Easily the best film I’ve ever seen about a marsupial, Executive Koala is a film noir about a driven Japanese junior exec (in a pickle factory), whose wife disappeared three years ago and whose recent lover has turned up dead — and he’s the suspect. And he seems to have things buried in his memory. And he’s a human-sized koala bear. Most of his colleagues are humans, except for the rabbit, and one frog who works at the local convenience store. There are secret Korean martial arts in this film, and a short interlude in musical theater (about Exec Koala’s childhood town and upbringing). There are also shady psychotherapists and discussions of kimchi and this was way too straight to be camp but way too strange to be straight.
God damn I love Japanese pop culture.
I watched this.
I’m still pondering it. My current interest in Japanese stuffed animals (not to mention corporate characters/dolls and other kawaii paraphernalia) certainly intersects with some of the oddness this film has to offer . . . I’m going to have to ponder it some more. Do you have any idea as to the actually popularity of the film (was it made for television)?
Popular enough that the guy’s made a few films, but even watching the behind-the-scenes footage, I got little sense of where or how the movie played. Beyond its batshit strangeness on some level, I did pick up on some strains of social satire: issues of domestic violence, particularly in the last 30-40 years among the driven business classes, have become more visible; Japanese xenophobia–and an uncomfortable relationship with Korea–is marked…. even if I’m not sure how to make sense of these markings.
Really quite stunning. Especially the musical interlude.
[dayna]
Is it wrong to say this wasn’t weird enough for me? Turn the guy from a giant koala into just another Japanese salaryman and frankly, it’d be the same movie. He didn’t need to be a koala, and that disappointed me a little. Still, I liked watching it, and wondered if the Japan/Korea tensions were just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe this really was more about racism and xenophobia than anything else.
And the frog seemed to be some sort of oracle, dispensing nuggets of truth to the characters when they needed them.
But it does firmly fall into the realm of “insane Japanese,” which is a wonderful thing I am always thankful for. It reminded me a good deal of the excellent Japanese character Gloomy Bear, which I came across back in 2000 or so. Gloomy Bear was found as a little cub and raised by a child, grew into a huge pink bear with sharp claws and then proceeded to stalk, hunt, and kill the child in a never-ending series of murders. It’s merchandised much like Hello Kitty. That is, the products are paramount. there isn’t a book or movie or TV show that came first on which the products are based. Any media comes after the product. Lots of fun Gloomy Bear here.
What a way to sell a purse, right?
But I guess I prefer my insane Japanese movies more along the lines of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Cure (He also made Pulse), the slightly less good Suicide Club, Battle Royale and Takashi Miike’s weirdest stuff. Someone just told me about Miike’s Visitor Q which I havent seen either.
Still, I’m glad I saw this. It certainly filled the gap that existed when someone would say, “Koala, Japan, serial killer” to me. Thanks Mike for the rec.
Yeah, Mori Chack’s work is very fun (Gloomy Bear). I saw Visitor Q and it wasn’t degrading or dehumanizing enough (I grew a bit bored to be honest). I do like Suicide Club, but I’m also circling around it at the moment (academically speaking), so it’s in my best interest to like it.
The Korean art of self-resuscitation? The demon glowing eyes? The koala gliding back and forth across the screen in the psychiatrist’s office? A bunch of high schoolers made this for a class project on lunch money, surely? I laughed my head off, but I’d been drinking heavily.