Search - White Collar Worker Kintaro on DVD

Miike fans beware

zoviet squid | 12/02/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"For those of you who value Takashi Miike for his insane originality (Gozu, Ichi the Killer, Audtion, Katakuris, etc...) you may want to stay away from this movie. It's certainly far from the pantheon of his more infamously bizarre films and it's easy to tell this is meant for a wider audience.

WHITE COLLAR WORKER KINTARO is reminiscent of your typical 80's inspirational feel-good fare, replete with all the humor and cheesiness you can swallow. It's punctuated at the right moments with a chedder-esque rock 'n roll soundtrack that'll make you laugh unintentionally, and all the enthusiastic acting of a B-movie.

But this isn't to say WHITE COLLAR WORKER is a bad movie, it's actually pretty amusing and shows that an 'unpredictable' filmmaker like Miike can live up to that adjective by creating a competent, by the numbers movie amidst the frenetic intensity of his questionable sanity. The premise is humorous even if the movie is filled with cliches--it involves a salary man who seems a bit like a fish out of water after retiring from his biker gang, resulting in an unorthodox way handling himself and the problems he faces. Contrast that with your stereotypical salary worker: stiff, mild, unpassionate, formal, and you have a decent set-up. Imagine a wallstreet paper-pusher challenging his boss to a brawl in a courtyard, or saving a man from being mugged by single-handedly whuping a bunch of hoodlums, and you'll get the picture. Ultimately, though, this is a movie about a passionate, compulsive do-gooder angry at the corrupt system he finds himself confronting, and maybe that's why the KINTARO franchise is so popular in Japan.

Now I'm not that familiar with the history of the KINTARO world in Japan, but it seems obvious Miike kept this movie firmly away from his trademark weirdness in staying true to the source material. You won't find him taking this anywhere near daring territory. You'll find only very minor instances of familiar Miike-isms here and there, but they're nothing to get excited about. Those fans more accustomed with the Salary Man Kintaro world might love this movie, but I wouldn't know.

Overall, a fleetingly amusing family film, but ultimately pedestrian and forgettable."

Very popular Japanese TV Series

Gregory S. Vaughn | Duarte, CA United States | 09/14/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I haven't yet seen the DVD (it's on order)...but this series is VERY popular in Japan. Japanese Dramass typically run 10-11 episodes for a season and that's it. This drama has been so popular that it spawned a 2 hour special as well as 3 more additional seasons and has a large comic-book following as well. The direct translation of this series from Japanese is:
Salaryman Kintaro. I will post an updated review when my copy arrives."