Humor, it is said, is universal. Most times it is not. The humor that travels best, I sometimes think, is not “universal” humor at all, but humor that grows so specifically out of one culture that it reaches other cultures almost by seeming to ignore them. The best British comedies were the very specifically British films like The Lavender Hill Mob and School for Scoundrels. The best Italian comedies were local products like Seduced and Abandoned. The funniest French films were by Tati, who seemed totally absorbed in himself. And this very, very Japanese movie, which seems to make no effort to
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