Supesharuakutāzu

Goody two shoes Kazuto wants to be an actor, yet an annoying affliction prevents this – he faints when he gets nervous. Every time things get tense, he squeezes his boob-shaped stress relief ball, usually to no avail. Just as Kazuto seems condemned to sad mundanity, he encounters his brother for the first time in years. Hiroki works for an agency with actors who are hired to act as a friend or family member and he thinks Kazuto would be perfect. They get the tricky assignment of saving a family-run inn from a fraudulent sect. On the day the sect celebrates the 8,396,825,800th birthday of its god, everything reaches a crazed, confusing apotheosis with apparitions and litres of fake blood. Director Ueda's personal mission is "making films which will still be fun after 100 years", and he has more than succeeded with this charming loser epic. The fun is as blatant as the fake blood spurting from the fake actors. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)