The best Ena Koshino’s comedy movies

Story follows high school student Saki Miyanaga and her classmates as they become absorbed in the game of mahjong. They target an upcoming national competition.

Confident that he’s the next great Japanese thespian, Matsumoto Fighter and his manager roam the streets of Shibuya to promote him. When he finds out that up-andcoming indie director Matsunaga Daishi is holding auditions for his latest film, Matsumoto pulls out all the stops to get in. Director Ninomiya Ken began this project as a Borat-esque mockumentary about the desperate measures aspiring actors take to break into show business. But when Fighter and his manager push the limits of their unsuspecting prey a little too far, fiction and reality begin to overlap in disturbing and surprisingly violent ways. Will Fighter finally get his big break, or will his dreams come crumbling down?

Whimsical film in which students and teachers come together during a weekend for a wedding. The film flutters back and forth between the various characters and their feelings until the wedding starts. Shot in the old beach hotel where the great Ozu wrote his screenplays. © iffr.com