Kenta to Jun to Kayo-chan no Kuni / ケンタとジュンとカヨちゃんの国 / A Crowd of Three

A Crowd of Three begins follows the story of Kenta (Shota Matsuda) and Jun (Kengo Kora), two brutalized and brutal buddies who decide to break free from their dead-end jobs and hit the road in a stolen truck to find Kenta’s imprisoned brother. A pivotal scene when they decide to make their getaway frames them amidst unfinished expressways, telegraphing their fool’s errand. Though Matsuda and Kora are uniformly good in their roles, the machinations of the story, unconvincing psychology and an unrepentant misogyny begin to the cripple the film. Even the usually brilliant Sakura Ando as the simpering and continually abused girlfriend, Kayo-chan is left only with a set of mannerisms to carry her role. As the film unravels, moments of downbeat sentiment surface, particularly when they finally make it to see the prison-broken brother. However, director Tatsushi Omori (Whispering of Gods) throws it all away with not one, but two endings. This plot device, popular among many young Japanese directors, rarely works and certainly doesn’t with A Crowd of Three.

Originally published in EL Magazine, May 2010