Japanese comedies today come in two broad categories: frantic, surreal ones of the Kankuro Kudo ("Maiko Haaaan!!!") sort and ironic, realistic ones from the Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Linda, Linda, Linda") corner.
Yosuke Fujita's "Zenzen Daijobu (Fine, Totally Fine)" falls firmly into the latter category, beginning with the first scenes, which slowly but inventively introduce the odd-squad characters and set up the love-triangle story. Also, unlike the many comic scripters who write a strong first act but falter thereafter, Fujita stays focused and funny, but relaxed, to the end. (Not surprisingly, his script for "Zenzen" won the Japan Film Angel Prize for new scriptwriters.)
His story: Two brothers — dough-faced, developmentally arrested Teruo (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) and OK-looking, mostly grownup Hisanobu (Yoshinori Okada), live together with their father (Keizo Kanie), who runs a failing used bookshop and is slowly going crazy from boredom.