Fall Guy

Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Year Released: 1982
Rating: 0.5

Terribly unfunny movie about a Japanese movie star and a bit player who fall for the same girl - to impress her (and the unborn baby implanted in her by the star), the bit player decides to take a backwards dive down a stairwell for a movie (he could die, so the price tag for a stunt like that is fairly high). The 'comedy' of this consists of grotesque overacting and physical exaggeration the kind typically employed in anime, but it's somehow - for me, at least - more acceptable to see cartoon characters flailing wildly than actual people. This may be another case of my being a gaijin/American barbarian prevents me from 'getting it,' but I'm betting it's more that this film is incredibly stupid.