Fantastic Fest 2011 Movie Review- MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY-He Said

MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY

Directed by: Yoshimasa Ishibashi

Starring: Takayuki Yamada, Mieko Harada, Anna Ishibashi, and Maiko

Synopsis: A goofy tale of heartbreak, love advice, and bad-ass samurai action.

When American music video directors get into feature films, we get Brett-fucking-Ratner and his god-awful filmography. When Japanese music movie directors get into features, we get MILOCRORZE, A LOVE STORY, an Adult Swim-worthy visual head fuck that was one of the funniest things I've seen all year. The movie begins with the story of Ovreneli Vreneligare and his cat Verandola Gorgonzola. It's a funny story of heartbreak with an awesome middle part featuring some badass samurai action.


Along with the best movies of this festival, MILOCRORZE has  a lot of different aspects that will please people.  I was a particularly big fan of the dance aspect of the movie. There are a lot of surrealism going on that all felt very symbolic. The overlying theme seems to be about never being able to move on emotionally from relationships. To great success, this was conveyed in three different stories each with their own take: not being able to move on, the complete objectification of women, and obsession.  All men played by 13 ASSASIN'S Mieko Harada.


This was a movie that was very difficult to review since a lot of the humor was just so absurd that you need to see it. The funniest bits involved an over the top dating advice man or"love guru" if you will. There are some people that I have heard say that the samurai bit in the middle is the best part, but I have to disagree since it is the weakest portion on account of just being a very generic revenge tale. That was not to say there was not some wacky moments in there, but if I had to choose more of Ovreneli and his cat, or the heart broken samurai, I'd take the goofy kid. Mieko Harada is a surprisingly versatile actor; first seeing him in 13 ASSASSINS then seeing him as a comedic lead made the movie all the more pleasantly surprising.


I can see some of the more general audiences being turned off by some of the  "stream of consciousness" aspect of the movie, where it seamlessly goes form one scenario to the other. But fans of David Cross' MR.SHOW or just about any other show from the Adult Swim will have no trouble adjusting. Overall, this was one of the funniest and most charming movies that I've seen during the festival. I'd recommend anyone that is a fan of the aforementioned shows and is looking for a good laugh to check it out when it's available. 

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