Monday (2000) [Film Review]

Monday; or, Don’t Do Alcohol

     The forecast for Chiba calls for sun, with strong southerly winds. Tomorrow will be cloudy, with south-westerly winds. The day after tomorrow will be partly cloudy with winds increasing.

Some of you probably experienced such a situation at least once. There was a hard party, you drank too much and passed out at some point only to wake up having no memory of your last night’s activities. SABU’s 2000 movie Monday takes this premise as its focus point, but also gives it a double spin.

Release Info

Directed by: SABU Starring: Shinichi Tsutsumi, Naomi Nishida, Yasuko Matsuyuki

Language: Japanese Original Title: マンデイ Runtime: 100 min

 

Plot

Koichi Takagi (played by Shinichi Tsutsumi) is a typical salaryman with an uneventful job, quiet life, and one annoying girlfriend (Naomi Nishida). All of a sudden, he wakes up in a hotel room. He does not know what day it is or how he got there. Slowly, Koichi starts regaining memories of the past two days and, one event after another, he recalls his unexpectedly shocking drunk trail.

 

The Worst Day of the Week

Two words got me into checking this movie out. The first, “SABU”, because I have already seen this director’s hilarious Drive (2002) (also with Shinichi Tsutsumi in the lead) and the second, "Monday", because I literally can’t stand this day of the week. Needless to say, the movie hit all the right marks in my book and fulfilled my expectations.

 

However, if you expect an action-packed comedy, then it is better for you to approach this film with patience and zero expectations. Monday is a slow-burning story; in fact, the first act is so slow that Yasujiro Ozu would most certainly issue his seal of approval if he could. Yet, things start to pick up gradually. From a bitter drama the film turns into a dark comedy only to end up being a psychological thriller in the finale. That kind of craziness is what makes Monday so awesome!

 

SABU is very keen on weaving mythological elements into the storylines of his movies and Monday is no exception from that. In order to keep this review spoiler free (even though the movie is almost 20 years old), let me just say that Monday has more than a strong anti-alcohol message and I approve of this (sorry, not a booze fan). Koichi is a good guy and we start to root for him as the film goes on, but even though hot drinks release his inhibitions, they also lead to disastrous consequences.

 

The strongest point of this motion picture is definitely cinematography. Monday has very little dialogue, so the events are told visually. The two outstanding sequences are the yakuza girl (Yasuko Matsuyuki) encounter and Koichi’s sick dance grooves at a night club(!), as seen in the trailer below. In addition to this, the 60s-like upbeat music grealty fits the tone of the picture.

 

With regard to performances, Shinichi Tsutsumi is simply brilliant as a salaryman “on the edge”. This is my favourite performance of his out of all 5 movies he did with SABU. Apart from Tsutsumi, there are many great actors in small yet funny roles, such as Ren Osugi, Akira Yamamoto, Susumu Terajima, Yutaka Matsushige, and aforementioned Yasuko Matsuyuki as well as Naomi Nishida.

 

Recommendations

I recommend Monday to anyone who wants to spend an enjoyable and alcohol-free Sunday evening. I think that the best way to describe this film is by labelling it as something akin to Memento (2000) but way way better, at least in my opinion. I suggest you give it a go because it is a great introduction into SABU’s filmography.

Overall score: 9/10