Viewed on Streaming. Director Satoshi Miki's depiction of the adventures of a mobile odd couple traipsing about town. One is a killer (and, perhaps, former loan shark); the other is a deadbeat (and, perhaps, former) customer now serving as a paid traveling companion of the killer. This is an open-ended scenario that Director Miki fills with a broad spectrum of denizens--from hookers to a bratty juvenile (played by an actress much too old for the role) to a virtual/pretend wife to a recently-dead real one. Acting is good (except for the over-ripe juvenile) although character-continuity appearances are sometimes lacking from scene to scene. Subtitles are fine (perhaps in part due to sparse line readings--characters are usually rather taciturn). Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) is fine and pleasantly mobile. Interior sets (and their lighting) are very good (all interiors seem to be filmed on-location). If you love to wander around the very-safe back streets of Tokyo (or are planning to do so on your next trip), this film will likely be of at least casual interest--it's filled with way-off-the-tourist-beaten-path places to explore/revisit. If not, skip this low-budgeted trifle. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

This is basically a bonding film with two guys, where they build a relationship by going from point A to point B. And for the most part it's a fascinating and intriguing journey that has a lot of reference to Japanese culture and entertainment. The plot revolves around a guy that is in debt and gets in trouble with the debt collector. Later the debt collector gives him a solution to the problem, by going on a walk with him to a specific destination he would give him a lot of money. The main reason that interested me on the journey was the question why the debt collector would choose that man to go on a walk with him. I really liked the style and direction of this movie, especially with it's awkward scenarios and awkward humor in this. It pretty much was a engaging movie all the way through, mainly because of the direction of it all. To anyone who enjoys watching Japanese style and humor while going from point A to point B without it being dull, should check this movie out.8/10

"In my 8th college year, buying 3-color toothpaste I thought could spare me from my rock bottom situation." Those are the first words of the film as spoken by Fumiya (Jô Odagiri) just before debt collector Fukuhara (Tomokazu Miura) bursts into his apartment, removing his shoes at the front door as is Japanese custom, and roughs him up. The next day the debt collector offers Fumiya an opportunity to erase his debt: walk with him around Tokyo. What we get is a road movie, a very funny road movie, where the unlikely duo walk instead of drive. There's eventual male bonding, marvelous footage of Tokyo, and a smörgåsbord of odd characters and situations along the way.Writer/Director Satoshi Miki has a stable of comedic actors who work with him often and who fill out this film playing the side characters. They remind me of the North American group that came out of Second City Television we now associate with Christopher Guest movies. They share that sense of humor too, where each of the characters seem to exist in their own orbit but since they all do, they get along fine. Dialog is somewhere between non sequiturs and honest answers when you don't anticipate them. And it's all about timing and delivery. Funny people.I would be remiss if I didn't mention the hairstyles of the two main characters. Jô Odagiri, famous Average Joe Japanese actor, sports a Dylanesque-fro, while famous Big Bad Guy actor Tomokazu Miura's cut seems to suffer from some sort of mullet imbalance. They're an odd pair perfectly suited to this low-key oddball comedy.A thrill for me is the appearance of Yuriko Yoshitaka as Fufumi, the niece of the debt collector's fake wife. She co-starred, at age seventeen, in one of my favorite films of all time, Noriko's Dinner Table, as the younger sister, Yuka. While that Sion Sono film was no where near a comedy, Yuriko Yoshitaka's character possessed a bit of the same surreal comportment that works for her in this film. She's tasked here with playing a loud, extremely happy, self-orientor who likes to put mayonnaise on everything, and pulls it off without being overly obnoxious. Your mileage may vary but I think she's got a bright future. She seems comfortable acting.

Adrift in Tokyo is a heart warming comic drama about luck, a common theme in Japanese cinema, but interesting nonetheless. The film's protagonist Takemura is a law student with a debt to pay off, a debt collector named Fukuhara who visits his house and threatens him, offers him a way out, all he has to do is walk the streets with him. The untrusting relationship changes as the two learn more about each other, it has the feel of a road movie, with the friendship developing between the two men, with the underlying theme of luck shaping their futures, Fukuhara lost his child and Takemura was abandoned by his parents as a child, they end up posing as Father and son and gradually Takemura realises his luck is changing. This sentimental and somewhat obvious male-bonding plot is held aloft by hilarious secondary characters, unlikely comic scenarios and the beautiful cinematography that captures the full range of Tokyo's landscape and atmosphere. Uplifting, thought provoking and at times very amusing.