NY ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL July 15-28, 2022

[Chris Knipp]

EIJI UCHIDA: OFFBEAT COPS 異動辞令は音楽隊！(Japan 2022)


HIROSHI ABE IN OFFBEAT COPS

Never mind crime detection: what the people need is a really great police band.

This slow developer billed as a "joyous comedy caper" is uneven and baggy in the middle but has many pro features and an entertaining musical finale. The protagonist, handsome, macho police officer Tsukasa Naruse (consummate pro Hirochi Abe) is sometimes so chilly and harsh early on that his loose-cannon detective isn't always all that funny. And for a Western viewer Naruse's redemption is a little hard to read. But you're not meant to think too deep here - it's entertainment.

In one of this movie's best scenes, an old lady gets a special sendoff from a police marching band. She'd loved the band, and when she is killed by burglars, the band comes to the morgue and plays a farewell salute, then one by one actually salutes her and backs away. It's a lovely moment, and the band matters, because Naruse has gotten demoted to being a drummer in it for being so aggressive and over-zealous as a police detective he's caused a lot of trouble. In this demotion, Naruse calms down. He becomes a good drummer and the band is inspired to work really hard and become good. Forget crime detection: what people need is a first rate police band!

Another 2022 NYAFF film, Mayu Nakamura's Intimate Stranger, introduces us to a Japanese scam on old ladies. Someone impersonates a friend of their "grandson" over the phone and convinces them to proffer a substantial sum of money to be picked up at the door to help the grandson sick or in trouble. In Offbeat Cops the callers impersonate cops doing a "survey" to make sure the old lady is staying safe, and then casually ask if she keeps much money in her house. If she says yes, they're immediately there with a "parcel delivery,." They walk in, tie her up, tape her mouth, and go off with her money. This is how the old lady who loved the police band dies: the tape accidentally asphyxiates her.

Director Uchida reportedly was inspired to make this movie by seeing a flash mob video of a police band on YouTube. We can see he then wanted to invent a story around a cop who winds up in such a band. Nice try, but the relationship between the overzealous criminal investigator Naruse and the (initially) lackluster police band is a bit tenuous, while the personality of Naruse himself is rather roughly sketched in, despite all the scenes of his macho excesses. It all might arguably have been better told in the course of two or three episodes of a TV series, which would save one from having to expect artistic wholeness, and the Naruse character would simply be a common thread. In that format the uneven pace of Offbeat Cops might have gone unnoticed; but this movie seems long. Such a relatively lightweight story shouldn't require two hours to tell. The important story, though, is the uplifting one of an angry man who achieves inner peace and humility.

But that brass salute to the fallen old lady is classic. And the pro ensemble and competent direction show in what follows, the entrapment of the informer and perp by the band disguised as clown musicians, then the "final" summer fair concert of the band, whose bus makes it through holiday traffic thanks to an emergency lead car. Bam, bam, bam: the action flows superbly in the last twenty minutes. Paring down might have made things move faster earlier on.

Offbeat Cops 異動辞令は音楽隊, 119 mins., debuts in Japan Aug. 26, 2022. NYAFF showing is the world premiere. It was previewed for this review as part of the July 15-31, 2022 New York AsianFilm Festival.

NYAFF SHOWING: Friday Jul 22, 6:00pm (Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center)
Director Eiji Uchida and Actor Hiroshi Abe will attend the screening.