Mickey Curtis and a robot become one in new comedy by Shinobu Yaguchi

by Chris MaGee

With its technology boom of the 1980's Japan and robots have been synonymous in many people's minds. In recent years cyberneticists have turned their attention to helping with Japan's aging population with robots who can tend to the elderly, but we don't think anyone ever thought of sticking an old man into a robot before. Leave that not to a cyberneticist, but to director Shinobu Yaguchi.

This week Tokyograph reported that Yaguchi, the same man who brought us the feel-good hit "Waterboys", is working on a new film with veteran actor Mickey Curtis. Titled “Robo-G” the film will tell the story of a three cyberneticists, played by Gaku Hamada, Shogo Kawai and Junya Kawashima, who suffer a horrible setback on the eve of an important robotics presentation. It turns out that the ultra-sophisticated robot they create crashes the night before so they are left with no choice... but to put an old man in a robot costume(?) We're not making this up, folks. Stepping into the robot costume is 72-year-old Curtis, now going by the screen name of Shinjiro Igarashi.

An odd twist for sure, but we'll have to wait until next year when "Robo-G" gets released in Japanese theatres to see if it will bring the big laughs.