The Asakusa Kid
Movie review by Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media
Japanese comic protégé outshines his teacher; language.
NR 2021 122 minutes
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Parents need to know that The Asakusa Kid is a Japanese drama based on an autobiographical novel by Takeshi Kitano (professionally known as Beat Takeshi in Japan) about a respected comedian who runs a strip club and theater troupe and the innocent unskilled kid he teaches how to be an entertainer. The sentiments and attachments that link mentors and their disciples are easy to recognize, but much of the humor may leave an American audience scratching heads rather than laughing. The central setting is a strip club, although no nudity is seen. Language includes "s--t," "bastard," bitch," "hell," "bang," "balls," "piss," "punk," "crap," and "boobs." A woman tells a man that he can't "bang" her. Characters drink and smoke cigarettes. A person is injured in an accidental fire. A man lost all the fingers on one hand in an old accident.
Take (Yuya Yagira) is a young man who has left his Japanese small town for Tokyo hoping to become a performer of some kind. He's THE ASAKUSA KID of the title, a lad with no talent or skill to speak of, just a flicker of vague desire, who lands a job as the elevator boy and janitor for a strip club. Despite the seedy setting, the club is owned by Fukami (Yo Oizumi), a stern yet revered comedian who performs in skits with his crew of disciples between the strip acts. The audience is sparse and the revenues dwindling. Take bows and quivers in the presence of Fukami, an abrasive man who ends every sentences with "you fool!" or "you bastard!" But at Take's request, he offers tap dance lessons and catches the kid practicing relentlessly at every free moment. As he notices Take's will and determination, Fukami drops harsh instructives about the nature of good comedy and the entertainer's responsibilities. His standards are so high that he even chides the audience for laughing at bad jokes. Eventually he gives Take a shot in a comedy skit and tells the others that he believes Take will "make it" and become a "star." When Take leaves Fukami to try and do just that, the master is angry and bereft, but oddly supportive as well. Soon after, the theater closes under financial pressure. Fukami falls on hard times, takes a regular job, and turns to drink while Take's star rises.
The Asakusa Kid has many entertaining moments, but falls short in its characterization of Take. American audiences come at this with the probable disadvantage of being unfamiliar with the real-life entertainer, Takeshi Tikano, that this is based on. Apart from Take's determination to learn to tap dance, we see no evidence of hidden abilities, comic or otherwise, and wonder what the great master Fukami sees in him. The confident entertainment legend that is the Take we meet at the end of the movie bears no relation whatever to the shy, self effacing lad he once was, leaving us unconvinced that such a transformation could plausibly have taken place.
Further muddying our understanding of Fukami's alleged genius and Take's comic success is a showcase of comic skits and dialogues that have Japanese audiences in stitches but are unlikely to crack even a smile in an American viewer. Most of the performances come across as yelling and oppositional cross-talk, without much wit, even as Take tries to emulate the edginess and profanity of American comedian Lenny Bruce. We have to take the movie's word for it that these guys are comic geniuses Japanese-style. And why is the "famed" Fukami relegated to performing skits between strip acts? Also a mystery are Take's many facial tics. The real-life Take shares the affliction, but the actor portraying him seemingly exhibits a tic in a different place in every scene. The movie gets high marks for ambition, especially as it documents the slow dominance of television in the 1960s over the once-powerful theater in Japan. But it gets lower marks for internal cohesiveness. On the plus side, the lead actors are good. Yagira won the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Nobody Knows, in which he appeared when he was only 14. He gets the flashier role here, but Oizumi gives the far more nuanced and affecting performance.
Families can talk about what potential Fukami sees in the awkward and unskilled Take. Does the movie explain why Fukalmi believed in Take?
Does the movie offer any insights into what it takes to be either a comedian or an entertainer?
Based on the depiction of the young Take, do you think it is possible for him to someday become the person we meet at the end? Why or why not?
On DVD or streaming: December 9, 2021
Cast: Yuya Yagira, Mugi Kadowaki, Honami Suzuki
Director: Gekidan Hitori
Studio: Netflix
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