2LDK

DVD: featurette

Street: July 13, Prebook: now

First Run: L Int'l., May 2004, NA

Cast: Maho Nonami, Eiko Koike

Director: Yukihiro Tsutsumi

Story Line: Roommates and aspiring actresses Lana (Nonami) and Kima (Koike) are both up for the female lead in a yakuza film--and both are competing for the same man. One night, a minor argument metastasizes into psychological warfare, which in turn leads to a full-fledged battle to the death.

Bottom Line: A number of old Laurel and Hardy shorts, built around a plot gimmick called "reciprocal destruction," found the boys pitted against their perennial adversaries in tit-for-tat exchanges that began with minor insults or misunderstandings and gradually escalated to home-demolishing battles royale. 2LDK, a dazzling tour de force by young Japanese filmmaker Tsutsumi, takes the same premise to the nth degree, with the fiercely competitive roommates at first exchanging mildly catty insults and eventually going after each other with power tools. A two character show that unfolds in one location--the Tokyo apartment referred to in the title, which stands for "two bedrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen"--this black comedy has verve and creativity to spare, expanding on its one basic situation until there's literally nowhere else to go with it. 2LDK has "cult hit" written all over it; the absurdity of the conflict and the cartoonish, almost surreal violence is bound to make it a favorite with Asian-film devotees and young, hip viewers. Word-of-mouth within these constituencies should make the film a top renter. --Ed Hulse

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