Indie filmmaker Kazuo Kono brings us the short comedy "Suzuki & Co."

by Chris MaGee

Sometimes you have to dig through a lot of crap online to come up with something promising, and that definitely goes for Japanese short films. On one of my exploratory trips through YouTube this week I came up with a lot of American fan made yakuza and J-horror films, student video projects, the ubiquitous softcore gravure idol videos, but in amongst all that I came across this trailer for a 12-minute comedy by independent filmmaker Kazuo Kono titled "Suzuki and Co." Kono himself stars in the short as a man who's recently been laid off. In his attempt to find work he answers a want ad for a small one man internet auction company that sells watches and other curios on the web.

"Suzuki and Co." has already do the rounds of a number of independent fests like the Starsbourg International Film Festival and the Continental Drift International Short Film Festival, and Kono is getting ready to screen it as part of this year's 4th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival which began yesterday and runs until May 3rd in St. Petersburg, Florida. This might be a candidate for the annual Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival, you never know.

You can find out more about Kono and "Suzuki & Co." at the film's official site here.