What's Up Connection (1990)

"Everyone is a jerk!"

What’s Up Connection was a bizarre film by Yamamoto Masashi that felt like it was made up as they went along. Set primarily in Hong Kong with a side trip to Tokyo, the film focused on a family of grifters and con artists attempting to save their homes from developers.

Chi Gau Shin wins a trip for two to Japan. Coincidentally, his mother wins a trip to Bali and his dad a trip to Thailand. No one thinks anything is suspicious about this. Gau Shin’s lover refuses to go with him because he’d rather go to Disneyland than shopping. Upon arriving in Japan, he discovers that his guide is new, speaks only broken Cantonese, and works for a cut rate company. Very cut rate. After a disappointing trip, culminating in being robbed, Gau Shin finally makes it home, with his tour guide and robber in tow. Once home, he discovers that a big corporation is buying everyone out and his girlfriend is now sleeping with one of the developers. His family has to decide whether to take the deals offered or fight.

What’s Up Connection showed a view of Japan rarely seen. Yamamoto filmed real homeless encampments and people. In Hong Kong, the problem of real estate development on low-income people was attested to. Relations between Hong Kong and Japan were also mentioned. The rest of the film was a migraine of a mess. There was an abundance of random action, noises, and bright colors. Characters were ill-defined and for the most part not terribly likeable. It was a world with an 8-year-old hacker, a mother who became angry when her kids went to school, pirate costumes, a UFO, blow up sex dolls, and one character who was played by two different actors.

This type of chaotic film with random nonsense bolting across the screen for two hours was not something I could enjoy. It had some entertaining moments and the family’s solution to its problem was interesting but not enough for me to recommend unless Yamamoto’s creative outlook on the world is your jam. There are plenty of people who love his unconventional style, so if you are one, this film might be one to check out.

17 July 2025
Triggers: Bare butt and a masturbation scene.

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