Yaji & Kita

Description

WEST COAST PREMIERE

When a flamboyant but down-on-their-luck pair of Edo-period samurai blast off onto the open roads to do battle with heroin addiction and ponder the true meaning of life at the shrine of Ise, a blip in reality finds them thrust into a world where fantasy takes the place of the everyday, and the past merges with the present with disorienting hilarity. From the warped mind of Zebraman writer Kankuro Kudo comes a hallucinogenic tale of gay love in a world where nothing is as it seems. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Blasting from inner space and into an incredible dream sequence that pulls the inner thoughts of a samurai along a river we have the first of many luscious visuals as this film opens. Floating down the river, doors flip over and over. Floating dominos. Snacks topped with human souls down the river and more and more of them and ultimately morph into an animated Tetrus game. At this point our samurai, Yaji wakes up and shares his dreams with his gay lover, Kita. Who quips, “You’re ripping off my dream. That’s copy right infringement!!” Then we have Kita shooting up, trying to bypass his peculiar reality. Gay samurai in feudal Japan? Internal torment, drug addiction and the need to find salvation? There is only one hope for these two and that’s a pilgrimage to Ise! Of course. It makes perfect sense.

We have life, death, the after life, rebirth and a pink and ultimately purple and pink butterfly who connects some of the dots along these dreams. Along the path we have more than a nod of the hat to ancient traditional Japanese comedy acts. Layer upon layer of traditional humor is served up with modern antics. From the first glance at rapping hip-hop samurai I figured this would be a wild ride. I wasn’t wrong. At one point we’re told it is “like Alice down the rat hole.” No kidding. It is a dream sequence floating amidst a sea of spectacular visuals. If this weren’t enough already the madness takes another turn through the looking glass when out of the blue we are introduced to an old man with an incredibly large basket filled to the brim with pretty red mushrooms speckled with white dots. Forlorn he looks up; “But I’ll never eat all these magic mushrooms…” Needless to say he gets some help from the Samurai of altered states, Kita.

“Between reality and dreams.” Yaji and Kita, Midnight Pilgrims. Join them on this incredible ‘trip’ to Ise. Imagine a ride on a pink elephant. Imagine that pink elephant walking into and out of a familiar image from Salvidor Dali. A magic carpet ride through a field of dreams. Yes. That and much, much more… Don’t miss this on the big screen!!
-- Mike Skurko

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Link

http://www.sfindie.com/