Midlife crises can manifest themselves in a variety of ways. Some people quit their jobs, buy fancy cars, or take up with younger lovers. The really unlucky ones go out for a few drinks with a co-worker one evening and wake up the next day with a corpse in their trunk.
Such is the quandary facing Taichi Akimoto (Tomomitsu Adachi), the hapless protagonist of Dai Sako’s twisty and confounding “Drive Into Night.” He’s on the wrong side of 40 but still lives with his parents, and has a thankless job as a salesman for a metalworks factory, endlessly cold-calling companies to see if they have any scrap iron.
“What makes life fun for you?” asks co-worker Wataru Taniguchi (Reo Tamaoki) as the pair unwind at a local bar. Taichi can only reply: “Not much.”