Hardluck Hero

"V6 And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"


This 2003 movie, written and directed by Japanese indies director SABU, stars all six members of V6 as unlucky guys having a very unlucky day. Ikeyama Tadashi (Sakamoto Masayuki) and Kishimoto Kenta (Nagano Hiroshi) are two businessmen who just want to have lunch before a big presentation. Ishii Naoto (Inohara Yoshihiko) and Akai Takashi (Okada Junichi) are two coworkers who just want to throw the second round. Fujita Kenji (Morita Go) and Kudoh Yuji (Miyake Ken) are two friends who just want to pay back their debt. But through a series of events involving yakuza, police, and underground kickboxing, they all end up running for their lives.

The highlight of the movie is the story itself. The main bulk of the story takes place in about half an hour, but the tale repeats itself as the three separate storylines intersect and diverge multiple times until finally colliding towards the end. The movie is filled with lots of action and comedy and running and car chases, so when the movie's on a roll, it's unbeatable. Unfortunately, SABU occasionally slows down the pace with prolonged "mood setting" scenes. For the most part, these scenes don't add anything to the story or understand of the characters, so I personally think they could have cut everything to have a very fast-paced 1 hour movie. But other than these minor pacing problems, I thought it was overall a fun movie.


Cast of Characters

Main Cast (V6) and Special Cast Members

Summary (Spoilers)

Movie Timeline
Follows the sequence of events as shown in the movie.
Chronological Timeline
Follows the sequence of events in actual chronological time.


DVD Information

The DVD (AVBD-91166, 3980 yen) includes the 79 minute movie, music videos for "Darling", "Tsuyoku nare", and "Hard Luck Hero", plus short interviews with SABU and each of the V6 members. As a special treat, the movie also includes English subtitles. I know! I don't even have to pretend to think while watching. The DVD is region 2, however, so make sure that you have a way to play multiple regions on your DVD player.



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