Maiko Haaaan!!! Review
"Maiko Haaaan!!!" delivers on two levels. Not only is it a highly entertaining screwball love comedy, but it is also one of the most authentic geisha-themed films I have ever seen. People wanting to know more about the Flower and Willow world would do far better watching this than Hollywood fantasies like Memoirs of a Geisha or My Geisha.
Pure over-the-top comedy delivered as only the Japanese can, the story follows four people, Onizuka Kimihiko (Abe Sado), Naito Kiichiro (Tsutsumi Shinichi), Osawa Fujiko (Shibasaki Kou) and Komoko (Koide Saori). Two guys and two girls. As Shakespeare said "the course of true love never did run smooth." An understatement at best.
Tokyo-born Onizuka is obsessed with geisha and maiko (apprentice geisha), and has been ever since he first saw them on a school trip to Kyoto. The only reason he is together with his current girlfriend, Fujiko, is because he believes that she was born in Kyoto. Onizuka also runs a geisha/maiko website, where he is in a constant flame-war with someone who knows the geisha world better than Onizuka ever could. Eventually, Onizuka is transferred to the Kyoto offices of his company (a dream come true!) where he finds that money is not enough to open the closed doors of the geisha. His maniacal quest to gain an introduction begins, as well as his quest to win the love of Komoko, one of the newest maiko to debut. Naito, his rival, one-ups him at every chance.
But this little synopsis doesn't cover even a small portion of the story. Things fly at break-neck speed, as Fujiko comes to Kyoto in order to apprentice as a geisha and win back Onizuka, and meanwhile Onizuka and Naito race each other through challenge after challenge, from professional baseball to blockbuster movies to K-1 Fighting even to being the mayor of Kyoto in an attempt to prove who is the better man and win the top spot in the geisha's world. Everything moves so fast it is hard to keep up, but then there are punctuating moments of calm and silence that puts meaning into the chaotic frenzy.
Abe Sado (Uzumaki, The Great Yokai War) puts all of his energy into Onizuka, and you are either going to love or hate the character. He does nothing but to the extreme, and will crawl over everyone to reach his goals. Shibasaki Kou (Battle Royale, One Missed Call) is really far too lovely to be the rejected girlfriend Fujiko, but that's the way it works in this kind of film. Tsutsumi Shinichi (also of "One Missed Call") is understated and stern, and a perfect foil for Onizuka's antics. The subplot with Naito and Komoko lends a really nice serious undertone for the film
I absolutely loved "Maiko Haaaan!!!" It had great balance as a film, winning performances from all the actors, and of course lots and lots of nice geisha eye-candy.
The DVD has a few bonus features like "The Making of Maiko Haaaan!!!" and Director & Cast Profiles. Some of the subtitles are a little funky, and I felt the translator tried a little bit too hard in spots to transfer the Japanese into "hip English," and it comes off as forced and doesn't carry the same meaning.
Note to the title: "Maiko" is the name for apprentice geisha, and "-han" is the honorific given in the Kyoto dialect, much like "-san" would be for a regular person. Normally, it would be "Maiko-han" but Onizuka never does anything like a regular person.
Maiko Haaaan!!! Overview
From acclaimed screenwriter Kankuro Kudo (Ping Pong, Yaji, Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims and Takashi Miike's Zebraman), comes Maikohaaaan!!!, a colorful introduction to Japan s Maiko world and a slapstick comedy with an energetic twist of Kyoto humor.
The film centers on Japanese office worker Kumihiko Onizuka (Sadao Abe, from Kamikaze Girls), who dumps his girlfriend (Kou Shibasaki) because he believes he can only fall in love with a Maiko (apprentice Geisha). He decides to pursue his dream of courting a real Maiko in Kyoto, but must first overcome the social barriers that prevent him from visiting the private Maiko Houses, as well as a millionaire baseball player rival (Shinichi Tsutsumi). Meanwhile, Kumihiko s girlfriend tries to win him back by leaving Tokyo to become a Maiko herself.
Special features include:
English Subtitles
The Making of Maiko Haaaan!!!
Director & Cast Profile
Original Japanese Trailers
Related Products
Customer Reviews
An insanely crazy but fun Japanese film from the wild and creative Kankuro Kubo - Dennis A. Amith (kndy) - California
Japanese comedy madness coming from director Nobuo Mizuta and a wild screenplay by "Ping Pong" and "Go" writer Kankuro Kubo comes one of the wildest comedies to come out in Japan.
The film focuses on ramen loud and obnoxious office worker Kimihiko Onizuka (played by Sadawo Abe), an unusual guy who is obsessed with maiko (geisha-in-training).
When Onizuka was a teenager, during a school trip to the Kansai area, his classmates ditch him and as he was lost in town, he is helped by a Maiko. He eventually realizes how beautiful and helpful these women are that in his mind growing up, he wants his life to be closer to the Kansai
. That means dating women from Kansai and just wanting to move there.
Onizuka now runs a popular Maiko fan website where he and other photographers are just as fanatic as cosplay photographers and compete in getting the best shot. But during one day at work, someone on his website starts flaming him and Onizuka just gets angry and screaming in the workplace.
And thus the workplace demotes him and sends him to the Kansai area, where a lot of the maiko are located and to him, it's a positive move to be closer to the area that he wants to be. But not happy for him is his girlfriend Fujiko (played by popular J-pop singer and actress Kou Shibasaki of "Batttle Royale" and "Dororo" fame). Fujiko is so in love with Onizuka but the only reason why he dated her is because she's from Kansai.
So, Onizuka departs to Kansai and finds out that the people at the office are really not so motivated but that's OK for Onizuka, as long as he can spend some time with his favorite Maiko and thus tries to get in. He realizes that their is a rule established that first-timers are not allowed. They must be introduced by a regular and thus Onizuka is dejected.
Things change for him though as he realizes from a photo from his website that the company president is a regular. Onizuka tries to befriend the president but the president has no desire to introduce this weird person to the maiko establishments he frequents. Unless he can make the company a lot of money.
Thus Onizuka and his Kansai team start developing plans for "Your Ramen", you picked the condiments and combined with kansai-style ramen everything will be fine. And everything is fine as they make tons of money and thus proving himself to the company president.
So, finally Onizuka can now become a regular but unbenownst to Onizuka, his ex-girlfriend in Tokyo has followed him to the Kansai area and knowing her ex's infatuation of maiko, has become a maiko at the same establishment.
During one night with the company president, Onizuka meets famous picture Kiichiro Naito (played by award winning actor Shinichi Tsutsumi), who seems to be a regular and is obnoxious, drunk and always getting into some trouble. But Naito recognizes Onizuka as the webmaster of the Maiko fansite and berates him. Onizuka realizes Naito is the creep flaming him on his website and thus the long battle begins between Onizuka and Naito, as they compete in many types of battles in various industries of who is better than who. From becoming professional baseball players, professional actors, K-1 fighters, politicians and more, Onizuka will do whatever he can to beat Naito.
"Maiko Haaaan!!!" is one of those Japanese films that is a wild comedy. Onizuka's character reminded me of a crazy anime character in which he thinks of himself wild and cool but everyone seems him as wild, obnoxious, perverted and crazy. In fact, it's almost like an anime series that is live. From the dream sequences of Onizuka dancing in a Broadway like performance to the competitions in which Onizuka and Naito try to top each other and just all out crazy.
Suffice to say, I've seen weird films, crazy films but "Maiko Haaaan!" is totally insane!
VIDEO & AUDIO:
The video is presented in 16×9 and one thing that you will love about "Maiko Haaaan!!!" is that their are so many areas where the film is shot. Outdoors in the beach, at a baseball stadium and much more. A lot of color is utilized and really interesting cuts that scream "colorful"! But the impressive part of this film was the audio. I was amazed by how each channel was used for the surround sound. Especially in a segment of the baseball game, hearing the crowd and the noises coming from behind and the dialogue coming from the front. It was very well done!
In fact, the colorful cinematography and the well utilized surround sound definitely enhanced this film's enjoyability.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The DVD comes with the original Japanese trailers, the Viz Picture trailers and one major featurette on "The Making of Maiko Haaaan!!!". In the featurette, we get to see the interviews with the cast, the director and the cast at the movie premiere and an early preview of the premiere to an audience and much more. It's a pretty lengthy featurette and a good insight of how the film was created and more.
Also, the DVD comes with a film location map in Kyoto. In the map are where 14 scenes from the film were shot. So, just in case anyone wants to visit any of the shrines or the shopping areas, the map is actually quite detailed and should be fun for those wanting to visit the area and discover the Heian Shrine, Chion-in Temple, Yasak Shrine, Teramachi District, Daikoku-ya and more.
As a fan of films written by Kakuro Kudo, it's always interesting to see what kind of wild film would come out this man's mind. And "Maiko Haaaan!!!" is just a totally wild and crazy film that, if you're an anime fan and have watched these crazy characters that are just wild, crazy and obnoxious...and even wondered, what if there was a person in real life like that.
Well, Sadawo Abe accomplishes that as the wild and crazy Onizuka. I'm just surprised of how much of these crazy scenes with him are included in this film, to watch him transform from this maiko-loving person to a corporate marketing tycoon, to a professional baseball player, to an actor in samurai film, to a K-1 fighter to a politician, it's pretty insane but in a fun way!
/> Excellent! A word that can describe the Centennial Collection release of the 1961 film
But as crazy as the film is, I did have some problems with the actual plot. Onizuka is just too far out, crazy and it seems the goal was to heighten the character's craziness as the major part of the film. Granted, there is an actual plot and once you feel that the film is about to have some seriousness to it, Onizuka's character just blows it all up with his craziness. Granted, this was all intentional and to show that Onizuka really doesn't care about the women, he just cares that they are "maiko" and his obsession for maiko and besting his rival has really clouded his judgment.
The film stars one of the most highly demanded actresses (and singers) in Japan, Kou Shibasaki (who plays the character of Fujiko, Onizuka's ex-girlfriend). Even when you think that Onizuka will wise up and find out that this woman is for her, his character becomes more like Ataru Moroboshi of "Urusei Yatsura" fame, so blinded by his love for the maiko women and his competition with Naito, he just lives for the moment.
Overall, it's a fun and insanely zany comedy that is truly entertaining but because it's so over-the-top, at times, it's almost like watching Robin Williams and Drew Carey
downing some Red Bull and depending on your mood, you will either be entertained by the film or feel that you had a bit too much of Onizuka's craziness.
As far as the DVD is concerned, film transfer features the colorfulness of the maiko outfits and the overall atmosphere of the Kansai area. But the sound quality and its distribution of sound through the different channels in your home theater was well done. And I'm glad a lengthy featurette for the film and the Kyoto location map was included. Very cool!
All in all, if you are open to insane Japanese comedy humor, definitely give "Maiko Haaaan!!!" a try!
Go Maiko... - Melissa Henstra - Florida
An over the top cofection of a film that had me laughing out loud while simultaneously cringing. Maiko Haaaan!! is the story of Kimihiko Onizuka who's all consuming obssesion with Maiko(Appentice Geisha) directs every aspect of hiis life. He's useless at his job,working in a ramen factory because he spends his time running a Maiko fanpage while having text wars with an unknown person who likes to post insults on Kimihiko's site. He's dating a co-worker, but only because she claims to be from Kyoto the epicenter of Geish culture, and his life's ambition is to spend an evening with a Geisha Playing Yakyuuken(basicly rock-paper-scissors with stripping.) But there is a problem, though Kimihiko has photographed many Geisha he has never so much as set foot in a teahouse(where Geisha entertain.)
All that is about to change though, cause "somtimes life smiles on you." Kimihiko is being transfered/demoted to a ramen topping factory in Kyoto. Believing that his wildest dreams are on the verge of coming true he cheerfully dumps his girlfriend, telling her that he could only ever truly love a Maiko, and heads off to begin a new life as a Geisha patron.
But it wouldn't be a comedy if getting in with the Geisha where as simple as emptying your bank account and heading off to a teahouse.
Kimihiko needs an in, and it so happens that in is the President of the the company he works for, the president is reluctant, but makes Kimihiko a deal. Find a way to make the failing factory into a cash cow and, in return the key to the city, or in this case the teahouse. Lo and behold it works, Kimihiko is exactly where he's dreamed of being since he was a teenager, and to top it all he's met the Maiko of his dreams. Unfotunately she's got some strange connection to the mysterious web poster, who is the cause of so much aggravtion and happens to also be a Geisha patron The two meet one night face to face, and from then on they become heated rivals determined to out do each other, Kimihiko becomes a baseball player, an actor, a kickboxer, and a polical hopeful all in the name of getting the best of one man. In the midsst of all this is Kimihiko's ex- girlfriend Fujiko who has her own side story, she decieds that the only way to when back her man is to go to Kyoto and become a Maiko herself.
This is a great movie as long as you watch it for what it is a silly slapstick comedy who's only only aim is to get laughs, Maiko Haaaan!! Features alot of Japenese cultural elements and pop culture which it helps to be somwhat formiliar with, otherwise it's easy to get lost and miss a lot of the humor. I really enjoyed this film and also suggest Kamikaze Girls [[ASIN:B0016QCBAY Memories of Matsuko and Sakuran
A great movie if your into random humor - D. Hanley - Brooklyn, NY
The movie is distinctly Japanese, so if your not into Japanese cinema that focuses heavily on the culture, don't bother watching this movie. For those of us who don't mind this, Maiko Haaaan!!!'s humor lies in its seemingly random senarios and the jerky actions of the cast. Its slapstick comedy in its finest. Again, if slapstick isn't your thing, you're not going to enjoy this. For those of you who do, make Maiko Haaaan!!! the top of your to watch this. At the very least this movie deserves a rental.
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