TOKYO COWBOY (Mark Marriott 2023)

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GOYA ROBLES, ARATA IURA IN TOKYO COWBOY

MARK MARIOTT: TOKYO COWBOY (2023)

Japanese salaryman finds himself on a Montana ranch

This a movie that goes back to a long-ago dream. From Roland Kelts in The Japan Times we learn that 36 years ago the director Mark Mariott lived in Japan as a missionary and worked as a filmmaking apprentice to Yoji Yamada, maker of the legendary 'Tora-San' films. When he came back to the US he found an idea for a movie: an article about how in the eighties bubble a Japanese beef company bought a cattle ranch in Montana to "serve its meat-mad consumer base" and sent "a handful" of salarymen to live and work on the ranch to spread cultural and culinary understanding between the two countries. Now, much later, Tokyo Cowboy is the result. (The film reportedly is a joint effort of Marriott with Dave Boyle of Man from Reno and Fujitani, daughter of Steven Seagal and Miyako Fujitani).

Marriott's news story isn't quite what the movie is about. Here, only one salaryman, Hideki Saito (Arata Iura) goes to Montana. And not to live and work, but on a short leash, to convince the ranchers, whose property his food conglomerate has bought, to convert to raising Japanese Wagyu beef. Otherwise the ranch will be taken over by developers. He's given very little time to sell this idea by his boss Keiko (Ayako Fujitani), who's also his longtime girlfriend-fiancee (an open secret in the company). Hideki's transformation will also alter and reawaken his relationship with Keiko, of course.

The trouble is, Hideki is a city clicker (of course), who happens to have lived on a farm as a kid, but has only an old snapshot to recall that, and who knows nothing about beef or ranches. To remedy this lack Keiko sends along Wada (Jun Kunimura, of Kill Bill Vol. 1), not only an expert on beef but a feisty man of the world and enthusiastic drinker with people skills and American travel experience, all further qualities Hideki lacks.

Wada quickly falls by the wayside due to too much drink and a rude encounter with a mechanical bull that lands him in the hospital. This may be considered a pity since Wada is the film's only really comic character. But Marriott isn't looking primarily for comedy. He's looking for cross-cultural understanding and uplift. Hideki bravely forges ahead despite the lack of people skills and idiomatic English and gives a PowerPoint presentation in a barn, but the female ranch boss, Peg (Robin Weigert of "Deadwood," one of a number of strong and appealing personalities) is unimpressed. Hideki learns that the ranch's main land area has soil too poor to raise corn, essential to feed Wagyu cattle.

Peg summarily turns Hideki over to a ranch dogsbody, limping from a rodeo injury, Javier (Goya Robles of "Get Shorty"), who puts Hideki on a horse. This transforms him. He falls off, gets mud all over his suit, and since the airline has lost his luggage, must don Javier's rodeo outfit. Once the outfit is completed with a cowboy hat: hey presto! Hideki's on his way to becoming an Asian cowboy, and also caring personally about the fate of this ranch. His English becomes more idiomatic. Two flats on his rental car also speed his forcible adaptation, and before long he's calling the company back home and delaying departure and leaving his return date uncertain.

The filmmaker's missionary background shows in the film's warm little life lessons, some of which Hideki gets from the down to earth ranchers, who make him look at his relation to Keiko and realize he's never asked her what she wants. A scene where Javier takes Hideki to a quinceañera celebration (he thinks it's a wedding) is a memorable human coming together, and maybe a life lesson too. But a lot of the transformation comes from drink and clothes. Hideki seems to have gotten over being a teetotaler - an outlandish stand for a Japanese salaryman anyway - when he's forced to go drinking the night of arrival. Later he finds that he quite likes a mixture of tequila, cola and lime juice called Balanga that really makes him loosen up and dance. He is increasingly photographed to make him look natural in better cowboy outfits than the rodeo garb Javier loaned him at first. "What is this, a dude ranch?" is a complaint heard more than once. But there's no doubt about it: Hideki has learned to lasso a steer and ride a horse. Through "going native" for a bit, the salaryman discovers a place where people love their work, and in doing so begins to become a mensch.

Eventually Hideki reunites with his fiancee Keiki, with apologies and a more equal relationship. Though the film goes on a bit long, as can often happen it's still a bit rushed and fudged toward the end so although the ranch will be saved, it's not 100% clear how that's going to take place, though Javier's secret crop will play a part.

The storyline has been compared to the '90's City Slickers and Biil Forsyth's Local Hero and even to Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist. Those other films may be more effective or memorable, but Tokyo Cowboy is distinctive in the fluency and ease with which it navigates between Japan and Montana. I was not sure whether this was a Japanese or an American film. It feels as if Marriott is more successful in depicting (contrasting) local color and in depicting the beauty and uniqueness of the Montana ranch world than in his story of transformation. But part of us can't help sympathizing with Hideki because of how authentic this ranch and these ranchers look, and we won't even mention how the dp tries, not without success, to dazzle us with Montana's epic landscape. Instead of sending up the salaryman, often a figure of fun, this film makes him an everyman whose journey of self-discovery we can all sympathize with. With its fuzzy late scenes and occasional longeurs Tokyo Cowboy just isn't a snappy, effective film. But it's too sweet and too culturally sensitive not to like.

Tokyo Cowboy, 118 mins., debuted at Wichita (Tallgrass (Oct. 7, 2023, showing also at Osaka Mar. 10, 2024. Theatrical releases Japan Jun. 7, 2024, US Aug. 30. Screened for this review at AMC Kabuki 8 San Francisco Sept. 1, 2024.