In Hollywood they would call this flick “high concept,” which is a hilarious term because it essentially means low concept or inane idea. “High concept” means you take one simple or silly notion and base a whole film on it. In this comedy, the theme is that the first of April is the one day you’re allowed to “lie”—that is, play jokes on people.

With a huge cast of 27 main actors split into seven different episodes, the pic flits about between stories and atmospheres. The main narrative focuses on Ayumi (Erika Toda), a cleaning woman at a hospital who suffers from a fear of people. The extremely shy lass has a one-nighter with doctor Makino (Tori Matsuzaka), who is a sex addict, and finds herself pregnant.

Other scenarios include a pair of high school best friends, one of whom comes out as gay; a stupid kidnapper snatching an elementary school girl and botching it badly; a guy who left Japan 42 years earlier and finally comes home; and a junior high school kid who believes in aliens.

TV director Junichi Ishikawa tries to make the whole mess entertaining, but it’s unclear if this just a bad April Fools’ joke. Unfunny and fairly absurd, there is little to keep the viewer glued to the screen. (120 min)