Executive Koala

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Movie: Executive Koala
Romaji: Koara kachô
Japanese: コアラ課長
Director: Minoru Kawasaki
Writer:
Producer:
Cinematographer
Release Date: October 28, 2005
Runtime: 86 Min.
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

'Tamura is an average divorced salary-man in Japan - and also a man-sized, suit-and-tie wearing, bipedal koala bear. Though not a human, he’s a successful business-man with ventures over-seas who refuses to play official politics.' And what more could you possibly demand from cinema?! Tamura’s corporate life-style is severaly cramped when his humane sweet-heart Yoko is mysteriously murdered and he finds himself a suspect with the police. Even worse, he learns the he is their only suspect! Tamura sets out on a mission to prove his innocence but is haunted by disturbing lapses in his memory. Does the Executive Koala truly know himself?

Notes

Though accurate to its subject, the film's title doesn't quite express the full-bore craziness of Minoru Kawasaki's follow-up to The Calamari Wrestler (2004). Moving from the interspecial grappling of the wrestling ring to the even more brutal milieu of official politics, it is the story of Tamura, a hard-working employee of the Rubbles Pickles Company who is working on a merger with a South Korean kimchi producer. He is introduced in the film's opening song as a “kind-hearted fence-sitter, unhurt by lay-offs or demotion.” The fact that this dutiful drudge has a giant koala head and that his boss appears to be a large rabbit is little remarked upon. Though the office secretaries bemoan his hirsuteness, they still see him as a nifty catch. Tamura's desirability is called into question, however, when detectives start suspecting that he might be responsible for the disappearance of his former wife and the death of his current sweet-heart. Thinking he might suffer from a split personality, our titular hero strives to recover the buried memories of his spouse's disappearance through analysis, though his shrink might actually mean him more harm than good. An other rogue element is Tamura's colleague from the kimchi company, who is never seen without his flying squirrel, Momo. Borrowing a pinch of plot from The Manchurian Candidate, a modicum of musical absurdity from The Happiness of the Katakuris and some anthropomorphism from Sesame Street, Kawasaki adds his own peculiar sense of humor and martial arts action to come up with an entirely new and entirely unforgettable thing.