Shinichiro Ueda had the great luck to direct a once-in-a-career hit, the 2018 zombie comedy “One Cut of the Dead.” Propelled by overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth, it earned more than a thousand times its ¥3 million budget. This bonanza didn’t make Ueda rich — like most directors here, he didn’t receive a share of the film’s profits — but it did give him a carte blanche of sorts for subsequent projects.

His follow-ups — the three-part omnibus “Aesop’s Game” and the comedy “Special Actors” — tried to recapture the madcap energy of “One Cut of the Dead,” but failed to capture its massive audience.

Now Ueda is back with yet another wacky comedy, the enigmatically titled “Popran.” Instead of the Chinese-box plot structure of his zombie hit, the film follows a more predictable path to its heartwarming conclusion. That said, this is still Ueda, a director who follows his own bent muse no matter how far it leads him from the path to commercial success.