This film takes a very unique approach to storytelling from the start, with its meandering script that winds through a night in the lives of seedy, hedonistic characters whose activities range from deprived addiction, murder, prostitution, violence and robberies. The film's start is very disjointed from the eventual plot, as through the director had started making a film other than that which makes up most of Junk Food.

It opens with a story about a salary woman (or "O.L." as they are called in Japan) who is addicted to meth. She has various sexual liaisons which result in a sort of playful foray into killing and the situations she enters in pursuit of drugs leave her vulnerable to violence. This ends abruptly but with closure and a story about Japanese "gaijin" and youth gangs begins. One character has an urn filled with the ashes of his friend, he and a Japanese-American prostitute are sort of party-hopping while looking for a proper place to lay the ashes of the deceased to rest. Another simultaneous storyline follows a Pakistani immigrant's decision to rob a pachinko payout to settle his debt to the man who had conned him into coming to Japan and pursue a living. It becomes quite obvious that this character isn't happy in Japan (although his spoken Japanese is excellent) as we see him turn his final tender moments with an unappreciative lover to violence and murder. We also have interspersed through this the story of a common street tough who is introducing a couple would-be newcomers to his gang. This isn't a group to be anything so perspicacious or accomplished as the Yakuza portrayed in film, but egotistical, horny, hot blooded "chinpira" hoods whose greatest exploits seem to be petty crime and riding around in hydraulic suspension low riders. Each storyline closes in personal reflection and the story is sort of "book-ended" by the early AM routine of a blind woman, played by the director's mother. It's things like that which make this film so great, its common place happenings amongst the poverty-stricken and destitute characters and its ambitious portrayal of the quiet grievances of each person. It's well paced and uniquely filmed and very worth watching. Junk Food fits in well with Miike's own Ley Lines (1999) or his Young Thugs films (1997, 1998) for easy comparison, but has the free flowing script in the style of Larry Clark & Harmony Korine's "Kids" (1995). Very seldom is contemporary Japanese poverty given this sort of treatment in film, that in itself makes this film noteworthy.

Similar to Chunking Express, Junk Food consists of four, instead of two, intertwining stories. The first and fourth sections show the morning routine of an blind, old Japanese woman, waking up, buying bread and milk, praying at the family alter; however, it is the second segment where the true story begins.

The segment begins with a pretty woman dressed only in a man's shirt and panties sitting on a floor within the environs of a dilapidated building. After smoking some drugs, the woman makes her way over to a bed where she ties up the man slumbering there. The man believes that they are going to engage in some kinky sex, including asphyxiation with a plastic bag, however, the woman proceeds to strangle the man to death with a cord.

Leaving the ramshackle building, the woman, Miyuki, makes her way to work. Miyuki is quite attractive, but she suffers from a constantly runny nose and her personal demeanor is quite abrasive. Even within the environs of her upscale workplace, Miyuki indulges in her addiction. However, after discovering she has used all of her stash, she at first demands money from her boss, who she slept with in the past, and approaches a number of people to find her drugs, including prostitutes dressed as schoolgirls and a number of other people. She eventually finds someone with the goods, but the price she pays for the drugs is quite high.

The third part, the longest and most convoluted, depicts the lives of several immigrants in Japan: a Chinese-American prostitute, Pakistanis, a Mexican female wrestler, and several individuals of mixed blood. The segment is quite violent, but because of the way it jumps between characters, one is unable to truly feel for or identify with any of the characters. However, Junk Food is important because of its depiction of minorities in Japan, a subject that is more often than not swept under the rug. Yet, I think the film would have been stronger if it focused solely on Miyuki.

Filmed primarily with digital cameras, Junk Food is quite grainy, however, like Anno's Love & Pop and the Okinawa scenes in All About Lily Chou Chou the use of digital cameras gives the film a realistic edge that cannot be found in more polished products. If you get the chance, check out the film. However, if you are truly interested in the depiction of minorities in Japanese film watch Iwai's Swallowtail Butterfly or some of Imamura Shohei's early films.