I just saw this film, 亀ã¯æ„外ã¨é€Ÿãæ³³ã (Kame wa igai to hayaku oyogu, Turtles Swim Surprisingly Fast, aka "Turtles Swim Faster Than Expected" (fansub title). I found it on the newsgroup alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese though I expect it's available on torrents etc too (see link at end). It's a slice of life comedy about people who think they are spies... and maybe they really are spies.. but that's for you to find out! Although it's slice-of-life, everything that happens has a tinge of weirdness, and it's full of oddball characters.
A young woman, Suzume (played by Juri Ueno), is a bored with her life and feels like she may as well not exist. Have you had the experience of waiting at a bus-stop and the bus sails straight by without seeing you? That is Suzume's life. But then, someone upsets the apple cart. — No, really! Someone upsets an apple cart!
NB Image censored to protect the spy's identity!
She is climbing a long flight of steps and all these apples are cascading down towards her. She throws herself to the ground, and that's when she notices a very very tiny poster, smaller than a fingernail. Like something out of Alice in Wonderland she realises it is a tiny recruitment advert! It says, "SPY - Now Recruiting - Details on Application", and there's a phone number.
the spy poster - click for full size image
So anyhow, she meets this couple who seem pretty ordinary but tell her they are spies. They hire her but tell her for now she must remain undercover: she must go home and act normally. But now all the boring things she has to do have a sense of excitement for her, because she knows she is really a spy who is trying to avoid being noticed. But are the couple really spies or are they just bored people like herself? That is the conundrum. Gradually though things get more strange and perhaps serious, especially when it turns out there is another group of people hunting for these "spies". (At this point I was reminded of Excel Saga and the guys who are searching for Across.) The ending of the film is very strange, and it's not unlike the cult classic Repo Man IMHO, though more low key.
Suzume with her spymasters (censored to protect the spies identities!)
All in all this is my favourite film of the year, it is so strange and quirky, and the lead character Suzume is cute too.
The film was written and directed by Satoshi Miki
ix.subbers fansub link
imdb link
asianmediawiki link
A young woman, Suzume (played by Juri Ueno), is a bored with her life and feels like she may as well not exist. Have you had the experience of waiting at a bus-stop and the bus sails straight by without seeing you? That is Suzume's life. But then, someone upsets the apple cart. — No, really! Someone upsets an apple cart!
She is climbing a long flight of steps and all these apples are cascading down towards her. She throws herself to the ground, and that's when she notices a very very tiny poster, smaller than a fingernail. Like something out of Alice in Wonderland she realises it is a tiny recruitment advert! It says, "SPY - Now Recruiting - Details on Application", and there's a phone number.
the spy poster - click for full size imageSo anyhow, she meets this couple who seem pretty ordinary but tell her they are spies. They hire her but tell her for now she must remain undercover: she must go home and act normally. But now all the boring things she has to do have a sense of excitement for her, because she knows she is really a spy who is trying to avoid being noticed. But are the couple really spies or are they just bored people like herself? That is the conundrum. Gradually though things get more strange and perhaps serious, especially when it turns out there is another group of people hunting for these "spies". (At this point I was reminded of Excel Saga and the guys who are searching for Across.) The ending of the film is very strange, and it's not unlike the cult classic Repo Man IMHO, though more low key.
All in all this is my favourite film of the year, it is so strange and quirky, and the lead character Suzume is cute too.
The film was written and directed by Satoshi Miki
ix.subbers fansub link
imdb link
asianmediawiki link
