Satoshi Miki's Instant Swamp (Insutanto Numa) is a bizarre but delicious little Japanese confection. Haname Jinchoge, a twenty-something woman, is trying to make her way in the world, but everything goes wrong; her life is "eroding" from beneath her. The magazine she works for fails; the photographer she fancies moves to Milan; she loses her pet rabbit; she is trapped in the humdrum when all she wants to do is run and scream (as they sometimes do, she observes, in independent films, but real life doesn't work that way). Haname is, as her mother scolds, five seconds late for everything. Haname's only consistent pleasure is her morning cup of (prefigurative) chocolate sludge, made from a precise recipe of too much chocolate powder and too little milk.

Although she claims to be a skeptic, Haname attributes her bad fortune to the curse of a cat talisman that she threw into a swamp on her eighth birthday (she so disposed of everything her father had given her, because he chose that day to leave the family for a rich woman and the easy life). And it is this tension between the mundane and the fantastic that drives the story frenetically forward, through surprising and sometimes silly twists involving water sprites, sunken post boxes, a comatose mother, an itinerant lost father, a punk rocker, a dragon, and, yes, even an instant swamp. But the film is always engaging and consistently amusing, from its rocket-paced opening montage until Haname announces the moral of the story (as if we didn't know) at the end.

After watching "Adrift In Tokyo", I couldn't wait to check out other works from director Satoshi Miki. So, hoping for the best, and intrigued by the one review I had read, I decided to risk this. I was not disappointed.

"Instant Swamp"'s masterful hyperactive opening lets you know right away that this is not your regular quirky movie. However it's a bit of a red herring, at least in the beginning, as it takes some time to get used to the not-that-fast pace and the characters' mannerisms. But once I was in, I was hooked.

This is full of surprises, and I was glad to see a movie that wasn't either too predictable nor too weird. It's hilarious too, some times very subtly, but still packed with gags. I can't say enough good things about the acting, specially Morio Kazama (Light Bulb) and Kumiko Asô (Haname), who carries this movie and really makes it work.

As in "Tenten", half the fun here is in experiencing the events unfold, in a sort of free-form mode. The plot is about Haname, a (very) lively young woman. Among many other things, her mother goes into a coma and Haname wants to find out about her toys which she threw into an allegedly "cursed" swamp. Doesn't help much, right? Don't worry though... one thing I can guarantee is that there isn't a single depressing or boring moment in this film.

This isn't for everyone, that's for sure. Those with low tolerance to people constantly screaming in Japanese, fantastic/ridiculous events and somewhat aimless humor will be quick to dismiss this one. But if you like Miki's style or you're a fan of over-the-top quirkiness and fun, chances are you'll be satisfied.

Haname Jinchoge(Kumiko Aso) is a woman that doesn't believe in anything spiritual or superstitious stuff, in another words she is a realist. And yet she sort of believes in curses because of her bad luck and she works for the cosmopolitan women's magazine. Soon she goes in search for someone from her past and than the real meat of the story kicks in. The dialogue in this is exchanged between characters very quickly and overall it's a fast paced movie. The mannerisms of the characters are slightly awkward but it isn't really anything new, if you seen a lot of Japanese movie and in this it doesn't go over the top with it. And yet it sort of reminded me of "Adrift in Tokyo" which is a film made by the same director because of the way the characters act. Some of the events seem random at times but it's still innovative and sort of refreshing to some degree. The characters in this is also likable and memorable, especially Light Bulb(Morio Kazama)for the most part and Haname Jinchoge(Kumiko Aso). The bonding element is done very well while revolving around antique shops. I personally liked "Adrift in Tokyo" a bit better but this one is enjoyable as well.

7.5/10