SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Perfect cast and a good story

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

HOSPITALITÉ (KANTAI). Viewed on Streaming. Scenario = eight (8) stars; cinematography/lighting = seven (7) stars; set designs/locations = six (6) stars; subtitles = four (4) stars; music = three (3) stars. Director Kôji Fukada rolls out a unique and effective mash up of humor, suspense, drama, blackmail, con artistry, and illegal aliens! Although it drags a bit here and there (mostly due to prolonged staring by the principal bumpkin characters), the scenario (Fukada is also credited as the script writer) provides ornithological symmetry by starting with an over-sized canary (actually a lost-bird poster thereof) and ending with over-sized pigeons (the human kind). As serial con artists extraordinaire, Kanji Furutachi and Bryerly Long easily steal every scene they are in, as they systematically take over control (via charm, alternative facts, blackmail, and seduction) of a small print shop with living quarters above and turn the place into a transient "safe" house for Gaijin refuges with cash (the latter mostly look like former English teachers whose contracts are up, but don't want to go home). Whether the Long and Furutach characters also help the police round up illegals is left open to question (but the police only seem to arrive when there is literally no space left for additional paying Gaijin). Cinematography/lighting (semi-wide screen, color) are fine. Interior print-shop shots are remarkable for squeezing film makers and equipment into a tiny space studded with printing machinery jutting into walk ways! Subtitles need some serious editing. They are usually just too long for those who are speed-reading challenged (and get sick of hitting the pause button). Music is sparse and mostly forgettable. Highly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

One day a man called Kagawa appears at a small family business. It turns out he is a vague acquaintance of the husband. Almost immediately he starts working and living there and soon moves in his mysterious 'Brazilian bride'. Before long, these two begin manipulating the situation and start taking massive liberties, while coming between the host couple in the process. None of the characters seem to be honest with each other and keep various secrets. Kagawa seems to be the only one aware of this fact, and so he exploits it to the fullest. He uses information he knows about the husband and wife in order to fulfil his main purpose which is to shelter a large group of illegal immigrants in this house.Hospitalité is a comedy-drama that is not really plot-driven; it's more of a character piece. It is not overly funny, although Kanji Furudachi as Kagawa does put in an amusing performance. But it's consistently likable, even if at times it does seem a bit meandering. For instance, there are a few plot strands that aren't developed very well. But like I say it's really more about the characters and they are engaging enough. This is quite a slight film but an enjoyable one nevertheless.

This film was written and directed by Koji Fukada and released in 2011. It stars Kanji Furutachi, Kumi Hyôdô, Tatsuya Kawamura, and Bryerly Long.The tale is complicated, and it left me in the dark; I have a general understanding of what happened, but some of the details still puzzle me.Generally, Mikio has inherited a small printing business in Tokyo, which he runs with his wife, Natsuki, and one employee who is there only to get sick and be replaced. Also living with Mikio are his small daughter and his recently divorced sister. There is some gentle conflict between Mikio and Seiko because he started using her room when she left to get married. When the employee falls ill, he is replaced by Kagawa, who just happened to be there, just happened to know how to run the printers, and just happened to have no job and no place to stay, so Mikio offers him a spare room upstairs.This is where things start to spiral down the rabbit hole into Alice in Wonderland. Mikio gives Kagawa the impression that Mikio's wife passed away. Instead, she seems just to have passed to another man because we see her later with a 9-month-old baby. C'est la vie. And although Kagawa was given permission to live in above the shop, he appears one day with a blonde woman he introduces as his wife. Then he says the marriage is a joke. Then he says he's just kidding. She says she's from Brazil. She also says she's from Bosnia. Kagawa takes considerable interest in the business, which is doing okay but barely. He discovers that Natsuki is skimming a hundred thousand yen or so from the business every month to give to her half-brother who is blackmailing her. Kagawa's wife seduces Mikio in front of a window as Kagawa watches with satisfaction. He soon blackmails both Natsuki and Mikio, though not for money. He buys their silence. A few dozen people appear at the shop one day, and Kagawa introduces them as his wife's family. (She's Annabelle, I forgot to say.) The people appear to be descended from a variety of stocks: Asian, European, and African, to name a few obvious stocks. There's no way they're her family. When Mikio and Natsuki try to object, Kagawa has something on both of them which assures their silent assent.I have the impression that the culture in the family home is to avoid dissent any way, so it's not a significant rupture to have them stay silent. The interesting thing is that Kagawa appears to have learned that if you cheat instead of playing by the rules, you always wins. More people show up. We have no idea what's going on. There's a long line for the one family bathroom every day (all day, it seems). The strangers end up running the various presses, ordering supplies, and doing all the work, while Mikio and Natsuki huddle together in a room and watch, nonplussed.Eventually at a birthday party thrown for Natsuki, the party spills into the street, the police are called, and we find out what is going on. I won't spoil the plot, and I should mention that I have left out several significant subplots. From my point of view, too much is left hanging to have the movie make sense. Kagawa's goings-on wrap several subplots together, and the movie is just sort of left hanging. My impression is that no dissent will be shown and that things will go back to normal. It may be that my lack of understanding of the Japanese culture has left me too bereft of cues that should have filled in those details. I liked the movie; it's a mild comedy- cum-mystery. But I just couldn't put all the pieces together to make it fulfilling.

Mikio runs a small printing company in working-class Tokyo, taking care of the machines while his young, beautiful wife manages the books and the education of her stepdaughter Eriko, from Mikio's previous marriage. Mikio's sister lives with them, retreating from her own broken marriage. Their earnest if humdrum lives see little drama, except the escape of their parakeet Pea, and the gossipy interference of the Neighbourhood Watch. But drama is on its way in the form of Kagawa, an Iago-esque charmer who forces his way into their lives bringing irrevocable consequences.Writer/ director Koji Fukuda presents an ostensibly absurdist comedy that also functions as a sly take on Japanese paranoia and persistent reluctance to engage with the outside world. The story sets up the usual bogeymen of the Japanese media – homeless itinerants, illegal immigrants – while suggesting that the truly awful machinations come from domestic sources. That said, the polemic is lightly dotted through; it is the comedy and family intrigue that dominate here. From Ozu's "Tokyo Monogatari", through to Kawase's "Moe no Suzaku' and the recent "Still Walking" from Koreda, the ties that bind and infuriate have proved fertile ground for Japanese cinema. Fukuda's "Hospitalite" is both a welcome addition to the canon and a fresh take on the genre. The tight script and brisk pacing have a lot to do with that success, but the performances from the principals here are exceptional and really take the film to a new height. Keji Yamaguchi as weak-willed Mikio is a delight, while Kanji Furutachi plays Kagawa with a level of menace that is Shakespearean. The scenes with the two together, especially when Kagawa is twisting the knife on Mikio, are priceless, be they comedic or racking up the tension. Minor players hold their own: Kumi Hyodo is impressive as the self-deceiving sister Seiko, showing that acting is re-acting with some hilarious expressions. Hiroko Matsuda completely embodies the neighbourhood busybody. Kiki Sugino as Natsuki, the narrative's emotional core, keeps it straight, the perfect foil to the mayhem that is being unleashed around her. We share Natsuki's rising incredulity to unfolding events – only to realize that she, too, is complicit… The film was shot low-budget HD but technically stands up. There are really only four locations – inside downstairs, inside upstairs, the street and the riverside – and Fukuda uses the claustrophobia aesthetically, building and releasing the tension as the tempo demands.By the end, everything is back the way it was, though not quite the same. That motif resolves itself as if to wink at the hypocrisy inherent in Japanese discourse on immigration and their own safe society. Social critique aside, this is a joyous film, superbly acted, deftly scripted and shot, and thought-provoking into the bargain. Brave, mature film-making that deserves to be seen by audiences in their thousands.