Review: Down the Drain

Posted by Kevin Ouellette on September 4, 2008 5:16pm EDT (4 years ago)

Director Shinobu Yaguchi must have a really good therapist, because over the span of his 15-year career his films have been getting progressively more upbeat and, dare I say it; downright bubbly. Falling in line with that logic—but in reverse—is his debut effort Down the Drain (Hadashi no Picnic), the story of a typical teenage girl named Junco (Saori Serikawa) who commits a fairly innocuous crime only to see her life spiral out of control with one unbelievable chain of bad luck after another. Who knew the guy that brought us Waterboys and Swing Girls could have such a mean streak?

Junco’s troubles start when she gets caught using a commuter pass that she and all her friends had been sharing with each other to save money. She’s brought into the administration office of the train station for further questioning, but when the attendant who caught her leaves the room the pass sitting on the table in front of her and an open door prove to be too tempting; she makes a break for it. In her frantic escape dash to a nearby bathroom the contents of her briefcase bookbag—which also happens to include some naughty pictures of her with her boyfriend Iguchi—spill out behind her. Of course the stuff is gathered up by train station employees who promptly call her teacher and mother into the office to alert them to Junco’s new life of crime.

In desperate need of some peace of mind after her horrible day, Junco decides to visit her loving grandmother in lieu of going directly home. However, when she arrives she’s met by her parents who inform her that grandma is dead and the funeral will be held the next day.

During the somber car ride to her grandmother’s funeral, Junco notices a can of peach juice rolling around on the floor at her feet. As she leans over to pick it up she’s suddenly jarred forward as her parents’ car slams into a motorcycle, hurling them into the windshield but leaving Junco completely unharmed. With her parents now sidelined in the hospital with multiple injuries, it’s up to Junco to walk grandma’s ashes home on her own. Suffice it to say that things don’t quite go according to plan.

From this point on things go from bad to worse as Junco’s problems just seem to snowball from one scenario to the next, all linked together in practically inconceivable ways. It gets to the point where you’re not sure if you should laugh or feel awful, but I think the most appropriate answer is “both”. Yaguchi pulls no punches in his attempt to paint a picture of the unluckiest schoolgirl ever, but his brand of misery comes with a heavy dose of comedy and quirky characters that can take the edge off even the direst of circumstances.

Because the story takes place over the course of a few months and involves a ton of interlinked events, things can get a bit hard to follow. There’s just so much stuff happening that you really have to be paying attention to take it all in, especially with all the sporadic leaps forward in time mixed in with a few flashbacks. Even so, a few muddled plot elements shouldn’t really detract from how unique and darkly funny this movie is overall. Fans of the “tough luck” genre popularized by directors like Sabu, or anyone who doesn’t mind a copious amount of grief sprinkled in with their comedy would do well to check this one out.

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