I am currently studying in Japan for the summer, and I had seen a thousand billboards advertising the colorful movie "Maiko Haaan!!" When Wednesday rolled around (and women could see movies for 1000 yen instead of 1800),I knew I wanted to see that. I'm so glad I did. In all honesty, I could not keep up with most of the dialogue (I've only studied for 2 years, after all),but even without it, I was laughing so hard throughout the entire film. It's rather slapstick, so most of the humor was action based and didn't require words. In the movie, a Maiko (young geisha) obsessed office worker has a dream - to spend an evening with a Maiko. Though it sounds simple, in typical Japanese fashion, craziness soon ensues. A Broadway style musical number, a "success" war between the main character and his rival (where they try to out-awesome each other by becoming boxers, baseball players, and even politicians),and a cute little maiko army is just a handful of what you'll see in this movie. Hopefully, this'll be released on DVD with English subtitles and the US can enjoy this movie as much as I did.

I'm a huge fan of Japanese comedies. I'm also a huge fan of Kou Shibasaki. Needless to say, I was really excited to see Maiko Haaaan at my earliest convenience. Some extremely positive reviews added fuel to my fire, but that anticipation began to wane within the first 10 minutes of watching this film.

To be frank, the biggest problem is the main actor – Sadao Abe. This guy proves to be extremely annoying with his persistent, hysterical screaming. When I looked up his filmography I got flashbacks of other irritating performances. Remember Ryuji the Unicorn from the excellent "Kamikaze Girls" (2004)? Well, he was easily the most annoying actor in that one. Remember that psycho kid from the great "Uzumaki" (2000)? Well, he was easily the most annoying actor in that film as well. Seriously, they should have found someone else for Maiko Haaaan and ramped down the unnecessary shrieking, because he single-handedly destroys the enjoyability of this film. Kou Shibasaki is great as always, but she's got nothing to work with here.

Another big negative is the script, which is shamelessly weak. The greatest strength of Japanese comedies is the scriptwriting. Trust me, no country outside of Japan could come up with "Survive Style 5" (2004). Maiko Haaaan is reminiscent of Wong Jing's Hong Kong comedies that use cheap hysterical behavior for comedy. Just pump your lead actor full of caffeine and have him scream and jump around. It simply doesn't work that well. Now, there are a few funny moments to be had (like the ramen noodle sponsored baseball game),but for the most part it ranges between cringeworthy and mediocre.

Listen, there are a bunch of much better Japanese comedies out there to see before this one: "Swing Girls" (2004),"Kamikaze Girls" (2004),"Survive Style 5" (2004),"Happiness of the Katakuris" (2001),"What Did the Lady Forget?" (1937),"Sukeban Boy" (2006),"Ohayo" (1959),the "Trick" television series, "Cutie Honey" (2004),"Bubble Fiction" (2007),"Warm Water Under the Red Bridge" (2001),"Karaoke Terror" (2003),"Crazy Lips" (2000),and "Adrenaline Drive" (1999) to name but a few.

I never thought a Japanese comedy movie could be so good... Especially on a field (Geisha) which I had absolutely no interest in. The lead, Abe Sadao is simply amazing. His face is so disgusting, yet he can make such good emotions, perfect for an Otaku (something-nerd, Geisha-nerd in this case). It's amusing Yamada Takayuki cameos in this movie, because Abe Sadao would've made a WAAAY better Densha Otoko.

This is a really silly movie, it's a story that can NEVER happen in real life, but it's executed so well that it's not cheesy at all, unlike many other Japanese comedy movies I've seen that failed. The story and script for this film is really something.

The cast for this movie is really impressive. So many established actors and popular actors who could be in leading roles participate as supporting cast.

This is a really well-directed movie that had me teary eyed after around 30 minutes. Mostly from laughing too hard, but some scenes and plots near the end though, was really touching. Easily the best Japanese comedy movie of 2007.