Me and Ichikawa movie premiere
8 p.m. Saturday, May 2
Oklahoma Contemporary | Oklahoma City
Me and Ichikawa, the latest imagining from the febrile imagination of local filmmaker Mickey Reece, plays a bit like a live-action version of Hayao Miyazaki anime. There are some elements here that would not be out of place at Miyazaki’s celebrated Studio Ghibli: a child protagonist, unintentionally neglectful parents, a big and cuddly imaginary pal. This time around, however, the aforementioned friend is a mildly insulting panda with a dead wife and a checkered past.
Screening 8 p.m. Saturday at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., Me and Ichikawa is another triumph for writer-director Reece, who manages to invigorate a microbudget domestic dramedy with wit and weirdness.
Elliot — the boy at the center played by Reece’s real-life son, Julien Cash Reece — lives with his frazzled mom, April (Lisa Renee Woods), and her moocher boyfriend (Reece himself). April must take on an additional job, prompting her to leave Elliot with his biological father, whose chief directive is to take the boy to school and to his therapist.
The therapy stems from Elliot’s friendship with Ichikawa, an imaginary panda — or a guy in a big panda costume — whose caricaturish Chinese accent is exactly what might be dreamed up by a lonely little boy who’s seen one too many movies. Only Ichikawa is not Jackie Chan — or Totoro, for that matter. The bear is on the rude side, enjoys a good poop joke as much as the next animal, and resides in Oklahoma, or what Elliot calls “the saddest place on Earth.”
Eddie, something of a frustrated artist himself, is an unconventional role model. As portrayed by Mason Giles — a Reece regular — this dad has the jittery vibe of a june bug trying to navigate a horse’s ass. He makes for an unlikely stripper and has questionable judgment when it comes to parenting.
But Eddie loves his son and means well. He also encourages Elliot to exercise his imagination and draw Ichikawa whenever he wants. Granted, Dad is a little concerned when Elliot confesses that the mouthy panda talks to him sometimes. “Just don’t talk back to him, OK?” says Eddie.
There are strange delights along the way. After a solid number of films under his figurative belt, Reece is comfortable with smartly choreographed camera movements, long takes and seemingly improvised dialog. Me and Ichikawa is funny, too. Eddie finds a unique way to dissuade Elliot from smoking, a scene that includes a brief but spellbinding turn by Philip Paz as a prison convict. Dallos Paz is hilarious as a Goth babysitter. Trust me, this father-son acting team is light years more interesting than, say, Tom and Colin Hanks.
Meanwhile, Ichikawa dispenses sage advice to his young friend, answering mysteries regarding love and parents. Of the latter, Ichikawa says, “They have kids so they can have chores done around the house and maybe have a do-over if they maybe didn’t win a baseball trophy.”
Mickey Reece, his talented son and the rest of the ensemble cast need no do-over. If Me and Ichikawa isn’t fully a home run, it’s a very impressive triple and further proof that this filmmaker deserves to be appreciated by a much, much wider audience.
Admission is $5 and includes free Titswiggle hand-crafted beers.
