Name: Pan'ya shuugeki
Genre: Short
Released: 1982-11-18
Duration: 17 min
Rating: 6

Absurdity is the guiding light in this neatly packaged short as we follow the rather abbreviated exploits of two university students who are driven by teenage angst, exposure to crime films, and misguided militancy to attack a bakery. Running throughout are hilariously dead-pan philosophical musings on the reasons for hunger and particular pairings of bakery fare. The laughable combination of the mundane and the abstract here should appeal to anyone who liked Tampopo. This short can be found on "Cinema 16", a collection of sixteen world short films; if acquired in this way, you can be treated to director Naoto Yamakawa's comments.

Japanese cinema is celebrated for its refined minimalist dramas and avant-garde experimentation; it also introduced popular genres like jidaigeki (samurai epics), kaiju, and anime. Across both high art and mass entertainment, it often explores morality, impermanence, and the pressures of modern life.

Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tôko Miura in Drive My Car (2021)

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

Two pals suffer from an insatiable hunger and decide to rob a local communist bakery run, occupied by a Wagner loving shop keep and a lone indecisive woman contemplating her next meal.

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Pan'ya shuugeki

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