Fridae

Romantic comedies still draw crowds even though in Hollywood, the screenwriting and acting talent for this genre have pretty much dried up. Occasionally someone attempts to reinvent the genre – Adam Sandler with his passive-aggressive manchild/hot chick couplings and the gross out American Pie sex comedies with socially awkward male protagonists – but somehow the reinvention gets stale after a while.

In Japan though, thanks to its creatively vibrant manga industry, there isn't such a problem. In Love Strikes! (based on the manga and subsequent J-drama series Moteki), the protagonist is a geeky, socially awkward otaku and 30-year-old virgin who has a longstanding relationship with his Tenga toys. The gimmick of the comedy is our protagonist discovers that for the first time in his life, he is suddenly irresistible to the opposite sex. The twist is that for all his sudden phenomenal irresistibility and rapid succession of dates and simultaneous love interests, he remains a socially inept geek. The girls he dates (or rather, the girls who date him) are the relationship pros while he is the clueless amateur.

There are drinking sessions, dinners, dates, and sleepovers. Will he find true love? A relationship? Or even a happy ending? Will his continuing misadventures in dating entertain his evil boss and cynical office colleagues? Will they even lend him a hand? Or will they plot to sabotage his love life for their amusement?

Writer-director Hitoshi Ohne never fails to surprise with his inventive plot twists, his sure sense of absurdist comedy, or his keen observations on modern dating in Japan. Yet it is his finger on the pulse of the pop culture of the past two decades that pushes the film over into greatness, working in parodies of popular J-dramas, advertisements and throwing in references to pop tunes of the past and today in the story.

Due to this artistry, Love Strikes! may have its roots in in the American Pie tradition but ends up as the Japanese 500 Days of Summer instead.