A strait-laced banker finds his life turned upside down after being exiled to a small country town where people are crazy about goldfish…
A live-action adaptation of the manga Sukutte Goran by Noriko Otani, Love, Life and Goldfish is the third feature from Japanese director Yukinori Makabe, whose 2015 debut I am a Monk enjoyed some success on the international festival circuit. His latest is a colourful, musical affair, which has a fitting pair of leads in famed Kabuki actor Matsuya Onoe and Kanako Momota of popular girl group Momoiro Clover Z fame, mixing romance, comedy and, as the title suggests, lots of goldfish.
The film opens with stuffy banker Makoto (Matsuya Onoe) arriving in a small rural town, having been banished to the local branch after an incident at work in Tokyo. Although initially depressed at his demotion, he soon brightens up when he meets Yoshino (Kanako Momota), who runs a store based around a traditional goldfish scooping game, and decides that he’s in love with her. Matters are complicated by the fact that Yoshino seems to have her eye on Noboru (Hayato Kakizawa), a local man who drives a goldfish truck, while Makoto attracts an admirer of his own in bar owner Asuka (Nicole Ishida).
As a manga adaptation, Love, Life and Goldfish is unsurprisingly a very bright, breezy and quirky production, Yukinori Makabe and cinematographer Kozo Shibasaki giving it a colourful look, with plenty of shots of the orange goldfish and local costumes, and with surreal visual touches scattered throughout. This combines well with the music, which is a mix of different styles, from standard J-pop through to folk and mild-mannered hip-hop, and which is generally comprised of upbeat or whacky numbers. As a musical, the film very much revolves around these set pieces, most of which are well-choreographed and fun, and though none of the songs are particularly memorable, they make for an entertaining watch, whether the viewer is as fan of the genre or not.
Where Love, Life and Goldfish unfortunately loses points is through its narrative, which is clichéd and entirely predictable, and which never really does anything more than provide a very basic frame to hang the musical numbers on. Without having read the original manga, the film’s story of an initially aloof urban dweller initially looking down on rural life before coming to love it, learning life lessons in the process, is a very familiar one indeed, and Yukinori Makabe makes little attempt to add anything new, only the goldfish helping to vaguely differentiate it from the countless other tales treading the same well-worn path. The romance is similarly by the numbers, and the inevitability of it all undermines what was probably a heartfelt message, making it feel overlong despite a short running time.
While the lack of originality might not be so much of a problem for musical fans simply looking for tunes and charm, the film does have a major issue in the fact that protagonist Makoto is eminently unlikeable, an arrogant, spoiled chump who spends most of the time whining and acting superior to everyone else. The film’s romance isn’t helped by this, or by his rather toxic approach to wooing Yoshino, which basically involves him suddenly telling her that he likes her and that he expects her to reciprocate, despite her having shown no interest in him at all. This isn’t really Matsuya Onoe’s fault, as the script doesn’t give him much to work with, though he doesn’t help matters with his performance, which leaps wildly between moody sulking and over the top theatricality. The rest of the cast are fine, similarly being saddled with paper-thin characters, and Kanako Momota does a game job as the unfortunate object of his affections – Nicole Ishida comes off best as Asuka, who’s arguably the most interesting character, but who ends up being side-lined and strangely ignored by the script.
To be fair, Love, Life and Goldfish still works pretty well as a musical, and should earn pass marks from genre fans, boosted by some eye-catching visuals. General viewers are more likely to be turned off by the generic plot and obnoxious protagonist, and though these factors don’t fully sink the film, they do leave it feeling distinctly underwhelming.