Suo Duo: Two Films By Masayuki Suo (BLU-RAY)

Fancy Dance: Popular punk rock singer Yohei (Masahiro Motoki, Departures) agrees to become a Buddhist monk for a year in order to inherit his family’s lucrative temple. With his head fully shaved he leaves behind his aggressive girlfriend and other worldly desires for an ascetic lifestyle in the countryside. There he is teamed up with a quirky cast of characters, including his younger brother, who becomes a monastic heartthrob of the fanatical high school girls nearby. While life is hard at first with endless duties and harassment by the higher-ups, pretty soon Yohei discovers that even the senior monks have found ways to buck the system. Some of the nefarious activities of the novice and seasoned monks include dating a woman on the sly, cavorting at hostess bars outside campus grounds, hording candies and other secular antics. When Yohei’s estranged girlfriend comes to drag him back to secular life he finds himself at a crossroads. The sophomore feature by Masayuki Suo (Shall We Dance?) is a sublime hangout comedy whose “mix of belly laughs, slapstick, sex jokes and satire pushes towards a predictably serene, spiritual conclusion" (Time Out). The restoration of FANCY DANCE? was done by Tokyo Koon Co. Ltd., and supervised by Yuichi Nagata. The original camera negative underwent a 4K scan by Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc. (Scanity by Digital Film Technology) Sumo Do, Sumo Don't: College student Shuhei (Masahiro Motoki, Departures) finds out he is lacking a few credits for graduation. His crafty professor, a sumo enthusiast, says he’ll let it slip if Shuhei joins the school team and competes in the regional university tournament. Shuhei begrudgingly joins the team, which includes one member, the eccentric repeat student Aoki, and the pretty club manager Natsuko. They are soon joined by a ragtag group of new members including an outspoken British exchange student and a tough overweight coed. Everyone seems driven by ulterior motives at first. Yet as their trials and tribulations see them grow though hilariously outrageous shenanigans, so too does the team cultivate a winning spirit for the traditional Japanese pastime. Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t finds director Masayuki Suo (Shall We Dance?) refining his themes and motifs in this “fully entertaining, sometimes laugh out loud movie about sports underdogs who rise to success” (Japan On Film). The restoration of SUMO DO, SUMO DON'T was done by Tokyo Koon Co. Ltd., and supervised by Naoki Kayano. The original camera negative underwent a 4K scan by Imagica Entertainment Media Services, Inc. (Scanity by Digital Film Technology)