異動辞令は音楽隊！ 「 Ido Jirei wa Ongakutai!」
Release Date: August 26th, 2022
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Eiji Uchida
Writer: Eiji Uchida (Script),
Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Nana Seino, Hayato Isomura, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Mitsuko Baisho, Ai Mikami,
Friday Jul 22, 6:00pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Director Eiji Uchida and Actor Hiroshi Abe will attend the screening.
Offbeat Cops is an original film written and directed by Eiji Uchida. With it, he continues to move away from indie films like blackly comic satires Greatful Dead (2013), Lowlife Love (2015), and Love and Other Cults (2017), to more mainstream fare like with Midnight Swan (2020) which won Best Film and Best Actor at the Japanese Academy Awards.
While the Japanese title is merely functional when directly translated – The Transfer Order is for the Music Corps! – the English-language title for Offbeat Cops is perfect as its multiple meanings accurately describe the content of this film where the central protagonist is out of time with other people in his life.
The man whose life has gotten out of rhythm is Tsukasa Naruse (Hiroshi Abe), a bulldog of a veteran detective who never tires of telling everyone he has been on the beat for 30 years. His latest case is chasing down a team of crooks who run a phishing scam where they call up elderly people while posing as cops, get information on money kept in their residences, and rob them. Lately, deaths have occurred. It all has Naruse fired up as he suspects a long-time nemesis is the mastermind, however, his old school Showa-style methods of beating down doors and beating up perps make him enemies amongst his more straight-laced Reiwa-era colleagues and it isn’t long before he gets busted for being a loose-cannon and taken off the detective beat altogether.
Transferred to the disharmonious police orchestra, he is given the position of drummer, even if Western-style drums aren’t his forte. The indignity of having to learn to keep time as the rhythm section rather than catch crooks has Naruse fly off the handle frequently. Worse still, his overworking nature means that his home life is a disaster as he is divorced, alienated from his budding musician daughter Noriko (Ai Mikami) and struggling with a mother (Mitsuko Baisho) who has Alzheimer’s. At his lowest ebb, Naruse has to find a new beat to march to.
Is it a comedy, a drama, a police procedural? Offbeat Cops is all of these but what it is essentially is a human drama where a middle-aged man must face his struggles.
Director Uchida shows a knack for consistent comedy beats, most often by showing how the orchestra is held in little regard, and ties it together with the drama – the sight of Naruse taking a bus trip out to the boonies to a church hall to attend practice sessions is both funny and tragic. While no particular element has tremendous depth to it, the story still works well because of the method of set up and pay off that Uchida establishes for Naruse throughout the story.
The many layers of Naruse’s disconnect from those around him are solidly established to stem from his somewhat stereotypical macho/lone-wolf detective behaviour. This creates workplace drama which spills over into his family life. Once he admits defeat and joins the orchestra, he finds a way to synergise his personal and professional life and thus the pay offs come as he learns from a colourful cast of orchestra colleagues to value being part of a team and finds inspiration from his mother’s musical influence on his childhood and his daughter’s rock band aspirations.
Overall, everything is connected together well so that while there are clichés, contrivances, and some aspects of the story, like the police investigation, are half-baked, the character arc for Naruse is ultimately satisfying to watch as he tamps down his worst personality traits and learns to be a part of the collective and value others – even if the ending suggests that people have to make do with inefficient leadership.
Powering the film is a great performance from reliable leading man Hiroshi Abe (Still Walking, After the Storm). He is able to take on the cliched role of a man of unbending will and fiery demeanour and convincingly soften and humanise Naruse throughout the film so that he remains sympathetic. Abe delivers the dramatic moments with ease and slips into physical comedy when needed. He is matched with a good supporting cast who provide a counterpoint to his acting with Nana Seino’s (The Dark Maidens, 2017) Haruko Kurushima bringing female sensibilities to cap Naruse’s macho outbursts and present a female police officer whose different reasons for policing give the main character a broader appreciation for the role. Meanwhile Kiyohiko Shibukawa (star of Lowlife Love) goes grey and mature to portray Tatsuya Hiroka, a long-time punk fan in the police motor division whose quiet guidance offers the detective a helping hand.
Click to view slideshow.Above all, Naruse remains easy to relate to and his transformation into a drummer is believable shown in musical performances that go from comedic to thrilling as the players improve. It looks like the cast are actually playing their instruments. Hiroshi Abe has stated in an interview that he went from zero experience to drumming based on three months of practice.
Overall, this is an undemanding and enjoyable time. Uchida’s film looks good on the screen and goes by at a quick pace. Good performances and fun musical numbers abound and while there is darkness to his film, the tone is light overall so it remains accessible to many. What resonates at the end is the sight of someone being able to change their behaviour and integrate themselves into a community with the help of others and that offers a hopeful message.