ADRENALINE DRIVE (1999) ***1/2

Reviewed 3/25/00

Writer-director Shinobu Yaguchi thoroughly embraces genre in his on-the-run-from-gangsters comedy Adrenaline Drive. When American films busily try to either ineptly transform genre (Arlington Road) or dumb it down (Entrapment), it is refreshing to find this throwback to old-style guilelessness. Yaguchi has cited Peckinpah's Getaway as an influence, but Adrenaline Drive in tone is more like Billy Wilder in his less cynical, more free-spirited mode (Some Like It Hot). The film screams American remake, but Hollywood would do it all wrong by turning up the bluster. Yaguchi may still lack in technique, but his offbeat sensibility, especially in the opening character-establishment scenes, would be difficult to recapture in an impatient Hollywood production.

The basic premise has two strangers, Shizuko Sato (Hikari Ishida), a nurse, and Satoru Suzuko (Masanobu Ando), a rental car clerk, come into possession of laundered millions after a gas leak explosion at a yakuza office. The heretofore innocent bystanders believe all the gangsters to have died, but one particularly mean one, Kuroiwa (Yutaka Matushige) survives. Along with his graceless (and hilarious) ragtag bunch of youthful henchmen, he gives chase. Shizuko is beyond meek, always being made fun of by her coworkers, and Satoru is even worse, but the story is about how they transform themselves, rising up to the task to face their antagonists. All the actors are perfectly cast, especially the two leads, though the Jovi Jova comedy troupe playing Kuroiwa's more-trouble-than-they're-worth proteges steals every scene they are in. While you know where it will all ultimately end up, Yaguchi piles up the surprises along the way. Adrenaline Drive is filled with implausibilities, but makes sense within its own Rube Goldberg plot logic.

The Shooting Gallery will release Adrenaline Drive in the U.S. in May.

Copyright © 2000 George Wu