Saving Shuli-San, the sequel to the Israeli mega-hit Saving Shuli, hits theaters Thursday, promising more fun from the Mah Kashur comedy trio (Tzion Baruch, Asi Israelof, and Shalom Michaelshwilli). Saving Shuli, which sold over a million tickets in Israel during the pandemic, was an Israeli fish-out-of-water story about three friends who go to Colombia to rescue one of their sons, who has been kidnapped by a drug kingpin.
In the new movie, Shuli (David Shaul) gets kidnapped again by gangsters in Japan, so that’s where the father and his friends head to. If you guessed that they have to dress up like geishas or that they go to a traditional Japanese bathhouse as they search, you would be correct. They also encounter yakuza, ninja, samurai, and a female robot.
It’s all a little like Romancing the Stone meets Eretz Nehederet (Wonderful Country), and if you like the Mah Kashur trio, then you are the target audience. If not, well, you can check out clips on TikTok, where Saving Shuli-San was uploaded in its entirety in segments.
Releasing a movie during a war
The creators are mindful of the sensitivity of releasing the movie during a war, when 50 people kidnapped from Israel are still being held in Gaza, and released a statement that said: “At such a complex time for the people of Israel, the role of comedy creators is to allow viewers a moment of relief, of a smile, of a breath. An hour and a half of humor is not an escape from reality – it is a way to digest it. And yet, Saving Shuli-San has now added another layer: a resounding reminder that we must do everything – but everything – to bring all the kidnapped people home.”
Advance tickets are on sale, a rarity for an Israeli movie, and are reportedly selling briskly.