The Haute Critique

Executive Koala (Koara Kochu) – 2005
Director: Minoru Kawasaki
Starring: Lee Ho, Eiichi Kikuchi, Arthur Kuroda, Hironobu Nomura, Hideki Saijo

Subtitles are a distraction for the high mind.  A language not understood can create a beautiful soundscape, or layers of meaning never intended by the creators; like birdsong or glossolalia.  Subtitles however, and the effort they require, are about as inimical to to the high state of mind as anything I can image.  So there was one immediate strike against Executive Koala, a Japanese cult flick from 2005 about a salary man at a pickle company named Tamura, who happens to be an anthropomorphic koala bear who becomes a suspect in the murders of at least two of his lovers.

Truth be told, this reviewer in three tries was unable to persevere more than a third of the movie.  The concept seemed alluringly bizarre, charming in that uniquely Japanese way.  Sadly the dissonance created in the mind by the combination of themes (Japan, fursuits, pickles, fursuits, Murder, FURSUITS!) dissuaded completion of the watching.  When Tamura went to see his boss, a similarly humaniform lapine entity (a giant fucking albino rabbit) of sinister aspect, my mellow was so severely harshed that I couldn’t go on.

I dearly wanted to enjoy Executive Koala.  Japan has always enticed…  the bizarre is familiar fare to this ‘net-hardened psychonaut.  However the barriers of language, culture and content (and the need to read the movie to keep up… freakin’ subtitles) were too high.  This particular morsel may be more digestible when soberly considered, but I cannot recommend it to the high minded.

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