Kakabakaba Ka Ba?

The film begins in 1964 at the Manila International Airport, Onota (Boboy Garovillo), a member of the yakuza, arrives in the Philippines but the checkpoint denied his entry when he was caught by the customs where they found out that he smuggles diamonds hidden in a Japanese doll. Five years later, in 1969, he tried it again and disguised himself as a Japanese hippie but he was caught again by the customs because they discovered that he would smuggle dollars hidden in his guitar. Seven years later, in 1976, he disguised again and cross-dressed himself as a Japanese woman wearing a kimono (specifically, a geisha) but unfortunately, he was caught again when they discovered he would smuggle opium hidden and strapped inside in his kimono sash.

In present-day Japan (1980), Onota has given a chance by his boss, the Japanese Grand Master (George Javier), after he failed his missions on smuggling diamonds, dollars, and opium in the Philippines in three respective periods. These failures led to Onota cut his fingers as punishment for not achieving the goals.

Kakabakaba Ka Ba? was released in the Philippines on August 8, 1980 by LVN Pictures. The film made its international release, starting in Japan on January 31, 1993. Aside from Japan, the film was also released in France on July 4, 2008, and Italy on May 6, 2011, as part of the Udine Far East Film Festival.

The film was commissioned by ABS-CBN Corporation to be digitally restored and remastered by L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy and was supervised by Davide Pozzi. This is the first film in the ABS-CBN Film Archives entirely done abroad. The restored version of the film was re-released with in select cinemas on December 9, 2015. It also received an overseas release in Japan on October 26, 2017 as part of the Cross-Cut Asia exhibition for the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival in Tokyo, Japan.[2][3]

The restored version of the film made its television premiere on ABS-CBN's late-night special presentation program, Sunday's Best, on July 2, 2017, at 11:15 PM. It was the first film to be broadcast under the Restored Classics banner. According to the Kantar Media-TNS statistics, the showing attained a 2.9% nationwide audience share.

Kenji Ishizaka, the program director of the Cross Cut Asia section, loved watching the film when it first premiered in the Japanese mainland in 1991. The program director was then part of the Japan Foundation at the time of the release. He described the film as "a high-quality musical" and he felt that most of the classic films, including Kakabakaba Ka Ba?, should be watched by the younger generations.[2]