Nobuhiro Yamashita is one of the great comic talents working in Japanese films and also one of the most unusual. Unlike the many directors and actors here who equate "funny" with "over the top," Yamashita is low-key, ironic and very sharp. If he were an American he might have written for "Curb your Enthusiasm," if a Brit, for "The Office."
But since he is Japanese -- and thus a square peg in many round entertainment industry holes (TV variety shows, mainstream comedies), he first found his comic voice in independent films, beginning with "Hazy Life" (1999) and continuing with "No One's Ark," "Ramblers" (2003) and his break-out hit, "Linda, Linda, Linda" (2005). The last film, about an amateur girl band prepping for its big debut at a school festival, had more crowd-pleasing elements, including a winning turn by Korean star Bae Doona as the band's naive-but-soulful lead singer, but it was still all Yamashita in its off-beat humor and minimalistic visual style.
In his new film, "Matsugane Ransha Jiken (Matsugane Potshot Affair)," Yamashita attempts to stretch farther, into something resembling serious drama. No, he is not doing his version of "Interiors" -- Woody Allen's 1978 impersonation of Ingmar Bergman; "Matsugane" is still recognizably Yamashita. What has gone missing, however, is the humor.