Screenwriter-director-star Dave Boyle's low-budget comedy about the post-adolescent process of finding oneself revolves around Boyd (Boyle), a Forrest Gump-esque young man who fancies himself a “businessman,” catering to the Japanese ex-pat culture of his West Coast city, where he sort of sells translation services and language/culture lessons to Japanese customers looking to assimilate into American society. Unfortunately, viewers are asked to suspend major disbelief, since Boyd's schemes absolutely scream “amateur hour,” but he still somehow manages to pull them off in a film with a wildly off-balance tonal mix that veers from over-the-top cartoonish to would-be sentimental pathos. And don't get suckered in by the advertised presence of Heroes' James Kyson Lee: he only appears in a couple scenes. Not a necessary purchase. (M. Johanson)
Big Dreams Little Tokyo
Echo Bridge, 86 min., not rated, DVD: $14.99, July 22 Volume 23, Issue 5
Big Dreams Little Tokyo
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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