Arrested Memory

A deliberate return to the poignant genre farces that defined writer-director SABU’s early career, Arrested Memory is a delightful confluence of his signature scenarios. Multi-pronged chases, mistaken/disordered identities, ruminations of guilt, dance numbers, the irreverent interventions of both incompetent police and hapless Yakuza — they’re all here. As is Shin’ichi Tsutsumi, who led SABU’s first five films from Dagan Runner to Drive, and is now among the many intimidating foils barking “baka” (idiot) at the filmmaker’s patented put-upon protagonist.

In the wake of a disastrous sting operation, veritable supercop Detective Lee (Ethan Juan) is hit with a medical diagnosis of onset memory loss that salts his already wounded spirit. But before anyone can be briefed on his condition, Lee is assigned to a new case and finds himself without a clue — both literally and figuratively.

Suddenly entrusted with a multimillion-dollar ransom for the son of a Japanese magnate (Tsutsumi) but with no recollection of either its source or intended recipient, Lee’s deteriorating mind soon propels him on a nocturnal odyssey. Pursued by both cops and crooks, the absent-minded officer must rely on his investigative instincts and martial prowess, as he is guided by an innate impulse to serve and protect, and that special comedic kismet that SABU so skilfully divines.

That Arrested Memory comes to us now on the 30th anniversary of SABU’s first feature marks a welcome opportunity to celebrate one of Japan’s most remarkable pulp-fiction practitioners, and to relish his latest rocambolesque romp of action, romance, and those fates that doth conspire.

PETER KUPLOWSKY

Content advisory: suicide, self-harm, accident trauma, coarse language, drug use, violence