Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

talyseon Yaji and Kita: Midnight Pilgrims (2005) Directed by Kudo Kankuro.Yaji and Kita is the story of two samurai from the Edo-era. They are gay lovers with two problems. Yaji is married, Kita is a drug addict. Their lives in Edo have become a spiral of despair, so when Yaji sees an advertisement in the post for Ise, "Get back to Reality" He decides that a pilgrimage to Ise will be good for them, there, maybe Kita can get the monkey off his back.So they set off on a journey of self discovery. On Captain America's bike from the movie Easy Rider.Say what? You get that reaction a lot. This movie is a psychedelic road trip through the mind of a junkie. There are a lot of Japanese Pop culture References strewn through the movie. I mean a lot. And if you don't have a very, very, VERY good understanding of Japanese pop culture, you are going to miss out on a lot.Imagine taking a movie like Airplane or better yet, The Rocky Horror Picture Show to a small village in Nepal. A lot is going to be lost, because they don't get the reference material for some of the jokes, like when June Cleaver offers to translate for the two brothers, because she speaks Jive, or the significance of the pink triangle on Frankie's surgical gown.So, basically, you have the bastard love child of a Cheech and Chong movie, an Akira Kurosawa film, with a liberal dash of Thelma and Louise, and its gay.The lovers move along the Tokaido Road, stopping at various inns along the way. The first is the Laugh Inn. No one gets through the check point with out doing a comedy routine. The second is the Music Inn, where you get a song with each cup of tea, from a transsexual innkeeper. His daughter is very sad because her music is so bad, it causes Mt. Fuji to hide in the haze. Kita fools himself into thinking he is love with the daughter, but she is in love with Yaji.In the mean time, an inspector Kin-kin has found Yaji's wife Ohatsu murdered, and he's hot on the pair's trail.Their trails and tribulations move on, Inn after Inn, through the mundane to the surreal with all the colour and cogency of a magic mushroom trip, which incidentally, plays a big part in the latter part of the film.Is the movie good? Well, yes. I enjoyed it. I watched it several times, and got some pointers from my Japanese friend. For instance, the funny stance the school girls take when greeting Kita is the classic pose for Yakuza to assume when making their introductions. Since they are a fan club for a Mob Boss, this makes sense. You have to go into it with an appreciation for the absurd, much like when you watch spoof movies, like Scary movie, and Meet the Spartans, or Pink Floyd's The Wall.Will you get this movie? All of it, first time out? Only if you are an expatriate from Japan. But part of the fun for me has been picking up things here and there. One of the reasons that so many of the puns work in the translation is because Japan adopts words into the language when they don't have a word, so puns about Thrones, and Thrown work. Weird, huh? Is this a classic movie? I don't think so. Is it a cult movie? Yes, in Japan. Will it catch on here? I doubt it. But if you are a fan of Japanese culture, this is a great little movie. If you are a fan of Gay culture, this is a real trip. If you are a fan of both, you have to watch this movie.Visually, this movie is stunning, rich and detailed, with jarring anachronisms and wonderful silliness. The stars, Nakamura Shichinosuke, Kita (the blond Uke) and Nagase Tomoya, Yuji, (the handsome Seme) are both cute, and easy on the eyes. I think they did a good job; I got involved with their characters.This film is probably not for everyone, but if you want to take a subtitled walk on the wild side, this is the film for you.

Sam Cremean Without a doubt the best movie I have ever seen, in every respect. With excellent effects, to the many themes covered, entertaining, colorful, crazy. I couldn't sit still in my seat and definitely have to grab a copy of this any way I can! Its like Brokeback Mountain meets Sailor Moon, on speed.It really shows you that the American film industry don't know anything about the gay community, or for that matter have the ability to produce anything exciting new and original. This is a masterpiece, its one of those films that has to power to make you laugh and cry in the same night, and enjoy laughing and crying.5 thumbs up.

mike_sensei Don't watch this movie. Or at least, if you do, prepare for disappointment. Yes, you may have heard this movie is brilliant. It may be, but you and I won't get it. This is a movie made for the Japanese, and unless you're well versed in Japanese pop-culture, you won't get the vast majority of the jokes. And I mean VERY well versed - not just an occasional J-pop fan or even a manga or anime freak. Many of the jokes in this movie are obscure Japanese pop-culture references that even the typical Japanese person won't get. Yes, the subtitles will help you follow the plot, but the plot is largely irrelevant, as most of the humor depends on pop- culture references that are impossible to convey to a foreign audience. And, as an earlier reviewer mentioned, there are a few Japanese-language puns that you won't get either. Don't worry, these wouldn't be funny if you did get them, unless you have the same quirky appreciation of puns as the Japanese. But the bulk of the humor here isn't language-specific, it's culture-specific, and even if you speak Japanese you could be left clueless. Think of it as a Japanese version of The Simpsons or Spaced - for someone who doesn't get the pop-culture references, it would be difficult to appreciate the brilliance of these shows. Yaji-san and Kita-san is probably brilliant in much the same way, but without the cultural background, it comes off at best as just bizarre, and at worst as just juvenile silliness. That said, it isn't hard to appreciate Yaji-san and Kita-san's absurdist roots, and fans of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead or even Monty Python should be able to appreciate the spirit if not the content of Yaji-san and Kiya-san. In fact, for Python fans, there are even a few times when you may find yourself laughing while your Japanese friends sit and wonder what's so funny - watch for a clever reference to Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail, for example. These times are few and far between, however, and for the most of the film you will probably just find yourself scratching your head, wondering what the hell is going on.Michael

dbborroughs This is the story of two samurai in Edo period Japan who are in love. One is married, the other is a drug addict. They decide that in order to make things better they will go on a trip to Ise Sanctuary, where its presumed, everything will be made right. What happens once they get on the road is the movie and its as wild and wacky as anything your likely to see. There are numerous puns, both visual and verbal; we get bodily function jokes; gender bending characters; gay jokes;romance; spoofs of films and music (and musical numbers); trips through time and space; a search for "my reality"; drug induced hallucinations and other things I was laughing to hard, or too shocked to noticed. Its a movie made for the film makers and whom ever will click into their strange mind set. Frankly its hard to describe what happens since much of it is so out there that to hear about it out of context will not make any sense (office girls on parade? Zombie Bartender? Born to be Gay?).Its probably more fun to discover the weirdness on your own, besides its too hard to describe simply.The film is not perfect. Its over two hours and probably could be trimmed by twenty minutes. The film also gets rather bizarrely surreal and it becomes almost too much to take. There is only so much one can take in before one hits the over load button. You probably won't like or get every joke or reference, I didn't, but I have to give it points for keeping at the craziness at all costs.Still for those are open to crazed, silly/clever films that the term "off beat" is too weak a word. Actually this film is so crazy that there is a good chance it will never even find its well deserved cult.9 out of 10 for sheer originality and audaciousness. Actually it would probably be something about an 8.5 but I have to round up or down to whole numbers. If you you're into off beat films and original visions look no farther this is the real deal. If you can't handle anything even slightly off center stay away, far away.A unique cinema experience.