People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 37 minutes, Director – Jack Clough

Pirate radio team turned musicians Kurupt FM travel to Japan to gain a record deal when one of their songs is featured on a hit game show.

Nearly silent member of pirate radio team turned musicians Kurupt FM, Decoy (Daniel Sylvester Woolford) appears to be the only figure who realises the true reality that he and his collaborators find themselves in. Flown to Japan in the hope of achieving a record deal after one of their songs becomes popular on a colourful, Total Wipeout style studio game show. Decoy rolls his eyes at the misunderstandings and antics of the rest of the group as they stumble through the busy Tokyo streets under the guidance of their penny-struggling manager Chabuddy G (Asmin Chaudhry). Yet, while Decoy’s grounded nature certainly provides amusement the audience never quite feels the same as him. There’s a great deal of amusement to be found as the other members of Kurupt FM; gradual frontman MC Grindah (Allan Mustafa), family and business-minded escapist DJ Beats (Hugo Chegwin) and drug-obsessed Steves (Steve Stamp), put into action their misunderstandings of Japanese culture – taking off their shoes before entering a room being a frequent one.

Taken from tight-knit activities of watching The Fast And The Furious at the exact same time on two different plane screens to the divisive exercise of rehearsing dance routines rifts are gradually formed between the group as they build-up to a major concert that will help establish them in the country. While they would rather simply MC, overtaking corporate manager Taka (Ken Yamamura) changes the look of the group and attempts to turn them into a more mainstream boy band. Through this a more conventional standard story begins to form, particularly coming into play in the second half of the piece. Yet, the story certainly isn’t the main draw of this adaptation of the hit TV series – which started out as a series of comedy sketches. Much of the narrative is formed around the interactions that the characters have with each other and Japanese culture – avoiding the feeling of being offensive and mean-spirited; this is an observation of the characters and their lack of understanding and behaviours in their new surrounding.

It’s the characters who make the film as enjoyable as it is. Providing plenty of laugh out loud moments throughout, particularly within the first half – their great company for the 97 minute run-time of the piece. Even if you haven’t seen the series from which this film continues on from it’s, easy to connect with the on-screen figures and want to see where they lead themselves overtime. It takes a while for the title to actually appear on-screen, yet this never actually comes to mind as you get caught up very quickly within the brief background and context of Kurupt FM. There’s a lot to enjoy about the characters and the comedy that they produce, both of which feel as if they’re directly taken from the TV show; untampered with and very much in the hands of the actors, providing plenty of engaging content as the film makes itself up with them in plenty of scenarios on their trip to the Japanese capital. What follows is a quick story with plenty of humour and amusement throughout, even if things do get somewhat conventional as they develop.

A great continuation for fans of the series and an-easy-to-engage-with, if fairly standard, story for newcomers to this group of seemingly untampered, laugh-out-loud funny characters.