Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald

"Japanese" and "madcap comedy" look uncomfortable together, but in Koki Mitani's debut, the marriage of fast-paced physical humor with gentle mocking of Japanese culture works so well, you wonder that nobody thought of it before.

Timid housewife Miyako Suzuki (Kyoka Suzuki) has won a radio-drama scriptwriting contest, and some of Japan's top actors are going to perform it live. Five minutes before air time, lead actress Nokko Senbon (Keiko Toda) decides to change her character's name from Ritsuko to Mary Jane -- and instead of a fisherman's wife, she'll be a big-time New York lawyer. From there, the script suffers countless changes (the leading man pilfers his new name from a fast-food lunch, hence the film's title), morphing from a sweet love story into a gun-loaded adventure with bursting dams and lost space shuttles. Creating chaos with flawless comedic timing, Mitani also smirks at Japan's strict social structure: the show's director (Toshiaki Karasawa) will do anything to please his actors, but when Suzuki demands her happy ending, he rebels against his boss to give it to her. Here's a feel-good comedy from Japan that rivals anything Hollywood has offered up in years.

-- Jumana Farouky