Out of This World comes as a surprise from a director, Junji Sakamoto, who showed his talent for describing tough lives in a very gentle form. The film is set after the Second VWorld War, but life is comic and optimistic throughout. In 1947 Tokyo under American rule, jazz is just another American icon, like English and chewing gum. Five boys form a band, "Lucky Strikers" , named after a cigarette, and they try to get into the GI′s club, paying as much as an ordinary man′s one month salary per night, playing instruments they gọt for selling weapons. The film comically describes what "surviving" is, with its setting at a time when Asian values were crushed and new lifestyles were flowing in, by showing many different lives. At the same time, through the conflict between an American soldier who lost his brother during the war and a jazz band member, it also illustrates the basic relationship between Americans and Japanese of the period. Either way, the film is fresher than it is serious. Director Sakamoto uses a careful tempo, just like classic movies, to watch the characters becoming vibrant by absorbing each other. (Kim Young-jin)