Fine, Totally Fine

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Movie: Fine, Totally Fine
Romaji: Zenzen Daijobu
Japanese: 全然大丈夫
Director: Yosuke Fujita
Writer: Yosuke Fujita, Yuuka Arai
Producer: Kozo Okoshi
Cinematographer: Yoshihiro Ikeuchi
Release Date: January 26, 2008
Runtime: 110 min.
Genre: Drama / Comedy / Romance
Studio: Stylejam
Distributer: Stylejam
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Teruo, the eldest son of a used bookstore owner has a dream: to build the world scariest haunted house. About to reach his 30th birthday, Teruo is still idling away his life. One day, through the introduction of childhood friend Hisanobu, an extremely clumsy painter/artist comes to work at the bookstore. Meet Akari. A cute, attractive girl that both Teruo and Hisanobu soon fall for.

Cast



YosiYosi Arakawa	Yoshino Kimura	Yoshinori Okada	Naoki Tanaka	Keizo Kanie
Teuro Tohyama	Akari Kinoshita	Hisanobu Komori	Yuhara	Eitaro



Kitaro	Shima Ise	Seminosuke Murasugi	Noriko Eguchi	Ichiro Ogura
Kurita	Tomoko	Reporter Yamatotakaru	Umezawa	Kotaro



Toshie Negishi	Taka Okubo	Kayoko Shiraishi
Toyohara	homeless man	homeless artists

Additional Cast Members:

Trailers

Image Gallery

Film Festivals

2008 (8th) Nippon Connection - April 2nd-6th
2008 (10th) Udine Far East Film - April 18th-26th
2008 (7th) New York Asian Film Festival - June 20th - July 6th - North American Premiere
2009 (13th) Fantasia Film Festival - July 9th-29th (Canadian Premiere)

Awards

Audience Award (3rd Place): 2008 (10th) Udine Far East Film - April 18th-26th
Black Dragon Audience Award (2nd Place): 2008 (10th) Udine Far East Film - April 18th-26th
NIPPON CINEMA AWARD: 2008 (8th) Nippon Connection - April 2nd-6th
NYAFF 2008 AUDIENCE AWARD: 2008 (7th) New York Asian Film Festival - June 20th - July 6th

Comments

Chris Jul 04 2014 9:56 pm love this movie. loved the charters and story.

Chris Jul 04 2014 9:51 pm Love this movie. I enjoyed the charters as much as the story, and the music. Deep lite and witty...

Ki Feb 11 2009 5:10 am Back in the days when music actually mattered there were specific indie labels that would get my hard earned money irrespective of which band was actually releasing the album. Some of those labels were Cherry Red Records, Sarah Records and Labrador Records. Basically the label’s name guaranteed that the album would be quality, fall within a defineable style, and have a certain cool factor unique to them. You’re probably thinking by “This all fine and dandy but exactly what does this have to with the Japanese film ‘Fine Totally Fine’ ?” Well there’s a three year old Japanese film production & distribution company named Stylejam that seems to be making a name for itself like those fabled indie record labels did back in the 80’s-90’s. The list of films produced and distributed by Stylejam includes such titles as “The Pavillion Salamandre,” “Dog in a Sidecar,” “Sad Vacation,” “Adrift in Tokyo,” and now their latest picture “Fine, Totally Fine” (Zenzen daijobu).

Out of all the Stylejam releases, “Fine, Totally Fine” has the most in common with last year’s “Adrift in Tokyo.” Both films share a laconical style unique to themselves, quirky comedic moments that sometimes rises to the level of genius, and just radiates a warm fuzzy feeling that slackers would find to be Shangri-la.

The story found in “Fine, Totally Fine” is simple enough. Teuro (YosiYosi Arakawa) is a 30 year old kid, still living at home and workng in his dad’s used bookstore, while also part timing as a maintainence worker in a city park. His goal in life is to build the ultimate haunted house. His best friend since childhood is Hisanobu Komori. Hisanobu works in the administration division at a hospital. For better or worse, Hisanobu is always thought of as the “nice guy.” One day he’s asked to interview a women applying to be a nursing helper. The lady, named Akari Kinoshita , comes in for the interview all muddy with a bloody nose. Komori being the “nice guy” hires her anyway. A short while later, after Akari is involved in a series of accidents at the hospital she quits her job. Hisanobu Komori then arranges for Akari to work at the used bookshop beloning to Teuro’s father. Shortly afterwards, both guys find themselves falling head over heals for the quirky Akari.

What really elavates “Fine, Totally Fine” to a higher level isn’t so much the story per se, but rather the collection of smaller moments that just oozes with humor. There’s Akari receiving instructions on what she should and shouldn’t do when a customer buys a porno mag, the film within the film moment when Teuro plays a jealous friend, Akari’s unusual habit of spying on a homeless lady, and the awkward manner in which a co-worker hits on the oblivious Hisanobu Kimori. Like a well stocked thrift store, there’s also isles and isles of vintage moments for you to reflect on and appreciate. The quirky idiosyncracies found working within a used book shop. One person’s love for fish sausage (count me in as another person addicted to fish sausage). A person’s love for the sound of rain, even to the point of playing it on her boombox all day long. A young girl’s expression in seeing a strange looking man and then handing him a potato chip.

Stylistically speaking, “Fine, Totally Fine” could be the hypothetical not-a-sequel, but a spin-off of Katsuhito Ishii’s “The Taste of Tea”. Set some 4 years later in a mid-sized Japanese town and centered around a 2nd cousin of the Haruno family named Teuro Tohyama. It’s that kind of movie which is fine, totally fine with me.

Fine, Totally Fine

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