prize. Yet her desire to become a pro cameraman is squelched when she endures sexual harassment by a famous lensman. Distraught, Chiho falls into deep depression until she realizes that she badly humiliated a sweet, fat boy in junior high school.
 

That boy was Fuku-chan. Chiho at first intends simply to apologize but when she meets a grown-up Fuku-chan she is drawn to his expressive, sensitive, sympathetic face.

Their intertwined stories makes for funny but compelling viewing. Surreal and totally believable at the same time, director Fujita has a brilliant talent for bringing out the genuinely human in his characters.

Fujita has always had an inventive take on filmmaking so we should expect this film would have some resourceful elements. The Kindly Fuku-chan, a thirty-something man, is played by a woman, actress Miyuki Oshima. It’s the first feature film for the popular comedienne. In addition, Fujita has put together an international team of producers that is very rare for Japanese films. The director continues the entertaining oeuvre he started in 2008.

It’s a rare work that can generate laughs but also sketch deep emotions and human bonds. Fuku-chan of Fuku Fuku Flats does all this and more.