This raucous celebration of an ancient Japanese drama tradition doesn’t at first sound like it would translate well to foreign viewers. Sure the tradition practiced by the film’s wacky protagonists called Rakugo is a comedic art, but the idiomatic, one-man storytelling act looks fairly impenetrable even to those steeped in Japanese puns. Luckily, Wakeful Nights (retranslated from A Hardest Night!) drips with enough pathos, slapstick and dirty and bizarre jokes to charm most cynics.

The course of the film follows a troupe of Rakugo actors as they hold a succession of traditional Japanese wakes. As the sake flows, out come hilarious anecdotes and bursts of magic realism  as the actors reminisce about the wild  lives of the departed. First to expire is the troupe’s master. Though he really only wanted to see outside, the numbskull troupe mistakenly interprets his last request to glimpse one last “honey pot” of a young lady. After some goading from her husband, one character flashes her stuff at the bedridden old man. “Three minutes later our master was dead.” Strange sexy situations like this abound in this odd little film, but there a real moments of powerful emotion as the characters hold their drunken vigils and let all their unfettered love pour out. And the dirty perversions of traditional Japanese folk songs packed with racy jokes come on almost non-stop. It’s both an irreverent look at a classic drama form—and no doubt a lasting ode to the art form-- but it’s also accessible for anyone who doesn’t have the faintest idea about Rakugo.