In Nakano's last outing with the amazing and very underrated "Samurai Fiction," he gave us a hip mix of equal parts Akira Kurasawa and Doug Limon in a Tomoyasu Hotei infused rock and roll paced epic. While most people dismissed it as a samurai parody rather than a comedy within the backdrops of feudal Japan, it's only now that many are discovering this fresh new director whose prolific music video resume includes the infamous club video "Groove is in the Heart" by Dee-Lite and the rock hit from Glay, "Be with you."

The sequel to "Samurai Fiction" is an even more ambitious film as his sophomore installment to the "SF" series. Taglined as "Episode 2002," "Stereo Future" is probably one of the most fun you'll have watching a film of this caliber all year. I have to admit, I was smiling all throughout the film because it was simply so fresh and beautiful and carried itself on an aloha wave of enthusiasm and optimism.

The cast definitely does a lot to help out "Stereo Future," though. Even with its great story and humor, the cast played itself well beyond the needs of the film. There was a certain element of class with each character and their delivery that ranges from outrageousness to absolutely adorable and cute.

My favorite parts of the film were the two female characters of Eri Momosaki (Akiko Monou) and Mika (Kumiko Aso.) While Monou was credited among the cast of "Samurai Fiction," it was pretty difficult to notice her as the Ninja Akakage. But in "Stereo Future," Nakano gave her the role of the female lead and she absolutely shines in the brightest of ways. Her profile on the train to the delightful and endearing flashback of Keisuke taking pictures of her in his apartment can totally make you fall in love with her in more ways than many. This is probably why the cover of "Stereo Future" has her profile holding an orange.

Kumiko Aso's role of Mika is a double whammy of cuteness as the second love interest to Keisuke as the lead actress on the set of film he's in. In one particular scene, we have a slightly beaten up Keisuke sitting on the stairs trying to take care of a nosebleed and Mika walks on up and puts a piece of tissue to his nose to stop the bleeding. As opposed to having the characters nose bleed when he's horny around a attractive girl, Nakano sets up this scenario to make fun of it. It's this type of subtle humor and play on Japanese culture that gives "Stereo Future" its more engaging and sweet qualities.

But the true driving force of the film is Masatoshi Nagase's role of Keisuke Katsura. With his forlorn face and his stereotypically Japanese gesticulations, he becomes more than just his comic character, but a representation of the overall premise of the film; a character of seasons that is slowly dying inside when he's not cultivating himself in his acting or being true to himself in life. Eri represents the sun in his life that he's willing to do anything in order to make her smile and lay upon him the rays of her aura and beauty. And even through all of this, everything comes winding down in a beautiful state as he does his best impersonation of Bruce Lee!

Running simultaneously with the filming of the most craziest, funniest samurai film ever, "Stereo Future's" present day mischief and mayhem is a cast full of eccentrics and hopefuls, living life fast and downright delirious. Hiroyuki Nakano's "Stereo Future" is hilarious, beautiful and quite possibly going to be my favorite film of 2002 (released in 2001) and it's still just January!

"Rainbow is Love"