There’s no secret I’m a fan of director Nakashima Tetsuya’s work after seeing Rolling Bomber Special years ago. But it was pretty much Shimotsuma Monogatari/下妻物語 the one that cemented my love for his fast paced, psychedelic style ( an even more over the top Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, minus the profanity imho)

When I was looking through the movies list the film festival has to offer this year, I made a note to myself saying that if I’m to watch only ONE movie from the list this year, it’ll be Paco ( because, seriously, I can’t get enough of his style :D )

There once was a hospital where patients and even doctors & nurses were all weird. Above all, Onuki, a patient who built up his company all by himself from scratch, is a super cranky old man. One day, he meets up a girl called Paco, who cannot retain memory beyond one day due to a car accident. She is reading the same picture book everyday. Onuki starts bonding with Paco after some incident, and begins to doubt his way of living.
~ from AsianMediaWiki

I must admit the description of the movie made me did a double take, and after seeing the trailer, doubly so. So Nakashima directed a kids’ movie… with his usual suspects of crazy casts and antics @.@ After watching his Memories of Matsuko/嫌われ松子の一生 ( which is a really depressing movie deep down that I’d only realised after the ending credit started to roll which showed how awesome it was ), I do wonder what Paco has in store ( because seriously? The trailer and description doesn’t say much at all XD;)

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Personally, I didn’t think Paco and the Magical Book as well done a story as Memories of Matsuko, but considering intended younger audiences and the bizarre fairy tale-like premise the story took, it’s really a very psychedelic fun and yet moving story that can be enjoyed by both young and old.

I must admit to trying my damnedest not to cry at certain moments in the movie; which took me by surprise because the story can be hilarious most of the times, and was so over the top you wondered what everyone on the casts were smoking during the filming session.

( I kept hearing sniffles from the crowd when I was in the cinema, so I’m glad I was not the only one who were really touched and saddened by this weird cocktail of a movie )

Tags: movie, paco and the magical book, tetsuya nakashima