Every day Takuro has to live with the ugly reality of who he is. Underneath we're sure he's a lovely man, but the surface appearance and behaviours aren't exactly attractive. Running a cheap diner out Osaka direction, you'd have to admit that he's a bit of a loser; overweight, with disgusting habits, a thick provincial accent and he's not much to look at either. Basically, he's ugly.
No one, least of Takuro, or the hundreds of women who have shunned and fled from his advances would dispute that. A pretty new waitress, Hiroko, can see beneath the thick surface, but even she is disappointed when Takuro declares his love for her. How can he show them all the real Takuro? Fortunately, there's an experimental new suit not yet on the market - the Handsome Suit - and Takuro's appearance makes him the ideal candidate to try it out. Just keep it away from hot water!
Tsutomu Hanabusa's The Handsome Suit has much of the highly-stylised and ultra colourful manga/anime visual language of Tetsuya Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls), but director Tsutomu Hanabusa never lets the cartoonish special effects overpower the sincerity of the message, or the brilliance of the comedy. The message, of course, is an obvious one - we've all seen Shrek - but it sometimes what's important is how you get it across.
