What is marriage, anyway? Whatever it is for you personally, it traditionally starts with that brief delirium of carefree joy and erotic delight called a honeymoon. But these days, with more couples marrying after years of living together, honeymoons are becoming just another excuse for a trip, exotic locale and excitement optional.
In Ryuichi Honda's offbeat new comedy, "Okike no Tanoshii Ryoko: Shinkon Jigoku-hen" ("The Oki Family's Fun Trip: Newlywed Hell"), ennui with newlywed life is the dilemma facing Saki (Asami Mizukawa) and Nobuyoshi Oki (Yutaka Takenouchi) — a couple who have married and moved to a new apartment, but long ago lost that romantic fizz and pop.
Based on a novel by hot playwright, TV scriptwriter and author Shiro Maeda, "Oki" has what must be the all-time strangest premise for a romantic comedy: The title couple decide to spend their honeymoon in hell, or rather Maeda and Honda's concept of it. This has little to do with Dante's underworld of eternal punishment, more to do with local folk traditions and its creators' formidable imaginations.