The Handsome Suit
The Handsome Suit
| 01 November 2008 (USA)
The Handsome Suit Trailers

An overweight cook is given the opportunity to woo the girl of his dreams when he is given a "handsome suit" that transforms him into an idealized human being in this absurd Japanese comedy.

Reviews
BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See
Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
nmegahey Every day Takuro has to live with the ugly reality of who he is. Underneath we're sure he's a lovely man, but the surface appearance and behaviours aren't exactly attractive. Running a cheap diner out Osaka direction, you'd have to admit that he's a bit of a loser; overweight, with disgusting habits, a thick provincial accent and he's not much to look at either. Basically, he's ugly.No one, least of Takuro, or the hundreds of women who have shunned and fled from his advances would dispute that. A pretty new waitress, Hiroko, can see beneath the thick surface, but even she is disappointed when Takuro declares his love for her. How can he show them all the real Takuro? Fortunately, there's an experimental new suit not yet on the market - the Handsome Suit - and Takuro's appearance makes him the ideal candidate to try it out. Just keep it away from hot water!Tsutomu Hanabusa's The Handsome Suit has much of the highly-stylised and ultra colourful manga/anime visual language of Tetsuya Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls), but director Tsutomu Hanabusa never lets the cartoonish special effects overpower the sincerity of the message, or the brilliance of the comedy. The message, of course, is an obvious one - we've all seen Shrek - but it sometimes what's important is how you get it across.
moviewizguy The film is about an "ugly" guy who gets to wear a suit that makes him handsome.I didn't really know what to expect from this film because it's the first foreign romantic comedy film that I've seen. To my surprise, it's not at all different from the style of a romantic comedy that comes from the U.S. I thought it was a funny and sweet film with a few dumb jokes, like the one where our protagonist sticks his finger up his nose every time he thinks. That was so unnecessary.The predictability is also there, especially the twist in the end, but that doesn't make the film bad at all. Muga Tsukaji gives a comedic performance, although he isn't that good at being dramatic. Keiko Kitagawa, his potential love interest, good and beautiful as well.One problem I had with the film is that the third act resolves itself a little too quickly. Our protagonist faces a predicament that has been going on for probably a third of the film's running time and it gets resolved in seconds...literally. It's exactly a deus ex machina!Another problem I had with the film is that our protagonist is so shallow. It takes him so many times to learn the message of "beauty is skin deep" that when you think he finally got the message to his head, he's STILL talking about how ugly he is and how nobody would like him. That was truly frustrating.But other than those two flaws, I enjoyed the film for what is it. It's funny and sweet, although sometimes shallow.
Lawson Against all odds, I really, really liked this movie. It's all kinds of silly cheesy that could never be pulled off with a Hollywood production but coming from Japan, it all seems to work.An ugly man who can't find love (or so he thinks) gets the offer to try on a Handsome Suit, which essentially completely transforms him into a hunk. He then juggles his new life as a top model as well as his old life of running a little restaurant. Eventually he has to choose one or the other, but the decision isn't as clear-cut as one might think.All the characters are just so darned lovable. They overact but it's completely appropriate for this movie and doesn't nauseate me at all. And the movie's message is a positive one, about how looks aren't and shouldn't be everything, whether you're hideous or gorgeous.Of course there are flaws to the movie, including weak arguments for the message in some scenes, a too-long runtime at 2 hours, and the sole cringey scene in which the hero makes a very public announcement that he's giving up his good looks, but I exited the theater with a big smile on my face, and I made the prediction that after a while, I'd have forgiven the movie's weaknesses, and I have.
8thSin This comedy movie is about an incredibly fat and ugly guy who gets to try a prototype suit that makes anyone handsome.As you would expect, the film shows that what's inside is more important than looks. And as you would expect... this movie is very cheesy.It was pretty funny as a comedy, but there's not much more to it. Kitagawa Keiko's acting was horrible as usual, contributing even more into the cheesiness of this film.There were some positive aspects in this movie though. It had a very fast pace that kept me interested throughout the runtime, and Tanihara Shousuke, who I consider to be a very inconsistent actor, performed very well in my opinion.The casting (other than Kitagawa Keiko), were very well-done. Although many of them are poor actors, they looked the part. The many, many cameos were very entertaining, and I was especially pleased to see the cameo appearance by LEGENDARY Watanabe Misato singing "My Revolution".