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I’m a big Yoshino Kimura fan, so I knew I would enjoy Zenzen Daijobu (English title: “Fine, Totally Fine") It’s basically a quirky, harmless romantic comedy that follows three main characters and their love triangle. It’s all very innocent and tame, but the characters are all a bit odd. Kimura’s character Akari is a clumsy, accident-prone introvert artist who loves to eat chikuwa (fish sausages). Hisanobu (Okada Yoshinori) is probably the most normal character: a hospital administrator who is too nice a guy to every attain any real power. Finally there is Hisanobu’s brother Teruo (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) who is by far the most bizarre of the bunch. He’s obsessed with horror and ghosts, and dreams of one day owning his own amusement park where he can scare his guests to death. His scenes are the funniest, especially at the beginning of the movie with plenty of props and sight gags to keep you rolling.
The story takes place in Tokyo, but not the common high-tech glamorous version of the city. Instead we have settings such as stark hospital, a run-down but charming second-hand bookstore, middle class neighborhood alleyways, and the characters’ small, well-lived-in apartments. It all lends itself to make the story and characters accessible, even with all their strange behavior. The plot meanders its way through a bunch of small scenes, many of them really funny, some a little scary, but each one building up the characters and plot little by little. One of the funniest scenes happened when the frazzled Akari is working as the shop clerk and has to help an otaku who is buying a dirty magazine. She gets flustered while trying to put the magazine in a bag, ends up spilling coffee all over it, then can’t open a box of tissue to clean it up and in the end tries to find a replacement porn magazine. It’s a lot funnier than I can describe it, and there are lots of scenes like this. Really bizarre, awkward, unexpected, but in the end hilarious! Kimura’s acting is great. Her shaking hands as she fails to open the tissue box (twice in the movie!) is perfect. I was laughing out loud several times, and had a smile on my face throughout the film.
Zenzen Daijobu is a charming movie that has a nice message. It’s the simple things that make you happy, like being yourself and finding someone you love. It doesn’t have to be about money or power. These characters have neither, but they do find a warmth and happiness that all of us are striving to attain.