Many are the Japanese movies about virginal guys who are hopeless with women. One template is "Train Man," a 2005 hit about a shy otaku (geek) who lucks into a date with his dream girl — and needs an online support network to survive it.
Hitoshi One's awkwardly if accurately titled "Okuda Tamio ni Naritai Boi to Deau Otoko Subete Kuruwaseru Garu" (literally, "A Boy Who Wished to be Tamio Okuda and a Girl Who Drove All Men Crazy" comes close) takes this scenario several erotic notches higher. Based on Chokkaku Shibuya's manga, a socially inept magazine editor named Yuji Koroki (Satoshi Tsumabuki) falls hard for the flirtatious Akari Amami (Kiko Mizuhara), who does PR for a fashion brand. Miracle of miracles, they hook up. But his ecstasy soon turns to agony for reasons any idiot but the besotted Koroki could have foreseen. "Okuda" is thus a rare reality-based romantic comedy, though it's perhaps inadvisable as a date movie.
One, director of the similarly themed "Moteki" (2011), has fashioned his hero's world with a fanatic attention to detail, starting with the authentic clutter of the lifestyle magazine office where Koroki works. He has also drawn performances from Lily Franky, Sakura Ando and other members of a talented cast that are crazed but crafted to deliver actual laughs.
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