Monday

Monday (2000) is another innovative film from director/actor Sabu. Sabu regular Shinichi Tsutsumi stars as Takagi, a salaryman who wakes up in a strange hotel room and has no recollection how he got there-a lost weekend. Little by little, with help from clues, he pieces together the weekend which escalates from black comedy to tragedy. I liked the first two sequences best-the first is triggered by a packet of purification salt that he finds in his pocket and he has a flashback to a disturbing wake he attend ed earlier in the weekend. The second takes place in a bar where he goes to let off some steam after the surprising wake and awkward meeting with his girlfriend. At this point in the film, he comes across as the meek, henpecked type which can explain why he acts out during the weekend. A chance meeting with a yakuza and his sensuous girlfriend at the bar finds him frantically dancing at the yakuza boss's bar and then transitions into a seductive slow dance with the yakuza's girl-the high point of the film in my opinion. From there it goes off the rails in terms of character, story, and violence. I found the second half of the film and the ending somewhat of a let down since there was such a great build up to the halfway point.