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Dare we ask where Sperm Cells came from? “It came from some erotic stories… haha, just kidding!” cracks writer-director Daisuke Koshikawa, whose musical comedy, Boiler Maker – We Are the Sperm Cells, returns to town this fortnight. “If there was any story that all people can enjoy, this is it,” adds Koshikawa. “In the end I wanted to focus on the origin of human beings.”

The story follows an energetic pack of 60 sperm cells as they battle obstacles to fertilise an egg – an egg who, played by actress Miki Osaki, reveals, “I feel how precious an egg is by playing the role of an egg.” Um, okay…

With airtight logic like that and snappy J-pop music (some of it original) pumping through the production, Boiler Maker aims squarely to entertain while touching on the profound. Sets range from the sleekly skeletal to the colourfully elaborate, including an eye-catching array of bangasa, Japanese oil paper umbrellas. The actors, all from Koshikawa’s native Japan and members of his comically-leaning theatrical company, D.K. Hollywood, speak their parts in Japanese, but English voice-over is looped in.

Boiler Maker has garnered both positive and negative reviews, the latter especially around the time of its debut in 2005, the year it was first and last staged in Hong Kong. Koshikawa thinks the “relatively sensitive” subject matter had something to do with initial apprehension, but since then, full houses have been the norm when staged in New York, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Amid the dashing choreography and moments of levity, Koshikawa hopes Hong Kong audiences take away at least one sober message: “We have gone through the severest fight before being born. Do we really need to fight each other anymore?” Bong Miquiabas