It's time for another ultra obscure review! Today I'm looking at "Tachiguishi: The Amazing Lives of Fast Food Grifters!" This was a 2006 movie written, produced, and directed by the legendary Mamoru Oshii. It's free to to view on Youtube with accurate subs...yet only 100 MAL users have seen it! This is considered Oshii's forgotten movie for a good reason...it's EASILY the worst thing he's ever made. We can forgive Oshii though because to err is human. Even the greatest film directors usually make at least one dud, unless they die young like Tarkovsky.
Plot:
Fast Food Grifters is an ostensibly comedic mockumentary about Japan's most legendary practitioners of mooching and the exquisite art of the "dine and dash". The film loosely covers Japanese history from 1945 to 2006 and shows the greatest restaurant moochers of each decade along with their outlandish techniques. The actual purpose of the film though is to bemoan the gradual erosion of traditional Japanese food along with Japanese culture. Oshii created the film as a Leftist critique of Americanization and American culture's perverse, strangling influence on traditional cultures around the world. Remember back in 2004 when Rammstein released their song "Amerika"? This movie is like a shitty, overly self indulgent version of that...lasting 2 hours. Oshii has long held unfavorable views of the US, dating back to the late 60s protests and his brief time with the Japanese Communist Party. For some reason, he bottled up that anger until 2006 and then dumped this mess on us. There is a reason even Oshii's most diehard fanboys NOPE the fuck out of this film.
Art:
The art is another divisive element. It's this weird, grotesque hybrid of live action and stop motion animation using paper cutouts. Honestly this looks EXACTLY like something Courage the Cowardly Dog would do in the late 90s.
Overall:
I gave this a merciful 5 because I sincerely believe there's a decent film buried somewhere deep in this garbage pile. Sadly, the way its executed is an absolute chore to watch and essentially becomes "Old Man Yells at Cloud". I feel like Oshii fundamentally misunderstands American culture. US culture is not an all powerful juggernaut that influences all cultures in a one way exchange. US culture itself is extremely maliable and influenced by dozens of other cultures. Compared to Japan, America's culture and traditions are extremely shallow and weak. Japan has been eating the same food, prepared the same traditional ways for often 800-1,000 years. America became obsessed with cheeseburgers after WW2, Chinese food in the 70s, Japanese food in the 80s, Mexican food in the 90s, Indian food in the 00s, and currently Thai and Middle Eastern food. We barely have a culinary tradition. Our most ancient and sacred culinary dishes are artery clogging, Southern Soul Food, because at least that dates back 200 years.
Many people on MAL want to eventually complete the Oshii filmography, but that unfortunately means eventually watching this one. I decided to take the bullet for my fellow anime elitists and watch this one so you don't have to. Instead, you can save yourself 2 hours by just watching the aforementioned Rammstein song Amerika, and then watch this 40 second clip from the film Brother 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LBi0xQH5Og&list=LLJ4q0re1h9w0TRSRhq-wW4w&index=3&t=0s
Now you never have to watch this piece of shit. You're welcome!
