A young nerd's “romantic” evening goes south when he gets an unsuspected call by his drunken girlfriend who dodges every of his attempts to send her away from his doorstep. Desperate to hide his embarrassing secret, Takeshi is pulling trick after trick, until his fantasy dries up.
“Unexpected Girlfriend” is screening at Japan-Filmfest Hamburg
Using comedy elements to build his story, Kaiji EXP dangerously steps into the domain of slapstick leaning too much over the fence. The film is not only burdened by the over-the-top acting by both leading actors, but also by too many illogical counterfeits of a young woman, who seems to be carrying every possible item one wouldn't normally have in their possession on an evening out to their boyfriend. One by one, she produces out of her bag a fumigator, a strong insecticide and all possible brands of cigarettes. If the script were written with more care and if the actors were more experienced, this could have turned into a completely different film. The hilariously displaced lines such as “the cockroach vital force is terrible” feel like coming out from outer space, or in best case torn out from one of the episodes of “The Big Bang Theory”.
When the girlfriend (she stays nameless until the end) finally fights her way into Takeshi's apartment, frantic talk gets replaced by an awkward silence. The physical distance between the two bodies in the room reveals the emotional disparity probably better guarded under normal circumstances. Slowly, the essence of the story starts making sense, and the message it brings across is crystal clear.
The secret Takeshi tries to protect at all costs speaks of his inner insecurities and his complicated relationship to sex. When the closet gets literally opened, the truth bites both of the love birds in the face.
