When Koichi (Sinichi Tsutsumi) awakes and discovers he can’t remember much, where he is, why he’s there and what happened the night before. Bits and pieces of the day before begin to phase in and out beginning with earlier the day before, Sunday. Briefly he remembers being at a funeral for a close friend who has just recently passed away at a very young age. At first this funeral plays out like any traditional Japanese service until the deceased man’s sister receives a phone call from the attending doctor. He explains that deceased man’s pacemaker is still on and that if they cremated him, it would explode. Things of course become worse when the doctor further adds that they would have to tend to it themselves because the doctor is on vacation. Koichi is chosen to open the deceased man’s chest and cut the red wire indicated by the doctor to cut. Ok, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where people who are in attendance are looked upon to do surgical activities. Simple really, cut the stitching on the man’s chest and the chest will open revealing the red wire in which he’s to cut, wrong. As Koichi cuts the stitching, the chest does open, but two red wires are unveiled. What to do next? Well, they decide that the sister must make the decision on which red wire to cut. Upon making her choice, Koichi then carefully cuts it and with ease smiles as everything at first seems fine. Until, the deceased man’s eyes open, of course spooking the hell out of everyone, they all start scattering away. Then within seconds the body explodes inside the coffin. This my friends, is only the beginning to the wacky tale directed by Japanese director Hiroyuki Tanaka or better known as Sabu.

As Koichi’s memory faintly comes and goes, we are then treated to the next event that he remembers. Having a drink in a bar, his attention is grabbed when the man beside him slurs out "THE BARTENDER ONLY HAS THREE MONTHS TO GO", and claims that he can read the auras of people. As the man reads Koichi’s palm, he begins to laugh and laugh and laugh to the point of Koichi starts as a few people in the bar follow afterwards. Koichi laughs so hard he accidentally hits the game with the marbles on it cause on of them to roll down the bar until it is grabbed by a beautiful woman, Yuko (Yasuko Matsuyuki). Sabu’s ability to set events into motion much like that of a domino effects is incredible. Simple choreography really, but it’s the extras sitting at the bar that make the scene all that much better. Koichi then walks into the washroom and of course keeping on eye on the young lady in the process. Once finished, he then comes back out of the washroom only to find things have changed a bit, the room is now loaded with Yakuza. Now your thinking, what a mind trip this film is, and that it is as many of the Sabu’s films are. Koichi sits quickly down at the edge of the bar hoping that Yakuza members would not notice him and go on about their business. Not so, this is a Sabu film and the Yakuza going about their own business is unheard of. The Yakuza boss sit beside him and to the back of them is the beautiful Yuko. The boss tells Koichi to have a drink, but that’s not in the best interest of him. He at first politely says no, but that doesn’t work as the boss tells him to drink. Basically the boss has a funny way of befriending someone in less authority. Koichi downs the drink and is offered another, this is when the trip begins. I can go on forever with re-telling the story, but I wouldn’t do it any justice, I just wanted to give you a brief inside look into MONDAY, which I might add is certainly one of Sabu’s best efforts to date.

Everything seems to work to a tee with MONDAY, everything from the acting especially the very intense at times portrayal of Koichi given by Sabu regular Shinichi Tsutsumi. Tsutsumi has also starred in Sabu’s first film DANGAN RUNNER as well as POSTMAN BLUES and his most recent effort DRIVE. Tsutsumi seems to be the perfect choice though, being able to quickly morph in front of the camera just like that. From mister nice guys to a guy at the end of his rope. Another Sabu alumni is present in MONDAY as well, Ren Osugi, who has pretty much starred in everyone of his films. I guess that tells you one thing, Sabu is loyal and that is one major attribute actors look for. Sabu seems to have such a laid back approach to dealing with both the actors and crew, and it shows as it seems to reflect on the overall product, something that is best displayed in MONDAY.

Other elements that put MONDAY in over drive include a great score or should I say soundtrack which is in the must part is music by Captain Funk. Electrica mixes with samples, the score is very energetic and really gets you into a scene. Again something Sabu seems to have down to an art, pretty much in the same ranks as a Quentin Tarantino, he has the ear for fitting scenes with the right sounds. Also, Sabu’s use of colours through lighting and gels to create the perfect atmospheres. Scenes like the bar, dimly lit, but yet highlighting the main characters in the scene. The washroom to the bar as well, bleeding red with death, almost foreshadowing the impending events yet to unfold. Also, one major trademark of Sabu’s is the often snails pace simply to give you the full gist of his often very effective cinematic domino effect unfolding. Something that is ever so present in many Sabu films and again is almost Tarantino like.

Now it wouldn’t be right to at least give you a brief over view of the rest of the film. After the pieces start to fit together Koichi starts to realize that things aren’t exactly going right. After getting the cold shoulder and look of death from one of the hotel porters when grabbing the paper from outside the door, he goes into another flashback. When coming out of it again, he is appalled. He is in denial as to what he learns he has possibly done. Killing a Yakuza boss and a small time thief followed with other out of character events. Thought he can deny all he wants, because once he looks at the front page of the morning paper, there he is holding a gun. Quickly he turns on the television, only to further his worst fears, plastered all over are reports of him being an alcoholic killer on the rampage. Reaching into his pockets he pulls out shot-gun shells, it only gets worse as he looks out the window of the hotel and there all over the place is swat teams and police vehicles. He falls back and knocks over the shotgun, which falls into his lap. His first thought, suicide and starts writing the letter for it. Now, this is as far as I want to go, I truly don’t want to spoil anything here, ruining a great film isn’t my forte.

The DVD itself is pretty much basic, but does have a video diary of the behind the scenes during the filming of MONDAY. There is a trailer attached as well as English subs to the film itself. The featurette does not have any English options. The film is presented in anamorphic wide screen and the audio is Japanese Digital Dolby 2.0. Both sound and picture are very reasonably clear and clean.