Kikuchi (1991)

Saddled with a slavish, boring laundry job and no social life whatsoever, Kikuchi rarely leaves his bare apartment except to follow home and spy on a supermarket check-out girl. But there's no one he can tell about his secret passion, least of all his gawping, work-shy colleague. Even a stray kitten can't alleviate Kikuchi's frustration; clearly, something's got to give... This first film by a former manga illustrator, a terse and enigmatic blend of black comedy and psychodrama, has been compared to both Eraserhead and Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman; another point of reference might be the slow, deceptively banal domestic dramas of Ozu, with whom Iwamoto shares a penchant for a mostly static camera, simple compositions, and an eye for the absurd details of everyday life.

Released Feb. 22, 1991 68 min None+

Genres: Drama, Romance

Keywords: mdblist.three-actors, imdb.male-protagonist, imdb.stationary-camera, imdb.love-triangle, imdb.directorial-debut, imdb.coworker-coworker-relationship, imdb.secretly-in-love + 18 more, imdb.muzak, imdb.tokyo-japan, imdb.voyeurism, imdb.experimental-film, imdb.love, imdb.low-budget-film, imdb.exaggerated-sound, imdb.minimalism, imdb.laundry-worker, imdb.laundromat, imdb.laundromat-dryer, imdb.alienation, imdb.cult-director, imdb.supermarket-checkout-girl, imdb.long-take, imdb.kitten, imdb.very-little-dialogue, aspectratio.1-37-1