As a vibrant paean to Japanese culture, with all of its energy and contradictions, this is a movie that deserves to be seen, re-seen, discussed, and analyzed.  A master’s thesis on cultural studies in the form of a goofball comedy, Maiko Haaaan!!! is both hard to dismiss as pure silliness and hard to enjoy as pure escapist entertainment.  That’s because in Kankuro Kudo’s highly unpredictable script it seems that every familiar Japanese trope—whether from history, sociology, or various forms of show business—has been thrown into some kind of cinematic centrifuge.  Bit by bit, we descend from one layer of references to the next, wondering when our footing will again be on solid ground until the movie comes to its eventual conclusion.  I admit, I felt a bit exhausted by the time we got there, but also fully recognize that others may be able to settle in better for the full duration of the ride.

That’s because Maiko Haaaan!!! is a movie that doesn’t worry too much about making sense and is fairly upfront about it.  That’s not to say that the narrative is nonlinear or that the storytelling is poorly done—far from it.  At any given point we know what’s happening and why, but after a while it becomes clear that “what’s happening and why” is a secondary consideration in the grand scheme of things.  All right, here’s an analogy that might work:  does a theme park have a coherent dramatic plot?  Not exactly, but that doesn’t stop it from being enormous fun.

Shot and edited with verve, Maiko Haaaan!!! wastes no time in plunging us into the first of the subcultures that it explores.  Did you know that there are otaku not only for geisha, but also for maiko—apprentice geisha?  I for one didn’t, and maybe in real life there aren’t groupies quite like the one portrayed here, but that’s kind of beside the point:  salaryman Onizuka’s obsession feels real.  Kinetic and dorky at the same time, Sadawo Abe inhabits this role with an all-out abandon that rarely calls on him to deliver dialogue in anything less than a shriek or a howl.  Still, Abe’s gift for slapstick and the way that his character constantly changes doesn’t allow his performance to become as irritating as it could be.  With his bowl-haircut and a personality that swings between simpering nerdiness and swaggering bravado, Onizuka embarks on a quest to become a client in Kyoto’s best geisha houses.  Doesn’t sound too challenging, does it?  Well, let’s just say that there’s a certain protocol that must be followed, and Onizuka is pretty much clueless.  In short, this movie starts out like a teenage sex farce (albeit minus the teens, and with the sex more referenced than shown), but soon morphs into several other genres… including family drama, romantic comedy, and perhaps a couple that haven’t yet been invented.

Along the way, we enter the worlds of the instant noodles business, major league baseball, and the movies themselves (yes, there’s even a brief nod to samurai flicks).  And every time you think the film is getting into some sort of groove, that you’re going to get, say, a foodie-centered storyline a la Tampopo (1985) or a Japanese parody of The Natural (1984), Maiko Haaaan!!!! shifts gears yet again.  Then, about half-way through, we get a real dividing point, as the lighthearted tone gives way increasingly to a heavy-themed backstory.  As a consequence, the number of laugh-out-loud moments falls off dramatically.  Still, director Nobuo Mizuto keeps one trick coming after another.  We get upside-down compositions, unexpected animated sequences, and lavish production numbers, and for the most part this everything-and-the-kitchen-sink creative approach works.  Things may often seem excessive, but, oddly, they seldom feel forced.