The plot revolves around Daisuke Tateishi (played by Fujioka), an eccentric man with limited social skills and a devotion to Japanese culture who handles sound effects for ninja shows despite his exceptional physical abilities.

One day, he rescues a high school girl named Ayumi (Makita), but she and her grandfather Ryuzo (Watanabe) are under threat of eviction from their home by the local yakuza.

Pure Japanese emerged from Fujioka's decision to create and produce original video works after completing his role in the 2018 drama The Count of Monte Cristo: Great Revenge.

[2] Daisuke Tateishi, a man employed at the Nikko Oedomura theme park,[N 3] has a secret daily routine of physical and spiritual training at a shinto shrine.

Traumatized by a past accident on a film set where he was involved, Tateishi, despite his exceptional physical abilities, handles sound effects for ninja shows instead of performing action sequences.

The yakuza are colluding with Kurosaki, a prefectural assembly member, in a plot to sell to a Chinese broker the land where Ayumi resides with her grandfather Ryuzo.

With heavy machinery being brought onto Ayumi's property and excavation starting forcibly, Tateishi storms in and releases the violent impulses he had suppressed until that moment.

Cast list sourced from Cinema Today:[3] The inspiration for Pure Japanese came from Dean Fujioka's appearance in the 2018 drama The Count of Monte-Cristo: Great Revenge (Fuji Television).

After the production of the drama ended, Fujioka found that he—a live individual—had been left behind in the bizarre energy vortex that had condensed during the filming process.

[N 4][10]Additionally, the part of the plot in which the main character is being crushed by absurdity and he gives his life away like a sacrificial offering was the one Fujioka had envisioned from the beginning.

[11] Matsunaga spent a lot of time discussing his ideas with Fujioka, and together with Ogawa and screenwriter Tatsuo Kobayashi, they stayed overnight for around five days to write the script.

[12][10] According to an interview with Joshi Spa!, in creating the script, they placed great importance on a kind of "Japanese context" of how Japan turned into its present social structure.

"[15] In October 2021, it was revealed that professional wrestler Yukio Sakaguchi, along with Tetsuya Bessho, Tetsu Watanabe, Daichi Kaneko, Jun Murakami, Kyusaku Shimada and others, had joined the cast.

[1] Regarding the use of Sakaguchi, Matsunaga thought that since Fujioka had built up his body for this film, it would be fitting for the actor playing the role of Jinnai to possess physical strength.

In an interview with Rooftop, he said, "The visual impact a real [fighter] has, that 'this person's strength is true', is very convincing in images, so I felt that Sakaguchi-san could bring that out.

[18] According to Fujioka, it was the best place where the lost or no longer existing past life and culture of Japan are artificially purified and displayed; for instance, a museum exhibits stuffed extinct animals.

[6][18] In the four months leading up to the filming, Fujioka engaged in daily training sessions to increase his muscle mass in preparation for the role and the long action sequences it implied.

[8] Considering how it would look not only to the nihongo-bito but also to those who are unfamiliar with the language or have no particular interest in Japan, the film underwent multiple rounds of re-editing, script changes and story rearrangements.

The Blu-ray, a deluxe edition, also offers some additional content, including the making of Pure Japanese, a video capturing the stage greeting to thank for the film's release and a photo book.

[30][31] James Hadfield of The Japan Times awarded the film three out of five stars, remarking that "Pure Japanese is likely to be misunderstood – all the more so, given that it's played totally straight", and analyzing it as "closer to the self-reflexive cinema that Takashi Miike and Sion Sono used to do so well, giving audiences a bit of the old ultra-violence while forcing them to question what they're watching".

[32] Don Anelli of Asian Movie Pulse thought the use of a traditional story setting by screenwriter Tatsuo Kobayashi "work[ed] incredibly well as a standalone effort", and praised the presence of a "series of fun brawls and confrontations that take place here which have a nice energy contained and come across nicely when Daisuke gains a fury and intensity to fight back".