Third Window Films continue to release the newly restored films of Takeshi Kitano on sparkly blu-ray in the UK with Getting Any? on October 16th.
I remember watching this film for the first time around five years ago and just being stunned at how monumentally unfunny it was after the Ghostbusters sketch. It’s undisciplined and tries to do too much, the humour hasn’t dated well and there’s little that’s funny to begin with. But then maybe that’s the point and there’s a lot more going on than I realised:
In an interview Kitano actually draws parallels to Kurosawa, who, in the hindsight of Kitano, should have made a total bullshit film, instead of attempting suicide after “Dodes Kaden”. To Kitano, “‘Getting Any?’ is a beautiful disastrous failure and “suicide”.
Henrik Sylow (kitanotakeshi.com)
Whatever, of you’re a completionist or adventurous this is definitely for you. The material covers so much since it’s a send-up of the Japanese film industry and it certainly is memorable. Perhaps, after living in Japan, I might find more elements of this funny. It certainly has a good cast with Kitano leading familiar actors like Yurei Yanagi and Susumu Terajima astray and both Dankan and Ren Osugi appeared in the Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie Eyes of the Spider!
Here are the details:
Getting Any? 
みんな～やってるか！ 「Minna~ Yatteru ka」
Running Time: 108 mins.
Release Date: February 11th, 1995
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Writer: Takeshi Kitano (Screenplay),
Starring: Dankan, Moeko Ezawa, Takeshi Kitano, Susumu Terajima, Kanji Tsuda, Yurei Yanagi, Ren Osugi, Taka Guadalcanal, Hakuryu, Yojin Hino, Yoneko Matsukane,
Synopsis: From the acclaimed director Takeshi Kitano [Fireworks, Kikujiro] comes a bizarre, over the top and absurd comedy full of slapstick silliness and never ending gags. A great satire of Japanese society and popular cinema, Getting Any?, embraces the spirit of Kitano s early stand-up and television work and as such it offers a genuine inside look into his true personality.
The story follows the nerdy middle age Asao, a professional daydreamer, whose one and only goal in life is – as the title suggests – to get laid. Asao embarks on a series of slapstick adventures in search of fulfilling his ultimate fantasy – making wild passionate sex with a woman. His holy quest for sex lands Asao in a series of absurd situations, involving robbery schemes, big movie productions, yakuza gang rivalry wars and scientific experiments.
Getting Any? may be very episodic and perhaps even pointless in the grand scheme of things, but for those willing to go for it, it’s a hoot from start to finish.
