Dreams (1990)

Dreams (1990)

Director: Akira Kurosawa, Ishiro Honda

Cast: Akira Terao, Martin Scorcese

When you are on your way to becoming a true Film Connoisseur, you simply have to see the works of certain directors who don’t just make movies for profit, they make films for the purest reasons, the love of the cinematic art form and to explore among other things, human nature. Legendary directors make their films because films can be honest and pure, they can be direct and undeniable. You know how the saying goes “A picture speaks louder than a thousand words”.  And so, here I am once again visiting Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest directors who ever lived. I’m still catching up with his body of work to this day, but every time I do watch one of his films I am blown away by two things. Number one the beauty of the images, be they black and white or in color, and secondly I am blown away by how intimate his stories are. Kurosawa’s films might be about Samurai’s and temples and epic wars, but he takes his camera and whittles the story down to what really matters: human actions, human emotions, human nature.  

Going into Dreams it’s important to know that it’s an anthology film consisting of eight different stories which are all based on Akira Kurosawa’s own dreams. So this is a very personal film, with Kurosawa touching upon some very personal subject matter. Throughout the film, we have a character simple called ‘I’, who connects the short films. This character is a representation of Kurosawa himself, as he observes humanity. Basically, the film is Kurosawa’s observations on life and how he sees the world. It spans many areas of life, art, war, death, the afterlife, it’s all encompassing. Above all, what Kurosawa’s Dreams does is place a mirror against humanity, begging us to both analyze ourselves individually and as a collective as well.

For example, one of the shorts is about a nuclear power plant that blows up. The imagery of this short film is amazing because we see Mount Fuji being engulfed in wave after wave of fire and explosions. Now this story is epic in scale, but Kurosawa doesn’t focus on buildings falling and cars exploding the way that Roland Emmerich would, no, instead he focuses on a group of three people, at the shore, realizing the radioactive fallout is going to kill them and they have nowhere to go. Does life have meaning in their last few moments? Should you give up and commit suicide? Or do you enjoy your last moments of life? This is what I’m talking about! Real human emotions, important situations. The backdrop is epic, but the focus is intimate and personal, which is a characteristic of Kurosawa’s films. 

This was a film that Kurosawa was having a hard time getting made because it made revolutionary statements against nuclear energy. Producers didn’t want to produce a film that would criticize the government. So Kurosawa branched out to Steven Spielberg, who convinced Warner Brothers to distribute the film. Kurosawa had things to say about humanity and nothing was going to stop him from making his truthful film. How truthful is this film? Well, for example, on the story ‘Mount Fuji in Red’ Kurosawa basically calls the government ‘liars’ for calling Nuclear Power Plants “safe”. On the short film entitled ‘The Tunnel’, a retired military general encounters all of the soldiers who died under his command, placing the blame on him and his superiors for sending them to their deaths. And these are just two of the eight stories. The thing is that these shorts speak of undeniable truths, however harsh they might sound to whomever. But you know how things go in this world we live in, you say the truth, you get in trouble, which is the reason why I appreciate films that are brave and truthful like this one.

Aside from including beautiful, thought provoking insights on life, the film is also a beauty to look at. My favorite of the shorts has a painter visiting an art museum showcasing Van Gogh’s paintings. The artist looks at the paintings so much that he ends up going inside the paintings, walking through them, and actually meeting Van Gogh himself, who by the way is played by none other than Martin Scorcese himself! This is my favorite short film in Dreams because it talks about the creative/artistic process. Also because Kurosawa managed to successfully recreate some of Van Gogh’s paintings, its amazing. Bottom line is with Dreams you get a beautiful looking film that has a lot to say. It’s the kind of film that a director makes at the end of his career, you know, the kind that resumes everything the director has learned about life, the most important things, the themes that truly, really matter; the actions that have to be criticized; the experiences and emotions that need to be remembered and passed on from generation to generation.  Kind of like what Chaplin did with Limelight (1952) or Ridley Scott did with Prometheus (2012), films that are made by directors at the end of their career, which inevitably turn out more profound than their earlier films, because these directors have lived full lives and have so much more to say. So that’s what Dreams is all about. Kurosawa would go on to make two more films after Dreams: Rhapsody in August (1991) and Maadadayo (1993). With Dreams you get Kurosawa at the end of his career, at his most insightful, giving us his last opinion on how things are in the world. A beautiful, thought provoking film.

Rating: 5 out of 5

From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

Director: Goro Miyazaki

Writer: Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki will always be a legend in the world of animation; he helped establish Studio Ghibli, one of the best animation studios in the world and is responsible for directing and animating many of their wonderful films. Some of my favorites are Spirited Away (2001), Nausicaa of theValley of the Wind (1984) and Ponyo (2008), but it’s unfair to name only three of his films, because he’s made so many good ones! I’d say that they are all my favorites. Sadly Hayao Miyazaki is working less and less these days, probably due to his old age. His last directorial effort was The Wind Rises (2013). The good thing about Miyazaki is that he is one of those directors who keeps making excellent films no matter his age, unlike some directors who kind of  “lose it” in their last days. But it looks like he’s working less and less all the time. Thankfully, his son Goro Miyazaki has taken the reins of studio Ghibli and has already produced two animated features: Tales from Earth Sea (2006) and the film I’ll be reviewing today From Up on Poppy Hill (2011). Does Goro Miyazaki have the same ability as his father to create worlds of wonderment and endearing tales that touch the heart?

From Up on Poppy Hill is a story that takes place within a school in Yokohama, Japan. On one side of the school it’s the girls and on the other side, the boys. On the boys’ side, the school is threatening to close down a building which serves as a club house for the boys. This building means a lot to the students because it’s like a mini university within the school; it’s their own private little world. It’s where all the little geniuses get together to explore their favorite school courses. Even the school newspaper is written and printed there. This desire to save the club house brings the school together; boys and girls join forces in order to save this ancient building. In the midst of all this, we have a romance brewing between a boy and a girl who come together in an effort to discover their roots and uncover who they really are.

There are certain elements that distinguish Miyazaki’s films from all others; one of them is the importance that he gives to the environments. The setting and the world in which the story unfolds is as important as everything else. Miyazaki creates worlds that I want to live in. For example in Ponyo (2008) the main characters live on this cozy little house, on top of a hill, right next to the ocean. The home looks so warm and inviting that it’ll make you want to be there, feeling that cool ocean breeze right next to Sosuke and his mom. Goro Miyazaki creates something similar for From Up On Poppy Hill, a story that unfolds in a cute little town in Yokohama Japan, during the 60’s. This little town will make you want to pack your bags, travel back in time and walk in the streets of that cozy little town, buying a warm dumpling from a street vendor and eating it as the rain falls. So Goro Miyazaki’s films share that importance to ambiance and atmosphere that his father gave to his own films. These are not the only similarities between Goro and Hayao Miyazaki’s films.

Hayao Miyazaki’s films are always about endearing, immediately likable characters and warm hearted situations. They are an explosion of happiness and a celebration of life and how beautiful it can be. Most of the time there’s no place for sadness on Miyazaki’s films. Some might argue that this happy go lucky nature of Miyazaki’s films makes them unrealistic, or difficult to identify with, but I beg to differ because characters in Miyazaki’s films do go through transformations and their journeys, which are filled with challenges and difficulties, but they go through them with a positive attitude and a good heart, which sometimes makes all the difference in the world. Goro Miyazaki’s From Up on Poppy Hill offers us these positive vibes as well. Same as in his father’s films, characters in Goro Miyazaki’s films do good things for each other simply because. The main character in the film, a fatherless high school girl, wakes up early in the morning to make breakfast for her entire family. The film is filled with good natured scenes like this one, like the scene in which the girls help the boys clean and fix their clubhouse. Boys and girls working together to change their world; instead of propagating that old stereotype of boys and girls hating each other all the time. It’s a beautiful scene. It’ll make you wish you were 12 again, playing in a clubhouse like that one with your friends.

But I guess what makes this film so ‘Miyazaki’ is that Hayao Miyazaki wrote it, and Goro Miyazaki directed it, so we get a double dose of Miyazaki on this one, father and son working together to give us an extra Miyazaki film! Even though the Miyazaki’s make films with a happy nature about them, within the context of the film, they also tackle serious issues. Spirited Away (2001) is all about a little girl learning to accept her responsibilities in life and pulling her own weight in the world. From Up on Poppy Hill also stars a little girl (another Miyazaki staple) who misses her father, a sailor who drifted away into sea one day and never returned. Is he still out there? Will he ever return? She handles all these issues while also falling in love with one of the boys in her school. There’s this beautiful scene where they are both riding a bike together through town during a cold, rainy evening, I loved it. I don’t know what it is about the Miyazaki’s, but they know what warms our hearts, and they put that into their movies. I think what attracts me the most to their films is that warmth. Simply seeing people being good to each other as opposed to the harshness we sometimes confront in our daily, real world lives. But then again, I think the real world can be the way it’s represented in these films even if they might be a bit idealistic at times. So what, I’m with the Miyazaki’s, I say let’s dream big about what humanity is capable of becoming. Go out there today and be randomly good to someone, simply because.

Rating: 5 out of 5

   

Harlock Space Pirate (2013)

Harlock Space Pirate (2013)

Director: Shinji Aramaki

The universe of science fiction anime films is vast and wondrous, I’ve been exploring it as of late, I hope you guys are enjoying my exploration of anime films. But anyways, within anime science fiction, there’s a small niche reserved for films about space pirates. For example, today I’ll be talking about Harlock Space Pirate, but there’s Space Adventure Cobra (1982), also about a space pirate. There’s a bunch of other anime sci-fi films worth mentioning in case you feel the need to explore this type of film more, for example there’s Space Battleship Yamato (1979), Final Yamato (1983), and yet another one we could mention is one of my all time favorite anime science fiction films: Lensman: The Secret of the Lens (1984) a film that I’ll be reviewing here soon, so keep your eyes peeled. But what concerns me today is this super cool animated film called Harlock Space Pirate (2013). I’d never seen the series or read the manga that it is based on, but there was something about the concept of a space pirate driving a gigantic spaceship that looks like a skull, that just grabbed me. There’s just something cool about the idea…add to that the James Cameron quote on the cover that reads: “This is truly an unprecedented movie. This movie is already legendary, with its overflowing imagination and magnificent visuals; this movie is one that the world has never seen before. Harlock leads the way to a world of new ideas!” and I was sold. I’m ultra happy I decided to buy this one; it’s an amazing science fiction film! Epic in every sense of the word!

 

Harlock Space Pirate (2013) is a computer animated film based on the manga written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto. I have never read the manga or seen the television series that followed, so I went into Harlock Space Pirate without any previous knowledge of the character or its mythos. I don’t know if this is even considered a good adaptation, but if the positive reviews are any indication, then it is. So what was my impression? I was blown away! That’s my official impression! Totally blown away. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of computer animated films, because sometimes the result can be cold and mechanical because sometimes the filmmakers focus so much on the visuals that they forget that story is equally important for a movie to work, which is why we get films like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), big on visuals, not so big on creating characters and stories we can identify with. Which is one of the many things I loved about Harlock Space Pirate (2013), it has a story that grabs you and characters you can care about. It has a heart!

The story concerns Captain Harlock, a pirate that’s going around the universe placing these bombs in specific points in the universe. When he blows up all 100 bombs, the explosion is supposed to trigger some sort of cataclysmic event that would send the universe back in time, to a time when there wasn’t an over population of planet earth, to a time when humans hadn’t destroyed the earth beyond recognition. Of course, not everybody wants this to happen. The powers that be want the status quo to remain as is, so of course, it’s the government chasing Captain Harlock through the universe, trying to stop him from detonating the bombs. Will the corrupt Gaia Coalition stop Harlock and his crew of space pirates from blowing up the galaxy and restarting humanity? 

So like I was saying, it’s the characters that pulled me in first because they are all a bunch of rebels who fly through the cosmos with one concept on their minds: freedom! Freedom is what drives their ship; it’s the reason why you become part of the crew, because you believe in freedom. The filmmakers managed to make Captain Harlock a truly intriguing and fascinating character, at first they don’t show him much to keep you in anticipation, but once Captain Harlock takes over the film, let’s just say he has an intriguing and magnetic personality, he’s a very fleshed out character. I’m sure that has a lot to do with all the back story the character has, what with the manga and various television series to back him up, well, of course Captain Harlock didn’t end up being a cardboard cutout of a character.  This is a character with a well established personality and solid motivations. He is a man who will stop at nothing until things are set right for the human race! But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the story behind this film, there’s a lot of intrigue, there’s revenge and plots within plots. In other words, even though this film has tons of style and coolness to it, it doesn’t forget to back that up with decent story and characters.

When a film has awesome story and characters, and is accompanied by amazing effects and visuals, well, it makes it a perfect package for me. And boy did this movie blow me away with its concepts and visuals! I mean, here’s a film that puts a lot of effort into making things look cool, this movie just oozes coolness from every pore! I loved the numerous space battles! Captain Harlock’s ship looks like something H.R. Giger might have designed, with this giant skull on the front, which at some points smashes into other spaceships! What’s so cool about Harlock's ship is that besides the skull in the front, it also looks like an old pirate ship…and get this, the spaceship has a healing factor! It repairs itself! From what I gather, on the cartoon show the spaceship looks even more like a pirate ship, with these awesome laser cannons on the side, which made it onto the movie as well. It’s just an awesome visual, a pirate ship shooting lasers in space, in fact, the characters in this movie are so well developed that even Captain Harlock’s spaceship (called The Arcadia) has a shroud of mystery about it, even the ship is a character on its own! There are scenes with hundreds of spaceships shooting lasers at each other! Suddenly it feels like a pirate movie, but instead of cannonballs, the spaceships shoot lasers, the result is pure eye candy!

Final word is I loved this movie and the character of Captain Harlock so much that I will be purchasing some of the old television series to explore this character further; this is no easy task because this character has had many incarnations throughout the years. This 2013 film was directed by Shinki Aramaki, the director behind most of the Appleseed computer animated films like Appleseed (2004), Appleseed Ex Machina (2007) and most recently Appleseed: Alpha (2014). But for those of you interested in exploring the character past, there’s been a couple of different Captain Harlock series. They are: Space Pirate Captain Harlock (1978), The Mystery of the Arcadia (1978), Arcadia of My Youth (1982), which by the way was a feature film. It was followed by a series called Albator or Orbit Road/SSX (1982). Then came Harlock Saga (1999) and Space Pirate Captain Harlock: The Endless Odyssey (2002). I’m really looking forward to seeing all of these and catching up with this excellent character and the universe that surrounds him. But as far this new 2013 movie goes, I highly recommend it to lovers of epic science fiction with an emphasis on cool.

Rating: 5 out of 5

13 Assassins (2011)

Title: 13 Assassins (2011)

Director: Takashi Miike

Review:

A while back I wrote an article called Totalitarian Futures, Big Brother is Watching You! in which I listed a group of subversive films, that is to say, films that speak up against governmental oppression and abuse. These films have many things in common amongst them. For example, films like 1984, Equilibrium, The Island, THX-1138, and Fahrenheit 451 are all about someone from within the system who can’t take it anymore and decides to fight it or escape it. One of the things that distinguishes these films from others is the emergence of a leader, a rebel. This rebel often times comes from within the ranks of the government itself; a government official or a cop as is the case with Equilibrium, a film in which Christian Bale plays a ‘Cleric’; a top ranking government official responsible for eliminating those who resist the system. At one point, this cleric realizes the beauty of art and the pleasures of reading a book and so he decides to defend the people and their right to feel and express themselves as opposed to everyone being lifeless, drone like, the same. These are my favorite kind of subversive films because they show how someone from within can also realize that there is something wrong, and that that someone can take matters into his or her own hands and actually do something about it.

 This is the case with 13 Assassins, Takashi Miike's new Samurai film in which a group of 13 Samurais decide to go up against a particularly abusive government official called Lord Naritsugu, a cruel and sadistic man who is well on his way to becoming the next Shogun. How evil is this man? Well, his own Samurais are committing suicide out of hatred towards him. They are so against his way of doing things that they kill themselves at his own door step. Lord Naritsugu does many evil deeds and then kills as many people as he has to in order to cover everything up the vile things he does. The 13 Samurai of this film realize that they cannot let this evil man become the ruler of the land, so they organize an attack to go up against him and his ever growing army. Will they succeed in their assassination attempt? Are 13 Samurai enough to go up against an entire army of more than 200 soldiers?

 In some countries human rights don’t mean a thing, especially when the government wants to stomp on its people for whatever reason they might have up their sleeves. Let’s say for example they don’t want people going to college so much, because they want people to remain stupid and controllable. Well, then they send a whole army of  armed policemen to the campus to beat the hell out any student they come across with, effectively scaring students from ever wanting to go back to college. Of course the government makes sure they stir up the students revolutionary sensibilities first, so students will revolt and the government will then have an excuse to go in there and stomp the crap out of them. Or let’s say the government is interested in a particular piece of land that they find profitable for tourism purposes, but the land is filled with poor people living in it. What will they do then? Well, they send in more heavily armored cops in there to terrorize the people, then they bring up the prices for utilities like water and light, then the people have no choice but to leave. Then they can build their hotels and condo’s. When the powers that be want something, they will find a way to achieve their purposes. What I always ask myself is, how can these police officers not realize that what they are doing is wrong? That they are being used to abuse the very people they are supposed to be protecting?

 This is why I love films like 13 Assassins, because they address the issue of the government official realizing their government isn’t doing what is right. I remember a video of a riot that occurred on the University of Puerto Rico where a student is standing in front of a cop, who is heavily armored. The cops were heavily armored, with helmets and bullet proof vests and clubs and pepper spray. The policeman had a blank stare on their faces, looking into nothingness, while the student was trying to connect with the police officers human side. The student couldn’t connect, because their was no one there. The officer was on auto pilot, he wasn’t even listening to the girl. He was ignoring her pleas for humanity; his brain had been washed in more ways than one. Things like that make me so sad, they are not upholding the law they are being used to break it. Governments like these should not exist. And the question inevitably arrizes: who watches the Watchmen? Who makes sure that these governments don’t abuse their people? Shouldn’t their be some sort of world police making sure governments are in line doing what they ought to be doing instead of abusing their people?

 This is where the 13 Assassins come in, in Takashi Miike’s wonderfully subversive film. Back in those days, the Samurai served as the government’s personal police force. They were especially trained in the ways of the sword and in the Bushido mentality. They were taught not to show any emotions and to follow the Shogun’s orders without question, no matter what the request might be. But the Samurai’s also lived by a personal code of ethics. They had a deep sense of what was right and what was wrong, which was often times in contras with their Shogun’s orders. This is what happens in 13 Assassins. Though the Samurai work for the Shogun, they realize that one of his officials is pure evil, and needs to be eradicated before he becomes a Shogun himself.  And so this film can be divided into two parts: the first half in which the 13 Assassins gather and prepare for their upcoming confrontation and the second half which presents us with the actual confrontation itself. The first half is actually very interesting because we get to know each individual Samurai and their reasons for agreeing to go up against Lord Naritsugu. I loved this part because we get to see these men getting together for the greater good, they tell themselves “let’s see if there are any good Samurai’s left”. They know they are going up against incredible odds, yet they go for it anyways accentuating the common theme in all subversive or rebellious minded films: the willingness to die for what you believe in; the idea that you’d rather die then live as a slave.

Films dealing with rebellion have to be realistic as well. One cannot make a film like this one and make it look as if everything will be fine and dandy if you go up against an evil powerful government. In many movies where a character goes up against the proverbial ‘system’, things don’t usually end up well for the rebel. In many of these types of films, the rebel usually ends up dead. If you want to read more about this subject matter check out a series of articles I wrote a while back during my VIVA LA REVOLUTION! three day event where Neil Fulwood from The Agitation of the Mind and I celebrated and explored Revolution on film. It was a pretty nifty collaboration, highly recommend checking it out. I think 13 Assassins displayed the idea of revolution realistically, I mean the second half of the movie is a 50 minute long battle sequence where a lot of people die! Takashi Miike really out did himself with this whole sequence. Literally, its slicing and dicing for almost a whole hour! One thing is made clear, going up against a despotic powerful government is not a clean wholesome affair. Lot ’s of blood is spilled, lots of death takes place, and many good people die.

I loved the confrontation between the 13 Samurais and Lord Naritsugu’s army. These Samurai’s display such bravery, cunning and smarts! And the dialog during these sequences really captures the outrage and indignation of the rebel mentality, special attention should be paid to the dialog in the last confrontation between a Samurai and Lord Naritsugu. During these sequences, the Samurai practically tells it like it is to the evil dictator. I loved that about the last half of the film, the honesty in the dialog. Also, I loved this sequence where the rebels don’t identify themselves with any political group or mentality; they call themselves “nobodies” because they are not siding with anyone but man. The are not fighting for a political ideology but for the basic human rights that we are all entitled too: the right to freedom and happiness. That’s what really matters in this world and that’s what we should all be willing to die for if need be. This could quite literally be Takashi Miike’s masterpiece. I do believe it is one of his best films, one of his most profound and relevant ones. It stands proudly next to other great Samurai films like Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), one of the most obvious influences over this picture.

Rating: 5 out of 5 

 

Ichi the Killer (2001)

Title: Ichi the Killer (2001)

Director: Takashi Miike

Review:

The first time I watched Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer, I didn’t know what to make of it. By this I mean that normally, when I watch a film I am constantly analyzing what it’s trying to tell me, the message that it’s trying to bring across. Most of the times I can pick up themes pretty quickly, but sometimes, with some films, nothing happens. Sometimes a film will speak nothing to me. For me, this was the case with Ichi the Killer, in my opinion a vapid film with not much to offer but violence, blood and gore. And that’s okay! Some films are meant to be enjoyed on that level alone. Not every film has to offer the meaning of the universe to you. Some movies, like Ichi the Killer are there simply to titillate and amuse us. Ichi the Killer achieves this with gleeful aplomb.

That's gotta hurt! 

In Ichi the Killer we meet a Yakuza gang whose boss has just gone missing. The gangs second in command, a violence loving man called Kakihara is investigating what happened. You see, he refuses to believe that ‘Boss Anjo’ as he is called, has died. He thinks a rival gang has kidnapped him and is holding him for ransom. So he goes around town, torturing suspects, questioning people in search for his boss. In the meantime, there’s a killer on the loose, but he is not just any killer! This killer kills Yakuza’s for a living, and his name is ‘Ichi’ which is Japanese for #1. He goes around killing Yakuza’s in extremely gruesome ways. It isnt long before Kakihara and his men realize that Ichi is a menace to them, so they go on a hunt for Ichi.

The reason why I was expecting some depth from Ichi the Killer is because my favorite Miike films have some depth to them, for example, Visitor Q (2001) which is one of my favorites. But let’s face it, Miike isn’t exactly known for depth in his movies, he’s better known for their style, their shock value, their violence and their gore. He is also a very diverse filmmaker, making all sorts of films from all sorts of different genres. But I don’t normally finish watching a Miike film and dwell on it’s themes, most of the times, the feeling is just shock. A feeling of “wow, did I just watch that?!” Miikes films always make an impression on you, they always trigger a very visceral sort of reaction. And on this department Ichi the Killer delivers in spades. Kakihara, the henchman who’s looking for his boss is a sadomasochist and the real reason he is looking of Boss Anjo is because Boss Anjo used to inflict him with tremendous amounts of pain, and Kakihara liked it. Kakihara is the kind of guy who has no problems with cutting off his own tongue to prove a point! He has no problems with torturing someone by pouring red hot cooking oil on his back! He pays prostitutes to beat him, because he misses Boss Anjo’s beatings! The guy is in love with pain, but more than that, he is addicted to sensations, always looking for the thrilling, shocking sensation. He wants to meet Ichi because thinks Ichi will give him the ultimate pain, the pain he has been looking for all his life. So, he doesn’t want to find Ichi to kill him, he wants to find Ichi so Ichi can inflict him with an ultimate dose of pain. For me, it was this strange brew of characters that made this film interesting.

And speaking of Ichi himself, he really is a strange sort of protagonist. He is supposed to be some sort of superhero/crimefighter. He wears a special bodysuit when he goes hunting for bad guys, the suit has a big yellow #1 on its back. But Ichi is anything but a traditional superhero. In my book, he is a really weak main character. He is manipulated and used; he seems to have no real control over his actions. He is fed lies that make him act a certain way. When he is about to murder bad guys, he cries uncontrollably because he doesn’t want to kill anyone, yet he does it because he’s been conditioned to do so. When he is about to kill a bad guy, he gets an erection. He sees a raping going on, he doesn’t try to stop it, he feels aroused and wants to participate. I mean, this guy is all sorts of weird. Yet when it comes down to killing a couple of Yakuza’s he does it almost effortlessly with these blades that come out of the heels of his shoes. With this film, Miike switches everything around, the hero is a wimp, while the villain is the intelligent one. Hell, there is no doubt that Kakihara is the main character in this movie even though the film is named Ichi the Killer, it’s Kakihara’s face that’s on the films cover, not Ichi’s. Actually, Kakihara is on the film more than Ichi is.

Ichi, a strange sort of 'hero'

This is a film filled with very troubled individuals. Both protagonists (Ichi and Kakihara) have sexual frustrations and dysfunctions. I mean, Ichi gets aroused when he’s going to kill someone and Kakihara gets aroused when he is inflicted with pain. These freaky sexual antics are something to be expected from a Takashi Miike film, a filmmaker that like Cronenberg isn’t shy about exploring human sexuality. I mean, in Gozu (2003) there is a character who can only get an erection by inserting spoons up his ass! I kid you not! So anyways, I hope this review has helped in giving you an idea of what to expect from Ichi the Killer. There’s freaky sexuality and there are copious amounts of violence and gore. A word on the gore: most of it comes off as cartoonish and over the top. Characters get horrendous amounts of pain inflicted upon them and don’t pass out or die, I mean, in one scene Ichi slices a guy in half like a freaking watermelon. Kakihara slices of his own tongue and keeps on walking as if nothing had happened to him. In fact, he simply sews his tongue shut and keeps going about his business. Final words: Ichi the Killer is your typical violence filled gangster movie with not much to say, but lots of things to freak you out. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)

Title: Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Review:

Watching Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988) is not like watching any other movie, it's an experience. It’s a film with very little dialog, and lots of style and visual flare. It’s a film that tells it’s story mostly through emotions and sounds, words aren’t all that necessary, the images and the sound do most of the talking. Tetsuo: The Iron Man tells the tale of a young man who starts turning into a machine after he has a car accident. His body slowly but surely starts to grow joints and cables and exhaust valves and…drills! In many ways, the film plays out like David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986), because it’s the story of a man turning into something monstrous, and the psychological torture that results from this change. Tetsuo: The Iron Man has elements of body horror that many of David Cronenberg’s films have. These are the kind of horror films where a person realizes there is something terribly wrong with their body and suddenly they face the notion that their body has turned into their worst enemy. It also has something of David Lynch's Eraserhead in it when it comes to placing its main character in the middle of a decaying, ugly city landscape. Watching Tetsuo: The Iron Man is an experience because the film is shot in Tsukamoto’s signature kinetic style, where the camera moves and jumps and shakes constantly in a frenetic manner. One thing you should know about Tsukamoto films: if you don’t like “shaky cam” then you should stay clear of this one, but if on the other hand you find that you can stomach it, you’re in for a wild ride!

Tetsuo: The Iron Man is one of three Tetsuo films. The first one was followed by a sequel called Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992), a film I’ve yet to watch. He followed that one with the film I will be reviewing today Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009), the third part of this cyberpunk trilogy. On The Bullet Man we meet Anthony, an American living in Japan . Anthony's married a Japanese woman and has started a family with her, together they had a kid whom they named Tom. One day, as Anthony is walking through the city with little Tom, a mysterious black car drives by them and purposely runs over Tom! Just before the accident is over, Anthony realizes that his sons death screams aren’t exactly human, and his blood is black! Almost instantly, his son’s death triggers a transformation in Anthony’s body, and in a matter of seconds Anthony’s body becomes a living weapon! Bullets shoot out of his body, guns come out of his chest and Anthony proceeds to blow away the car that killed his son! But the question remains, who killed his son? And why? Who was the guy driving the car? And why is Anthony's body going through this transformation?

So I was not fully prepared for just how cool this movie was going to be. At all! It’s been a while since I’ve seen the original Tetsuo: The Iron Man and normally directors try to do something completely different with each film, special artful directors like Tsukamoto. And in many ways, this is a very different film than Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and in many ways it isnt. In many The Bullet Man ended up being  extremely similar to previous Tetsuo movies, which is kind of interesting. All three films are connected  thematically and in structure. Tetsuo: The Bullet Man might even feel like a remake of sorts. For example, this is also a story about a working class hero, who lives in the big bad city. It’s also a story about a man who undergoes a physical transformation from a human being into a mechanical monster. The main character is confused as to what is happening to him... and the similarities don’t stop there. So it appears that the Tetsuo movies share that same basic structure, but a few things set them apart. For example, while the original film was a surreal, nightmarish journey where events aren’t really explained and things are left for you to interpret, this third entry goes a totally different route. Tetsuo: The Bullet Man attempts to explain everything with crystal clear clarity, and I have to admit, I enjoyed this take on Tetsuo as well. This one is like a balancing act between an abstract artsy fartsy film and a by the numbers film that wants to tell its story in a rather straight forward fashion. How straight forward is this film in comparison to the original? Well, on this one Anthony actually discovers why he is turning into a walking machine gun when he stumbles upon his fathers private laboratory where he kept all his journals, this scene was reminiscent of a Frankenstein film.

And yeah, this film functions very much like a Frankenstein movie. Anthony turns into a monster that nobody accepts or understands and all everyone wants to do is kill him. He is a creation set loose upon the world, and the world does not want to accept him. Because of this, Anthongy has uncontrollable rage and anger at the ones who did this to him. It is this anger which triggers the transformation, the angrier Anthony gets, the more out of control he gets. In one amazing sequence, Anthony (now transformed into The Bullet Man) goes on a rampage/killing spree against a group of armed men who try to wipe him out by shooting at him. What they don’t know is that bullets make Anthony more powerful! He absorbs them into his body! I have to admit, this was the coolest aspect of the film, Anthony turning into a living weapon, with guns bursting out of his chest and hands; an awesome visual. This whole sequence left me speechless! I was utterly hypnotized by this film and how it was unfolding, I kept wishing that this film would keep being just as cool all the way till the end, and it did. Not for a second did the film turn boring, it kept me glued to the screen the entire time. The most interesting aspect of the film is the main character, The Bullet Man. The idea is plainfully speaking: kick ass. This idea of turning a man into a weapon was also used in a low budget sci-fi film called Meatball Machine (2005), a film I will be reviewing very soon, keep an eye open for that one. 

Speaking of visuals, this film was shot in color which goes in contrast to Tetsuo: The Iron Man which was shot in black and white. But things aren’t all that different visually, Tsukamoto doesn’t give into color entirely, Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is a film that is drained of its colors, almost to the point where it becomes a black and white film. This is a very dark film where blacks and whites dominate the color palate, yet every now and again, a hint of color appears. The editing is swift, sometimes lightning quick.  Sometimes Tsukamoto will just play with the visuals, turning the film into a kaleidoscope of visuals. The camera is constantly shaking; some scenes feel as if you were in the middle of an earthquake…other times it feels as if some impatient, nervous voyeur was seeing everything, looking left and right. I think this erratic camera work fits perfectly with the kind of story they were telling, about a guy going through all these unwanted physical changes, the desperation of the character comes through in the camera work. The overall look and feel of the film is very modern; this film looks slick, stylish. And keeping in line with the films stylish nature, the soundtrack is made up of industrial music, lots of beats and electronic sounds, I personally loved it. It fit perfectly with the film. The closing credits song entitled “Theme Song for Tetsuo: The Bullet Man” was produced by Nine Inch Nails, sadly that’s as far as Nine Inch Nails got involved with the music, it would have been cool had they scored the entire film, but sadly, it didn’t happen. The sound effects are awesome as well! When Anthony transforms into The Bullet Man, and he talks, wow, it’s the coolest voice! So robotic, so otherworldly, actually, it was kind of frightening. 

But was this film the classic case of ‘style over substance’? Are we left with a film that’s all visuals with no meat to it? While I wouldn’t go as far as saying that The Bullet Man is a deep film, I can’t say the film is void of themes either. At its core, this is a straight forward revenge film with Anthony attempting to avenge the murder of his son. His wife won’t let him be and ultimately begs him to kill the guy who murdered their son, which he does go out to do. At the same time, same as in Frankenstein (1931) and Blade Runner (1982), Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is a film that has a creation returning to it’s creator to ask him why he is the way he is. If you had a terminal decease and had a chance to have a conversation with God, wouldn’t you ask him why he’s allowed such a decease to exist? Certain scenes in Tetsuo: The Bullet Man reminded me of that scene in Blade Runner where the Replicants face their creator and question him as to why they die so fast. At the same time the film talks about controlling ones anger and not allowing it to get out of control. Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or The Incredible Hulk, anger is what ignites Anthony’s monstrous side and he must learn to keep it in check. But also, the main villain in the film, a character simply named 'The Guy' wants to show the world how ugly and violent the world really is, he wants to set Anthony loose in the world, so they get a taste of how awful it can be. So yeah, the film does have its themes. Speaking of 'The Guy' I thought it was so interesting that Tsukamoto plays a character in the film. And its a character thats constantly pushing the main characters buttons, pushing him to become more monstrous, more violent. I thought it was so symbolic of how a director of a film makes his characters go through certain situations, by orchestrating the film.  

Many think that this film can only be enjoyed by fans of Shinya Tsukamoto’s films but I say no to that notion because this film is actually more straight forward than Tetsuo: The Iron Man. On this film, things are given an explanation, an origin. In fact, I think Tsukamoto was aiming for a wider audience with this film. The fact that he shot the whole film in English let’s us know this. And this is the part where I speak about the films negative points. My biggest gripe with this one is that by trying to make a film that would be more accessible to American audiences, Tsukamoto sacrificed something in the creative process. The main actor is an American, the Japanese actors all speak in English, or at least try to. Sadly, most of the time their English is hard to make out. I personally like Japanese films to be spoken in Japanese, because performances and feelings come through much better in their native language. In other words: this is the kind of film that’s good to watch with the subtitles on even though most of it is spoken in english. Some characters are dubbed, and their lip movement suddenly doesnt match with what they are saying, which was a total let down for me.  Another thing that lets us know he was aiming for a broader audience is the complete elimination of sexual themes, so The Bullet Man is a 'softer', more accessible kind of Tsukamoto film. But rest assured, this film still has its freaky side. And anyways, even though the attempt was there, the movie still didnt end up being mainstream and thank the movie gods for that because who wants to see a mainstream film from Tsukamoto, raise your hands? Didnt think so. 

Tsukamoto plays a mysterious character called 'The Guy' 

So that’s my take on Tetsuo: The Bullet Man a visually interesting film done with very little money, yet same as Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the results work because of the filmmakers behind the camera. In many ways, it feels like a reworking or a remake of the ideas presented on the first film, only with a bit more money. Even though it doesn’t reach the greatness of the original, mainly because it’s very similar in structure, Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is still an incredibly watchable film. It might be a simple revenge tale, but its visually arresting, kinetic, never boring, fast paced, dark and violent, Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is a film you gotta experience! Highly recommend it!

Rating: 4 out of 5