The best Ryusuke Komakine’s comedy movies

The ever versatile Kazuki Kitamura stars as masterless samurai Kyutaro Madarame, a feared swordsman who has fallen on hard times in old Edo. Caught between two warring gangs in an epic battle of cat lovers and dog lovers, he begrudgingly accepts the canine faction's offer to assassinate the opposite leader's beloved pet: an adorable white cat. Yet upon raising his lethal sword, he cannot bring himself to go through with the act, and the cat melts his ronin heart. But before finding peace as a newly minted cat person, the still fearsome Madarame will have to take on both gangs in a classic samurai street brawl.

Hitori Gekidan gets off a crew bus, assuming he will participate in a travel program. He overhears people in the monitoring room announce the beginning of the "24 Hour Kiss Pressure Game." He is then assaulted by attractive actresses pleading for a kiss as well as deadly mercenaries and zombies attempting to kidnap him. Soon he grasps his character and situation. He is Shogo Kawashima aka The Desert Reaper and he is on the run with Aoi Tsukasa (Aoi Tsukasa). For unknown reasons, the Red Shadow, who raised him, wants him back.

Hiroshi Tanaka sports an intense perm which looks like the afro hairstyle favored by some African-Americans back in the 1970's. He doesn't get his hair done at a hair shop, he was actually born with his hair like that. For freedom, Hiroshi moves to Tokyo. He works hard there and, even though he turns 24, he still doesn't have a girlfriend. Meanwhile, a school friend informs Hiroshi that he is going to get married. Hiroshi remembers a promise that they made. Hiroshi is even more impatient to find a girlfriend. A beautiful woman named Aya Kato then moves into the neighborhood.

In 1987, frustrated junior high student Takashi hates his uncool father hanging around their suburban home all the time, and is pestered by the area’s wannabe gangsters. But he’s interested in the girl next door, the bounteously-breasted Megumi. One day, Takashi hears a rumor that porn actress Kyoko Yokushimaru is coming to town for an autograph session at the only video store in town where Takashi and his judo friends always hang out. Their ridiculous but serious adventure begins. What will Takashi find after all the surprises and chaos? Recalling youth classics like Stand By Me, this is the debut feature of Shin Adachi, Japan Academy Prize-winning screenwriter of 100 Yen Love.

Ikku, Mighty and Tomu live in Saitama, not exactly the coolest places to get involved in a wanna-be rap star lifestyle. But try they do with their freestyle rap band Sho-Gung. Yu Irie, who gained the Grand Prize at Yubari Fantastic Film Festival with this film, grew up in Saitama and inserts the grim realities of suburban youth skillfully in his comedic style.

Nosebleed, a formerly unpopular rock band instantly gains a cult following after the lead vocalist, Kana, recruits a zombie, Tetsuo, as their death metal vocalist, even though he is the same undead monster that killed her former band members. Meanwhile, government agents frantically search for their runaway zombie experiment…

A common horoscope brings a timid middle-aged salaryman and high school delinquent to the center of a political scandal, in which a corrupt incumbent mayor seeks to crush the candidacy of his reformer opponent. This anti-establishment tale blends a punk ethos with absurdist comedy as the unlikely pair finds their existence given new meaning when they work to return a kidnapped baby. Along the way they must fight not only the assault of the mayor’s neoliberal redevelopment of the town, but his bribed police force and yakuza. Under director Sho Tsukikawa’s taut direction, "I Alone"’s mad roller coaster ride plot and outraged self-determination all ring emotionally true, making this one of the year’s biggest discoveries.