Bootleg Film

A road movie in which an unlikely couple drives through a snow-covered landscape. The policeman Seiji and the Yakuza Tatsuo – each other’s best friends – are on their way to the funeral of Seiji’s ex-wife, who is also Tatsuo’s lover. Tatsuo tells Seiji on the way. Alongside this outpouring, he has another surprise for the policeman in the trunk of his car: a corpse they have to dispose of. In addition, the gangster bores his friends with endless references to films. When a young couple accidentally catches sight of the corpse in the trunk, they will also have to be put out of action by Tatsuo and Seiji.
The hilarious and absurd dialogues and the quarrelling between the couple are portrayed with pace and in widescreen black & white, occasionally helped by a Truffaut-esque jumpcut. Bootleg Film even very briefly adopts a Tarantino-like form, an event which is lightheartedly referred to in the film itself. Fortunately Kobayashi skilfully avoids more obvious comparisons with Tarantino or with fellow countryman Kitano (also a specialist in Japanese gangsters and/or policemen) by giving events an unexpected and surrealist twist. The warmly melancholy music in the film is provided by Takada Wataru, Kobayashi’s tutor from his past as a folk singer.