''Monday'' is a 2000
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
thriller drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Sabu. The film was featured at the 2000
Berlin Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
and won the
FIPRESCI Award "for its austere, dark wit and keen eye for human foibles."
Plot
Takagi (Shinichi Tsutsumi), a seemingly average Japanese businessman, wakes up in a hotel room but doesn't know how he wound up there. When a packet of "purification salt" falls out of his pocket, he starts having memories of a funeral and a meeting with a
yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...
boss. Soon he finds out he is in deep trouble.
Cast
*
Shin'ichi Tsutsumi as Koichi Takagi
*
Yasuko Matsuyuki
is a Japanese actress and singer signed to Stardust Promotion.
History
Yasuko Matsuyuki was born in 1972 in Tosu, Saga. She has two younger brothers. One is , who is also an actor, and the other is Yo Matsuyuki who is a rock singer. In 1989, ...
as Yuko Kirishima
*
Ren Ohsugi as Murai Yoshio
*
Masanobu Andō
is a Japanese actor.
Ando has appeared in films such as Takeshi Kitano's '' Kids Return'' (1996), Kinji Fukasaku's '' Battle Royale'' (2000), Takashi Miike's '' Sukiyaki Western Django'' (2007), and Chen Kaige's '' Forever Enthralled'' (2008). ...
as Mitsuo Kondo
* Hideki Noda as Shingo Kamiyama
* Akira Yamamoto as Kiichiro Hanai
*
Naomi Nishida
is a Japanese actress. She won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2001 Yokohama Film Festival and at the 25th Hochi Film Award for her performance in ''Nabbie's Love''.
Personal life
She married a Japanese shoe designer in 2005, and gave ...
as Yuki Machida
*
Susumu Terajima
is a Japanese actor. Though he has played a wide range of characters, he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of ''yakuza'' figures, most notably in the films of Takeshi Kitano.
Terajima made his acting debut in 1986's '' A Homansu''. He ...
as Saburô Nakano
Reception
The ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' found that "'Monday' has some of Sabu’s sharpest satire" and "offers a lot of stylish parody as it tracks the increasingly grim trajectory of the salaryman’s lost weekend."
Derek Elley in ''
Variety'' wrote that "Sabu makes a stunning return to form with "Monday," his fourth and best movie to date."
References
External links
*
2000s Japanese-language films
2000 films
Films directed by Sabu
Yakuza films
2000s Japanese films
{{2000s-Japan-film-stub