Yoshida Daihachi's most recent effort is an absurdist tragi-comedy based on a manga by Motoya Yukiko. Permanent Nobara is set in a rural town on the island of Shikoku. It stars the dreamy Kanno Miho in the lead as Naoko, who some may remember as the mute girl from Kitano's Dolls. Naoko is the daughter of a beautysalon owner (Natsuki Mari) who's salon is called Permanent Nobara. After her recent divorce she moved back to her home town with daughter Momo, where she seems to fit perfectly well here since the average relationship doesn't last longer than the average hair perm.
With fast-paced flashbacks and comical intermezzo's Yoshida shows us his trademark style that reminds us of his previous film Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers. One of these scenes involves a man sawing down the village's electricity poles to sell the wood to take care of his poor-struck family, another features two hermits in the mountains being completely taken care of from top to toe by Naoko and her mother on an excursion where they brought their gear from the beauty salon. With these bizar situations and extraordinary characters it's difficult not to think of Itami Juzo's films. Still, few filmmakers have managed to come with these extreme kind of characters and at the same time keep the film credible, especially in a manga adaptation.
Not all of Permanent Nobara is simply laughs and highly amusing comedy. Much more so than with Funuke, Yoshida manages to keep the dramatic scenes in this film much more subtle. A couple of these scenes involve a romance between Naoko and her old science teacher, played by Eguchi Yosuke, who delivers a fine performance, like most of the members of the cast who seem to come straight from Shikoku with practiced Shikoku accents. Especially Yoshida regulars like Koike Eiko and Ikewaki Chizuru, who were also in Funuke, add some extra fuel to the film that is driven by Yoshida's energetic directing style.
In the end, there is only a few moments where the film loses it subtlety and feels forced. One of these moments is the film's ending that feels unnecessary and leaves nothing for the viewer's imagination. It's one of those rare moments in the film one can see Yoshida hasn't been making films for that long yet and this is only his third feature film. Still, for most of the film Yoshida manages to keep a good balance between comedy and drama in this accomplished manga adaptation that is one of the funniest films that has come out of Japan this year.
Frank Witkam
