Key of Life

A struggling, suicidal actor and an amnesiac hitman both get an unexpected shot at a brand new life when they cross paths and swap identities in a bathhouse in this lighthearted black comedy from director Kenji Uchida. Masato Sakai stars as likable but self-defeating actor Sakurai (he can't even kill himself without botching it) who swaps his one-room dump for the lavish apartment of Kondo (Teruyuki Kagawa), a methodical assassin who loses his memory after slipping on a bar of soap (and wakes up in the actor's life). Costar Ryoko Hirosue adds a twist of oddball romantic comedy as a coolly efficient career woman who organizes her life the same way she runs her magazine: setting a wedding date before even finding a boyfriend. Uchida deftly tracks the inevitable chaos while putting the full-blooded characters front and center in this amiable mix of social satire and wild goofball twists, where personality triumphs over circumstance, even when circumstances take some unexpected (and thoroughly entertaining) turns. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)