Some directors are like fashion brands, churning out immediately identifiable product the same way again and again. Others are more like a hot stock: a spectacular rise, followed by an equally spectacular fall. There are also those who are like an underperforming athlete who suddenly changes into a worldbeater. The talent may have been there all along, but sometimes the reasons for the turnabout are elusive.
Satoshi Miki, whose day job is as a director of hit TV comedy shows and dramas, falls into the last category. I've enjoyed most of his films, beginning with 2005's "In the Pool," a comedy about three wacky patients of an even madder psychiatrist.
But with Miki there has always been a "but": terrific gag ideas, but shaky plot structures; likable quirky characters, but they don't develop so much as shamble. In short, his films, including the inventively titled "Kame wa Igai ni Hayaku Oyogu (Turtles Swim Faster Than Expected)," also from 2005, and 2007's "Zukkan ni Nottenai Mushi (Insects Unlisted in the Encyclopedia)," have been patchy affairs, albeit with flashes of crazy brilliance.