Just so...so bad

Fantastic!

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Kurosawa's debut film is something of a compromising mess. Part "pinku" film and part self-referential art film, it's clear he stayed true on his commission of delivering a straight up erotic film while sneaking in bouts of Godard-like pop moments and sly evocations of Hitchcock. The story: two female friends, one bored by continuous sex with her boyfriend and the other just bored, spy across the street from their apartments and observe an older woman forcing her son into incest. They devise a plan to spring him from the confines of this life, thus sending the film into an airy series of foiled freedom attempts and long shot rolls in the hay. It doesn't always come together, but Kurosawa's deviant swipes of humor and his obvious love for Godardian snatches of cinema (the two women staring directly at the camera and posting a paper on the wall that reads "charge!", as well as the endless names of classic films on the background of one apartment) create a slowly endearing attitude.

"Kanda-gawa inran senso" (or "Kandagawa Wars") is a debut work of now pretty famous Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Most know him from his later movies like "Sweet Home", "Cure", "Seance" or "Kairo" and if you're looking for something similar - forget it. These are totally different films comparing to this one. "Kandagawa Wars" was a first commercially distributed Kurosawa's movie. It hadn't much success, but nobody was hoping for it actually. Why? Well you have to see it just once to understand why - Kurosawa wasn't taking this movie seriously while making it, but that's the main goal. The director clearly wanted to make a silly "pink film" in the best "pinku" traditions (which means a lot of erotic scenes) and he have done it all perfectly! The story starts when one of the student girls Masami witness sexual intercourse between mother and son while spying on other people through her binoculars from the window in the opposite apartment block, which stands in the other side of a small Kanda river (that's why the movie is titled as ""Kandagawa Wars"). She calls her friend Aki, which lives in the same apartment block as Masami, to witness this incest act, but Aki missed it at the first time. It's not a big problem, because the next evening mother and son are doing the same dirty things again, so this time Aki saw the whole thing with her own eyes. Two girls decide that it's just intolerable and they have to rescue poor boy from his evil nymphomaniac mother at any cost. That's where the war between two girls and the mother starts...What I liked about "Kandagawa Wars" is a lot of sex scenes, as it should be in "pink films". We see the sexual intercourse not just between mother and son, but also between Aki and her boyfriend Ryo, which actually doesn't satisfy her at all. Also I don't want to spoil the whole storyline, but in the end we'll see a sexual intercourses between Aki's friend Masami and Aki's boyfriend Ryo and Aki will seduce that boy which had sex with his mother. How this will all happen? You'll know after you'll watch this movie, but one thing which you can say now - there is a plenty of erotic scenes in this film. Almost forgot that there is a one sexy scene with Aki and Masami also, so "pinku" lovers will definitely be enjoyed by these variations. But there is also a darker side of this movie... As I've said before - Kiyoshi Kurosawa wanted to make a silly "pink film" and he succeeded. But that's the reason why you can't take this movie seriously. This movie can put a smile on your face and there is some laughable moments (for example the last scene, right before the end), but it's not because of humour in the movie, but because of silliness. Overall - it's a pretty nice "pinku" film, but definitely it's not a movie for the fans of the Kiyoshi Kurosawa's horror films.