I haven't had a chance to catch too many of this year's efforts (excepting Tag) but I have little doubt that Love & Peace's outré take on genre and comedy will place it at the top of the ridiculous list. For this year or any other.
It takes a particular audacity to pair a broad salaryman pop idol comedy (!) with a very adult take on a children's Christmas movie (replete with talking toys and a drunk Santa). As with a lot of Sono's work, it doesn't all gel (the two threads are so ludicrous and so broad that it takes more than a talking magical turtle to tie them together) but it never fails to entertain. And its damn songs are too catchy for their own good.
Sono is a limits pusher so it is instructive to see the extremes To which he can extend Japan's insatiable thirst for cute'n'quirky. I'm not entirely sure where that leaves Love & Peace as a piece of cinema. Has the affectionately nutty Christmas movie crown has been picked up in Japan as yet? This would definitely go well with a 10 piece bucket of KFC (a.k.a. Japanese Christmas dinner).
Trying to figure out what the fuck just happened could then take people through to the New Year.
★★★☆
Trailer:
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