Based off a popular short manga series, A Farewell To Jinu (money, that is) is billed as a ‘slice of life’ comedy that starts off strongly but slowly begins to lose interest while developing a slightly saturated story that becomes a bit difficult to follow.
Takeharu Takami (Ryuhei Matsuda) is a bank clerk who becomes allergic to money and decides to quit his job and run away from the busy life of Tokyo to a small northern village where he plans to live his life without spending any money whatsoever. When the mayor/bus driver (Yosaburu Amano) and owner of nearly every possible job title in the village discovers Take’s plan, he takes him under his wing to make sure he can survive in his quest to live without money. As Take becomes more settled in the village, making friends and learning to live his new lifestyle, we start to learn more about Yosaburu’s past and why he’s such a willing and selfless person before the story takes a darker and more complex path which, in turn, changes the mood.
A Farewell To Jinu is a fun, light-hearted comedy with parts of utter surreality. The best and biggest part comes in the form of Nakanussan (Toshiyuki Nishida), an elderly member of the village who walks around the village for the most part of the film just taking pictures of everyone, and someone who claims to be a god.
It’s a shame really this tone wasn’t present throughout because as the plot thickens and secrets are revealed, a darker tone becomes apparent and the film loses some magic that kept it going through the beginning. While the good performances of the film’s lead, Matsuda, with his quietly sombre presence and some of the larger performances of villagers like Isoko (Hairi Kakagiri), A Farewell To Jinu could have been quite the comedic hit but instead just falls below the waistline of something more memorable.
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