Review: I don’t know if every late night TV show in Japan is like this, or if “Vermilion Pleasure Night” is just one of a kind, but I certainly have not come across anything like this before. Created by Yoshimasa Ishibashi, VPN was at first a very simple project, but the positive response was much bigger than expected, turning this small project into something enormously popular. Some clips are now running gags within Japanese culture and some now have their own series, such as The Fuccon Family.

"Family", "Food", "Anger" and "Fear and Love" are the titles of the four segments that are introduced by the non-Japanese host. Each clip does not exactly have a direct connection with the others, but some of them appear in more than one segment, such as “The Zombie Family”, “The Fuccon Family”, and “Midnight Cooking”. The quality of the shows varies from weirdly incomprehensible, to extremely funny. If you are fan of Japanese design and visual arts, you will be impressed and fascinated by most of the shows, as the visual aspect holds a strong place in most of the clips. Some of the clips are simply music videos with varying mixtures of visual stimuli, traditional style, and electronic music.

Like with most compilations of this sort, there are those parts that you enjoy and the unavoidable parts that you simply do not. The most memorable segments include The Fuccon Family, most of the music videos, and Starship Residence. The Fuccon Family, for those unfamiliar with it, is the story of a foreign family of three who have just moved to Japan. What is so exceptional about this family is that its members, being close clones to Barbie and Ken, are portrayed by mannequins instead of real actors. Their family values are very strict and old fashion, and the clips tend to focus on a variety of topics such as “Mickey” (the son) wanting a dog, “Father” is having an affair, or my personal favourite so far, Mickey Exorcising! The show, which always ends with canned laughter sound that starts to get on the nerves after a while, is very fascinating and funny, but again, the humour quality is not always up to the same level in each clip.

“Starship Residence” features a strange Alien with an over sized head who lives peacefully in its space ship. It just so happens that its space ship resembles a domesticated house from the inside. He usually receives unexpected visits from gorgeous Alien women who try to sell him different kinds of things or services. However, the situation usually takes a turn for the worse when the Alien finds himself loosing control of the situation in a humorous manner. “Zombie Family” features a family of zombies, consisting of a mother and her two daughters, who are trying to deal with regular family problems. Things usually end up with the two daughters having an axe through their heads. “Midnight Cooking” is a special series that mixes Enka (traditional Japanese song genre) karaoke-style and cooking TV shows. There is even a special episode that features tips on how to prepare a human body for dinner; very educational. The Color of Life also includes many music videos and a lot of other strange, grotesquely black humour filled clips that I just can’t find the words to describe, but are still very fascinating to watch.

If you are not familiar with Japanese humour, or you just don’t like it, I would not recommend Colour of Life to you. Submission to curiosity, though, may lure the uninitiated, but many will probably find themselves totally alienated by this colourful spectacle of short films. However, while this may not be for everyone’s taste, The Colour of Life should be able to find its audience amongst those who are interested in weird and colourful Japanese designs, short art clips, and whatever strange things Japanese TV can produce. The DVD is also a great introduction for those who are interesting in purchasing the Fuccon Family, under the name of “Oh! Mickey” and “Vermilion Pleasure Night”, as both series are also available on DVD with English subtitles.