Movielogr
Lala Pipo: A Lot of People (2009)
Directed by Masayuki Miyano
Twitter Facebook Google+Overview
Adapted from a sex-stuffed cult novel, LALAPIPO (a play on the phrase “A Lot of People”) follows divergent seedy strands of sexual and narrative spaghetti through the sticky Tokyo night. There’s a chubby freelance writer who’s so obsessed with masturbating to the sound of his upstairs neighbors going at it that he forgets to deal with his own love life and when he finally does have sex he is immediately filled with self-loathing. The upstairs neighbor’s story then splits off like an amoeba: she’s an office lady seduced by a “talent scout” who is falling down the sex industry ladder, moving from hostess, to massage girl, to private karaoke attendant. The talent scout’s story then splits off and runs in its own direction, revealing the sorry state of this young pimp’s soul. From there, the movie takes more and more time to consider the lives of more and more characters until the entire Japanese sex industry is filled with the wailing of lost souls.
Length 120 minutes
Actors
Yuri Nakamura | Hiroki Narimiya | Saori Hara | Sayuki Matsumoto | Tomoko Murakami | Sarutoki Minagawa | Takashi Yoshimura | Mari Hamada | Megu Fujiura
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02/23/2014 | TV | Streaming | Video on Demand | 7 stars |
| (Average) 7 stars |
Viewing Notes
Fun mix of melancholy and comedy centered around red light and AV scene in Tokyo. Five stories intertwine and intersect with a variety of characters each with their own issues. The way the film is edited and how these stories are presented I feel as though it’s incomplete (like certain characters not given a full arc or missing pieces of their story, like the freelance writer that opens the movie). But IMDb lists the JP cut at 120m when the VOD version is 94m (as is the UK DVD release). If there is a longer cut that could explain why this feels a tad unfinished. I wonder if Saori Hara’s scenes were cut to get the rating down since she’s barely even in this version.
Still worth viewing this movie and the main themes are still represented. Hiroki Narimiya is really good here.
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