Showing @ Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Sat Jun 28

Akira Ikeda / Japan / 2013 / 99 mins

Kogure (Sakae Tomomatsu) is a simple man. He wears the same shirt and slacks every day, eats at the same low quality restaurant every night, and his job at the Yamamori paperclip factory is hardly stimulating. So when a strange girl speaking a dialect he has never heard suddenly makes herself at home in his apartment, the unassuming owner just lets her stay. Before he knows it, he is sharing unrecognizable food with her and her father, completely unaware of who they are or where they have come from.

Yet though these are just some of the strange events that befall the hapless protagonist of Akira Ikeda’s absurdist comedy, Anatomy of a Paperclip remains an ironically dull experience. An attempted satire of capitalist complacency, Kogure has frequent run-ins with his cruel boss and a pair of dimwitted yet prosperous thieves, whilst a stylistic choice means that every character speaks and acts as if they’ve undergone a lobotomy (something that becomes more literal in the film’s second half).

Oddness, however, is no substitute for humour and though there are stand out moments, these are often forgotten before a scene has even ended. A job interview in which a woman is called “ambitious” for swearing she’ll try to love paperclips “just as much as scissors” is amusing; the uncomfortable sexual abuse carried out by the factory manager shortly afterwards, less so. And therein lies the problem: dry social commentary has a place in comedy, but get the balance wrong and a film can easily become a desert.

Showing as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014