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People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan

5/10

Stars: Allan Mustafa, Asim Chaudry, Steve Stamp, Lily Brazier, Hugo Chegwin, Daniel Sylvester Woolford, Hitomi Sono

Director: Jack Clough

BBC3's dim-witted but aggressively ambitious boys from Brentford are back with their first film feature. Having quit their pirate radio station, Kurupt.FM, the lads, led by MC Grindah (Mustafa) and their agent Chabuddy G (Chaudry), are suddenly torn from their lucrative new jobs as postman, bowling alley barman, street trader etc, when one of their (two) garage punk tracks, Bang, is used as backdrop to a Japanese TV game show, and proves a countrywide hit.

Tokyo calls and the boys, joined later by Grindah's photo-obsessed wife Miche (Brazier), are only too happy to rally to the call.

Despite the expected flow of bad language, the result is a good-natured, sublimely silly romp during which weed-happy Steves (Stamp) - the equivalent to Dopey in the Seven Dwarfs - falls for a Japanese girl (Sono) two feet shorter; Grindah finds his mates walking out in protest at wearing fancy costumes (and seeing him get all the limelight); and Chabuddy goes on the run after treating the entire hotel clientele to drinks under the mistaken idea that he can put the bill on his room tab.

A few smiles and a fast pace help decorate some decent character studies of our all-too-likely laddoes. If it's on the rough and ready side, and pays little attention to logic or continuity, you've certainly seen worse, and it should keep the show's many niche fans happy enough.

David Quinlan

UK 2020. UK Distributor: Universal (BBC Films/Focus). Colour (unspecified).
97 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 1, Swearing 3.

Review date: 16 Aug 2021