Hollywood constantly remakes and reworks its old product — "Avatar" references everything from "Dances with Wolves" to the Tarzan movies — but sometimes it falls out of love with stories, even ones once widely popular.
The outlaw-on-the-run-with-a-strange- kid story, which Kevin Costner turned into the 1993 hit "A Perfect World," is one example. Perhaps American audiences — long fed horror news stories of child abductions by pedophile creeps — cannot bring themselves to see such films any more, even the most innocent, without involuntary shudders. That is not yet the case in Japan. Actor/director Hideo Sakaki's new film "Yukai Rhapsody" ("The Accidental Kidnapper") takes inspiration from "A Perfect World" and others like it — but then injects a comic spin.
This could have been a recipe for another cutesy, weepy Japanese dramady, with everyone mugging away. Instead, Sakaki walks the comedy/drama line with energy, craft and heart. The laughs and tears are all of a piece, while the story tweaks genre formulas in smart, why-didn't-I-think-of-that? ways.