Lala Pipo is the tale of six characters whose lives become coincidentally entangled within the Japanese sex industry. It’s directed by first-timer Masayuki Miyano but written by Tetsuya Nakashima, writer-director of kooky hits Kamikaze Girls and Memories of Matsuko, and while Lala Pipo shares those films’ eccentric characters, acid colour palette and surreal flourishes, it lacks their freshness and heart. Miyano clearly dislikes his characters - aging nympho, wanking fatty, horny but prudish would-be superhero - and without the warmth and redemption of Nakashima’s films this ends up being a mannered and spiteful freakshow.