The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker

2007, 110 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura. With Gaku Hamada, Eita, Megumi Seki, Ryuhei Matsuda, Kei Tamura, Nene Otsuka.

Best of Unreleased Naughties

"Both a wild-duck chase for a quacky Holy Grail and a fable about who’s foreign and who isn’t" could be the skinny summary of this odder-than-odd film. Along for the roller-coaster ride is an alive-and-kicking cast: Eita (Su-ki-da), Gaku Hamada (Catch a Wave), Ryuhei Matsuda (Nightmare Detective 1 & 2), Megumi Seki (Honey & Clover) and Kei Tamura (Battle Royale II). Pint-sized, timid Shiina (Gaku Hamada), freshly arrived from Tokyo and tall, cooler-than-thou Sendai native Kawasaki (Eita), two fellow college students, click over a mutual passion for Bob Dylan’s classic Blowin’ In the Wind. Before he realizes it, Shiina is engulfed in his newfound friend’s bizarro world. Pretty-boy Kawasaki is indeed full of beans and odd-duck ideas: for instance, his cockamamie plan to steal a kanji dictionary for their Butanese neighbor. Next thing he knows the shy Tokyo kid is standing watch with a toy gun outside the local bookstore, at the threshold of their "bogus and excellent" existential adventures.

Part of Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

TICKETS
$12 / $8 Japan Society members, seniors & students

Buy Tickets Online or please call the Japan Society Box Office at (212) 715-1258, Mon. – Fri. 11 am – 6 pm, Weekends 11 am – 5 pm.