Dog Days Dream

Small-scale black comedy in the best absurdist tradition. Director Ichii Masahide used to work as a stand-up comedian and the sense of timing he mastered for humour from his theatre experience he uses with verve in this film. The film is not really a chamber play, because the people also go outside, but most of the scenes – certainly the most frenzied – are set in a small bedsit.
A young and poverty-stricken couple tries to get through a long hot summer in their room. They don’t have enough of anything and so they don’t have any money for an air conditioner either. It is above all the lack of this cooling equipment that increasingly becomes an obsession in the stifling room. The young man collects paper for a recycling company and earns next to nothing doing this far from attractive work. His girlfriend works in a Korean barbecue restaurant. You would think that they would at least have enough to eat, but her stingy boss doesn’t even let her take home the leftovers. When the boyfriend has had enough of carrying round paper in the heat and his girlfrind is sacked following a misunderstanding, their humble existence starts taking on increasingly absurd forms. They withdraw lethargically to their overheated room, which looks increasingly like a rubbish tip. And they sleep through the day on this ‘rubbish tip’ in their underwear. When in desperation the boyfriend finally takes action, everything only gets worse. And funnier. (GjZ)