Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers

Satoshi Miki's 2005 Japanese comedy opens with a housewife so bored she takes up espionage. Suzume spends her days on chores and on her husband's pet turtle until she sees an advertisement for spies and calls; she is hired, and learns that the job has one rule, which is to draw no attention. She is being asked, in other words, to keep doing what her life already consists of, now as an official assignment. That is exactly the joke. Miki's humour is not loud; it is built on static frames, odd details and deadpan performance. Juri Ueno and Yu Aoi manage to be funny without breaking the rhythm. The story has no interest in arriving anywhere, and that is deliberate. Who it's for: viewers who like Japanese absurdist comedy and films driven by atmosphere and strangeness rather than plot. Who it's not for: anyone wanting joke density and pace, or who will count a comedy that never resolves as time wasted.