#30 Executive Koala

#30: Executive Koala

When it comes to foreign movies sometimes things get lost in translation, whether it be dialogue (more specifically crappy subtitles) or a moment in the plot that may translate poorly to another audience who may be unfamiliar with that particular culture. It's safe to say that in the case of Executive Koala both of these things apply, but it's also hard to translate a film that is so utterly surreal. The plot involves a giant talking koala bear who is a successful divorced business man at a pickle company, but then his human girlfriend is murdered and of course he is the chief suspect because his ex wife also disappeared under strange circumstances. Now keep that plot in mind as you watch the main credits at the beginning of the movie. Ummm...not only was that bizarrely adorable, but it also had nothing to do whatsoever with the actual movie.

Actually that is exactly the main problem with Executive Koala is that at times it is trying to be funny, while other times it is trying to be a dark psychological horror movie and it's hard to accept any of these things in your brain because you are watching a movie with a guy dressed up like an ax wielding koala bear. The worst part is that none of the plot or anything really makes any sense at all. The koala may be a murder, but after he kills people he wakes up so it might be a dream...possibly. In fact the entire movie might be a dream because he wakes up at least 5 different times in the entire movie.

Also in no particular order it features the worst anthropomorphic kung fu scene ever, a giant rabbit for a boss, the koala going to jail, a businessman with a pet flying squirrel named Momo, an even weirder "climactic battle" towards the end...oh and a musical song and dance number to wrap it all up. So surprisingly a Japanese movie about a large half koala/half man who goes on murderous rampages (I think) wasn't really very good at all, in fact it was downright awful. Who knew? Here's the preview that confusingly makes it look inexplicably sort of good in my brain, even though my brain has already been traumatized by this film and should know better:

-Astroboy