Japanese society is rapidly graying, as journalists never tire of telling us. What the journos seldom mention -- though the cannier film producers have noticed -- is that a lot of graying Japanese like to go to the movies. One big reason for the revival of the jidai geki (period drama) genre is old folks, who were finding fewer of their favorite samurai shows on the small screen. Once jidai geki started appearing on the big screen, over-50s turned out for them, boosting films like "Zatoichi" and "The Last Samurai" to the box-office stratosphere.
There is also a small but growing subgenre of films not only for oldies, but about them. Two recent examples are Takayoshi Watanabe's "Pretty Woman," about elderly ladies who put on a play for the first time in their lives, and Chisui Takigawa's "Fuku no Mimi (Lucky Ears)," about a ghost who haunts an old folks home -- and persuades a young employee to help him seduce one of its more attractive residents.
Now there is a third, Isshin Inudo's "Shinibana (Glorious Death)," a heist comedy whose crooks are elderly gents living in the same retirement home. Their shenanigans have little to do with the reality of growing old in Japan -- this is light entertainment, not a crusading documentary. All the same, as he recently proved in his hit romantic drama "Josee to Tora to Sakanatachi (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish)," Inudo can massage cliched material into fresh, unusual shapes.
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