Toad's Oil

 (Japan)

By RUSSELL EDWARDS

A Phantom Film release of a Dentsu, Eisei Gekijo, Geneon Entertainment, Phantom Film, Pyramid Film, TV Tokyo production. (International sales: Phantom Film, Tokyo.) Produced by Masahiro Harada, Keisuke Konishi. Directed by Koji Yakusho. Screenplay, Hideko Nakada, Urara, Hanako Fukada, from an original story by Yakusho.
 
With: Koji Yakusho, Satomi Kobayashi, Junichi Sawayashiki, Eita, Fumi Nikaido, Toru Masuoka, Kaoru Yachigusa.
 

Japan's pre-eminent thesp, Koji Yakusho, jumps into the director's chair with "Toad's Oil," a muddled, overlong Nipponese indie centered on an irresponsible father. Known internationally for the 1996 Japanese hit "Shall We Dance?" and Western pics "Babel" and "Memoirs of a Geisha," Yakusho also contributed to the wayward script. Locally, "Oil" garnered modest arthouse returns in June; offshore, it preems at the Toronto fest this fall.

Tokyo teenager Takuya (Eita) is conducting a long-distance romance with lovestruck Yokosuka girl Hikari (Fumi Nikaido) when he falls into a coma after a car accident. Soon after, Takuya's day-trader father, Takuro (Yakusho), takes a phone call from the unsuspecting Hikari and impersonates his comatose son, falsely boosting the girl's romantic dreams and indulging delusions of his own boyish charms. Erratic script strains credulity as it simultaneously seeks to keep Takuro sympathetic and teach him a lesson; a poignant finale arrives too late to save the film from its lack of cohesion. Perfs are generally fine, though Yakusho veers from commandingly sublime to ludicrously self-indulgent; his helming is similarly inconsistent. Tech credits are good. Title refers to an herbal remedy sold in traditional markets.

Camera (color, widescreen), Toyomichi Kurita; editor, Soichi Ueno; music, Tablatura; production designer, Hisao Inagaki. Reviewed on DVD, Ichikawa City, Japan, Aug. 5, 2009. (In Toronto Film Festival -- Discovery.) Original Japanese title: Gama no abura. Running time: 131 MIN.