‘Getting Any?’ Blu-ray Review (Third Window)
Stars: Dankan, Takeshi Kitano, Moeko Ezawa, Hakuryu, Tokie Hidari, Yojin Hino | Written and Directed by Takeshi Kitano
From the acclaimed director Takeshi Kitano (Fireworks, Kikujiro) comes a bizarre, over the top and absurd comedy full of slapstick silliness and never ending gags. A great satire of Japanese society and popular cinema, Getting Any?, embraces the spirit of Kitano s early stand-up and television work and as such it offers a genuine inside look into his true personality.
The story follows the nerdy middle age Asao, a professional daydreamer, whose one and only goal in life is – as the title suggests – to get laid. Asao embarks on a series of slapstick adventures in search of fulfilling his ultimate fantasy – making wild passionate sex with a woman. His holy quest for sex lands Asao in a series of absurd situations, involving robbery schemes, big movie productions, yakuza gang rivalry wars and scientific experiments.
Asao, played by Dankan, is a 35-year-old virgin who lives with his grandfather in a Tokyo suburb. After watching an adult movie on TV, Asao decides the only way he can ever get a girl and get laid is to buy a sports car. The film follows Asao’s efforts to get the car, the girl and get laid – along the way he sells his grandfather’s liver and kidney’s, steals a car, runs over a prospective date, joins the yakuza, becomes invisible, and gets transformed into a giant fly-man (as seen on the cover of the new Third Window release)!
Ultimately, Getting Any? is a Airplane-style scatalogical satire on japanese culture, with references to Zatoichi, Godzilla and Ultraman; it even spoofs Speilberg’s E.T. Feeling like a Japanese take on the sex comedies of the 1980s, such as Screwballs, Porky’s and in particular the Lemon Popsicle series, your enjoyment of Getting Any? will depend very much on how fond you are of the genre.
This new release of Kitano’s Getting Any? from Third Window Films features a brand new 2k restoration of the film by Office Kitano; audio commentary by Sean Redmond, author of “The Cinema of Takeshi Kitano – Flowering Blood”; an interview with Takeshi Kitano from the original DVD release; and the first 1000 copies come with a limited edition slipcase illustrated by Marie Bergeron.
Getting Any? is out now on DVD and Blu-ray from Third Window Films.
