I loved it and I laughed a lot, but its best joke depends on understanding Japanese. Rinko is left abandoned when her parents divorce and she ends up working for an Adult Video production company... but she's ignorant about the world and talks like a princess. Her family had been rich. She's aghast when a hotel won't take her Ultra-Gold card, for instance, even though it's accepted all over the world. They want cash? She's never carried that!

Similarly, on finding a job (after repeated failures), she asks what her new employer does.

"We make Adult Videos."

"Adult Videos??"

"Yes."

"What are those?"

Other ex-classmates of hers are equally over the top. This could make you laugh in any language, but a big part of it was how they speak. I love Rinko's dialogue. Just hearing her talk as if attending a royal reception was in itself, for me, funny.

Rinko's tougher than you'd think. She sleeps in a plastic hippo in the children's play area in the park. "Newspapers are surprisingly warm!" She's also determined to find work and support herself. Whatever the job, she'll do her best! Fortunately for her, she's only hired as production staff and and never has to get naked or have sex, despite one or two near-misses when she was in danger of becoming a porn actress. SHE HAS NO CLUE. On first observing sex, she faints. She disapproves of swallowing semen, because milk is more nutritious and efficient. Nonetheless, she holds boom mikes, interrupts filming to explain that fellatio isn't a medical examination technique and so on.

It's charming and witty. There's a brief interlude in silent movie style. The film's even educational, e.g. teaching Rinko the recipe for fake semen. (You need egg white and condensed milk.)

Admittedly, not everyone agrees with me here. Reading other reviews, I saw comments like "most of the actors phoned it in" and "there wasn't a real plot". Everyone agrees that the film can be funny, but some wanted it to be funnier. Personally, though, I loved it. I identified with Rinko and empathised with her determination in this unconventional job. You could even call it wholesome. Her colleagues protect her, e.g. after one actress objects to the presence of female staff. She only performs in front of men. That makes Rinko cry, because she's come to take her job seriously. There's also a little darker content, with a discussion of the working life of porn actresses and an encounter with three rapists who think you can do anything you like to someone in that industry.

The film's sympathetic towards women and to the industry's difficulties. It's often funny and Rinko herself is relatable. Apparently, the manga's good and only five volumes long, so I might well read that too. The film even got a sequel the following year (Rinko Eighteen: Look For The Idol!), but unfortunately I haven't yet found a copy...