Hirsute sad-sack Ukon (Takayuki Yamada) and his only friend, Ushiyama (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa), a kindhearted oddball, are hired by an aging nationalist to dig for the Shogun’s buried gold, so he can restore Japan’s Imperial honor. When Ushiyama finds a rusty old robot and Ukon’s tech-savvy younger brother Sakon (Takeru Satoh) revives it, they name him Robo and take him to work. Robo is a gifted gold miner, but it’s only when his new companions are attacked one night that his true talents emerge, in a flash of blinding light. Nobuhiro Yamashita’s first sci-fi-inflected outing is also a mirthful drama about loneliness, male bonding, female lust, and doing the right thing.