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?

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At first blush, Yoshimitsu Morita’s The Mamiya Brothers may seem like a goofy comedy about two hopeless otakus desperately trying to pick up chicks. And while that’s partially true, it’s actually a sincere story of two well meaning, yet emotionally stunted brothers who try to break free from the bubble they’ve created for themselves over the years and catch up on some of the socialization they missed in a youth spent joined at the hip. The trouble, however, is that their particular bubble offers a lot of comfort and protection from an unforgiving world full of complicated notions like cruelty, infidelity, and heartbreak—none of which they’ve ever had to experience while leaning on each other.

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For the past few years and without really giving it too much thought I’ve been under the impression that “Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers” had some sort of inherent flaw that led to the general lack of media buzz and web coverage that would (or should) normally come from a movie with names like Satoshi Miki, Juri Ueno, and Yu Aoi attached. Fortunately I was dead wrong about that. This is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time and offers a unique, childlike approach to cinematic absurdity you just can’t get from anyone else but Miki.

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It’s a well-known fact that Sabu’s first film, Dangan Runner was the inspiration for Tom Tykwer’s 1998 German hit, “Run, Lola, Run”. The tremendous international success of that film eventually got programmers for Loews Theaters’ indie distribution arm, “The Shooting Gallery” to briefly re-name Dangan Runner “Non-Stop” and screen it in New York in the fall of 2000. Nothing really ever came from that, however; I don’t think distribution went far beyond those screenings and a short-lived stint on VHS (good luck finding a non-bootleg copy now—TSG doesn’t exist anymore). Unfortunately this moderate, short-lived hype may have been a bit misdirected because Sabu’s debut, like most filmmakers’ debuts, is probably his most disjointed offering to date. He’s since gone on to make a number of far-superior films, none of which have so much as sniffed a proper US release.

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In the current culture of foreign movie coverage, where 1-line blurbs can make or break your international sales appeal, Check It Out, Yo! is a good example of a movie that gets unfairly torpedoed by its own premise (not to mention title) right off the bat. That 1 line goes something like this: Three guys from Okinawa attend a concert of local rap group “Workaholic” and get so excited by the reaction of the crowd that they immediately decide to start a band of their own to impress chicks. While this idea sounds like it could quickly spiral into a stupid Hollywood-style teen sex comedy, it’s actually more of a goofy take on innocent young love and the ridiculous lengths teenagers are willing to go when every unrequited crush seems like the end of the world.

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