our friend Takeshi's own "8 1/2"

About ten / twenty minutes into the movie, it became clear that Takeshi was indulging in the usual fantasy-meets-reality reverie first (?) illustrated by Fellini's "8 1/2".

Fortunately I felt that he went further, and this movie does read like some kind of testament with references to his original prefecture, to the kind of cabaret acts he would have been familiar with when he started, naturally his tough-guy onscreen personas, tap-dancing, and so on.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he cast genuine old friends of his throughout. Which leads me to mention the great Terajima, who is always a pleasure to watch. Go check out the brilliant "Funky Forest First Contact", all his scenes with Kazue Fukiishi (swoon) are brilliant! He is excellent at comedy.

Some people wondered about the American soldiers "signification". The way I read it, I felt that what Takeshi is telling us is:
look, I could have become a (deservedly adored) film star, I could have also become a "nobody" ...or I could have just easily been killed during a war.

We love you man, and as the fangirl can only repeat, "thank you for your work".