Review | Okiku and the World movie review: no stinker here – Junji Sakamoto’s poop-filled tale is charming
- Director Junji Sakamoto tells the story of the unlikely courtship between a manure salesman and the daughter of a disgraced samurai in Okiku and the World
- The film is shot in stark black and white, and Haru Kuroki makes for a radiantly tragic heroine, but it is the director himself who deserves the highest praise
4/5 stars
In 1977, Japanese author Taro Gomi published his seminal children’s book Everyone Poops, in which a wide assortment of animals are shown defecating.
The book goes on to introduce a young human child, who is similarly bound by the obligations of his digestive system. Big or small, young or old, rich or poor, everyone poops – a wondrously simplistic message that director Junji Sakamoto reiterates in his latest movie, Okiku and the World.
Set in the mid-19th century, at the end of Japan’s Tokugawa period, the film is shot in stark black and white and framed in 4:3 academy ratio.
It charts the unlikely courtship between Chuji (Kanichiro Sato), a trainee manure salesman, and Okiku (Haru Kuroki), daughter of a disgraced samurai (Renji Ishibashi).
Because of her father’s lapsed social status, Okiku now lives in a humble wooden row house, with a leaky roof and access only to an overflowing communal latrine.
