Most of the Japanese films we’ve covered here at Strange Things have either been downbeat and grim or explosively gory exercises in excess – or sometimes, a combination of the two. But of course, there’s much more to Japanese cinema than that, and this is a prime example of slightly – okay, very – oddball pop cinema.

Quirky Guys and Gals is a collection of four short films, each with rather eccentric characters at the heart of it. You can watch the films individually if you choose (complete with introductions from the directors), but I’d recommend watching it as the full length feature version, if only because then you’ll get the J-pop backed opening and closing animated credits.

The first film, Cheer Girls, directed by Yosuke Fujita, follows the adventures of three schoolgirls who dress like vintage cartoon characters and are cheerleaders – not for sports teams, but for anyone who needs support – a student struggling with shoelaces, a suicidal businessman, a restaurant owner struggling with a too-tight jar lid. Led by dedicated Chiharu (Nanami Sakaruba) – who is not above beating integrity into her subordinates should they forget their mission – all seems to be going well for the trio, until a few misunderstandings lead Chiharu to lose faith and be in need of cheering herself.

Tomoko Matsunashi’s Boy? Meets Girl sees gawky schoolboy Muratsubaki (Aoi Nakamura) having a crush on Kaori, the cutest girl in school. But, convinced she wouldn’t be interested, he can only watch her from a distance. But when a friend convinces him to dress as a girl, his life is turned around, and Miyu, his female side, soon becomes firm friends with Kaori. But how can her tell her the truth?

Claim Night, by Mipo O, sees Mayuko (Tomochika) getting into an argument with a call centre operator after her electricity is cut off and she can’t cook her anticipated meal. A call centre manager visits to apologise, and Mayuko takes him for as much compensation as she can get, until she starts to find him attractive. But inviting him to stay to dinner only leads to further misunderstandings and conflict.

Closing things out is Gen Sekiguchi’s The House Full of ‘Abandoned’ Businessmen, which sees housewife Mrs Okada (Kyoko Koizumi) meeting businessman Mr Hirata sitting on a park bench looking depressed. It turns out that he has lost his job, but can’t bring himself to tell his wife. Mrs Okada invites him to spend the days in her house, and soon, she is finding other depressed, jobless and stubbornly proud salarymen to take home – a new replacement for the twenty two cats she used to own.

There’s a lot of charm in this collection of films. Conflict is minimal and cartoonish, and the personal eccentricities of the characters are celebrated rather than mocked. There are several laugh-out-loud moments, particularly in the final tale, as a house full of suited but useless businessmen try to defeat a cockroach, and overall, this is a remarkably sweet, delightfully upbeat, fun and - as the title suggests - quirky film. It’s fluffy stuff, certainly – there isn’t anything very deep about any of the stories, but that’s actually no bad thing.

As a collection of cheerfully eccentric films about cheerfully eccentric characters, it’s the very definition of feel-good cinema. An absolute delight.

DAVID FLINT

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