Starring: Shinya Tsukamoto, Kirina Mano, Tomorowo Taguchi, Tatsuya Nakamura, Kyoka Suzuki, Hisashi Igawa, Takahiro Murase, Keisuke Yoshida, Hiromi Kuronuma
When you say bullet ballet I think of Hong Kong gun-play movies the likes of which made John Woo famous. That isn’t the case here with this Shinya Tsukamoto film which is distinctly him as it features a visual and aural style reminiscent of Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (even shot in black and white) but closer in tone to the existential enquiries of A Snake of June and Tokyo Fist.
Shinya Tsukamoto takes the lead role of Goda, a thirty-something filmmaker working in advertising. His work aside, life is absolutely average – long hours at the office, drinks after work, an equally busy girlfriend named Kiriko. They have been with each other for a decade but never committed to marrying because they are both pursuing careers. No surprises. No detours. No shocks. That is until Goda returns home one night to find police cars and ambulances surrounding the entrance to his apartment building. Kiriko has committed suicide with a gun.
A train cuts through expansive fields under wide blue skies. As it meanders along the track the landscape changes, the line edging through hills crowded with the houses of a quiet rural town in Japan. Once it reaches its destination off the train steps a journalist named Nakahara (Fukushi) who is heading to a school for disabled children with the intention of making a documentary of the place.
He tries taking pictures of the kids and interviewing them but the pupils are all shy around him and avoid answering questions. However, with their teachers they bounce around in class, giggle and get involved with lessons and display a sense of liveliness and excitability, ingenuity and originality in the way they see the world. One teacher in particular is very popular with the children and she catches the eye of Nakahara.
Her name is Emi (Ishibashi), a young woman who attends college and volunteers at the school. She uses a crutch to walk and seems introverted but the kids adore her. One of the things she does is to take photographs of clouds and allow children to pick their favourite ones and take them home when they graduate.
“Come in. Take a peek. Big boobs. Lots of nice girls here.”
The film starts in a grimy trash strewn back street. We are looking at a club named Peep Show Locker Room and the doorman for the club shouts out what is on offer. Out of the club saunters Kanta Kitamichi (Moriyama), who grimaces and lights a cigarette. Freeze frame, a voice over accompanied by on-screen text introduces us to Kitamichi, his father committed a sex crime that tore up his family in 5th grade. He has worked as a day labourer since graduating junior high. His only hobby is reading books.
It isn’t the most promising introduction to a main character, an aimless young man in 80’s Japan, the age of wealth and opportunity, and as we watch the film his behaviour is pretty awful.
This week began with my excitement over some of Manga Entertainment’s 2013 releases which includes The Wolf Children and Blood-C: The Last Dark, then I watched The Pact (2012) and Zombie Apocalypse (2011). Then I posted Genkinahito and It Came From Japan, which saw me submit five Japanese horror movie reviews for a Halloween special run by The LAMB. I then posted a review of Sion Sono’s excellent ero-guro title Strange Circus for my Halloween review (it is proving most popular, not least a certain picture…) and another trailer for the forthcoming Evangelion movie. Still no word on Premiere Japan, which I have Googled every day this week…
Smile Precure! Everyone is all Mixed Up in the Picture Book
The Expendables 2
Tsunagu
Bayside Shakedown 4: The Final New Hope
009 Re:Cyborg
Outrage Beyond
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
The Terminal Trust
The Mystical Law
Resident Evil: Retribution
Well colour me unsurprised that the mega phenomena that is Precure dominates the charts. The three anime films released last week make an impressive splash. Despite opening on less than 200 screens, Precure has posted impressive figures. Also impressive is 009 Re:Cyborg, Production I.G’s 3D film. Resident Evil: Retribution sneaks in at ten. Also entering the chart is The Terminal Trust at eight (KOJI YAKUSHO!).
What films are released today (yesterday in the case of one and the day before in the case of another)?
Kadokawa initiated this anime movie to celebrate 65 years since the founding of their business. It looks like a slice of great old school anime. Gothicmade is the directorial debut of designer and manga creator Mamoru Nagano. On top of directing he also takes on other major roles such as screenwriting, storyboarding and character design. If the anime looks old school then it reflects the fact that he has been in the animation industry for quite some time, his biggest project being the manga/anime franchise Five Star Stories (1986!!!) which is also handled by Kadokawa and is still being released today. Every time I post this here it is met with indifference but on AUKN it has been a very popular news article.
Carmine is a tiny colony world under the harsh control of the ruling interplanetary league. It would be unremarkable except that this planet special is that it has a special tradition: young women known as songstresses inherit and pass down the memories of the generations that came before them. They then use this knowledge to help the people of their planet.
A 16-year-old named Berin Ajelli has been reborn as a songstress and must set out on a holy pilgrimage across the planet to the capital. After hearing rumours of a possible terrorist attack the militant Donau Empire send Prince Toriharon to protect her but he is the antithesis of everything Bellin believes in. The two are stuck together on their journey to the capital of Carmine.
This film was delayed from release last year due to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It looks like a complete blast and it stars Nana Eikura who will be in next year’s live-action adaptation of library war, Koichi Sato (Infection, Sukiyaki Western Django) and Takayuki Yamada (Thirteen Assassins).
The year is 1590 and the daimyo Hideyoshi Toyotomi (Ichimura) is going to unify Japan… until he comes across a floating fortress known as Oshi Castle. Well he isn’t going to let that stop him and so he sends an army of 20,000 men to lay siege to it. The only thing standing between the castle and capitulation is Nagachika Narita (Nomura) and his army of 500 men. Let battle commence.
A Chorus of Angels has quite the cast what with Sayuri Yoshinaga, a veteran of more than a hundred films, leading a battery of young talent like Hikari Mitsushima (Sawako Decides, Love Exposure), Aoi Miyazaki (The Wolf Children, Eureka) and Ryuhei Matsuda (Gohatto, Nightmare Detective). The film is based on a novel written by Yusuke Kishi who has had a few of his novels turned into films (Black House for one).
Haru (Yoshinaga) was once a dedicated teacher working in Hokkaido with various problems and disabilities but since retiring she has worked in a library in Tokyo. Then the police question her about a murder committed by a former student named Nobuto (Moriyama). Spurred on by her curiosity, she decides to investigate what happened to her former students like Manami (Mitsushima) a park worker, Yuka (Miyazaki) a kindergarten teacher and Isamu (Matsuda) a policeman.
Despite the sexy poster, this film seems to be more in the vein of a psychological piece which reveals the sexual hang-ups of three characters. There are shades of Shame and A Snake of June. Toru Kamei is the director. He is familiar from a film named Black Cat Lucy which was released a few weeks ago. This is the big-screen debut of Mitsu Dan. She is supported by Akihiro Mayama (Carved 2) and Itsuki Itao (Love Exposure, One Missed Call Final).
Wow, just when I’m stock-piling crime thrillers from Japan and Korea, this comes along. Kazuyuki Izutsu makes his first film since Swing Man (2000) with this cool looking heist thriller. The cast is particularly strong what with Satoshi Tsumabuki (For Loves Sake) and Tadanobu Asano (Vital, Bright Future), taking the lead roles with support from the ever reliable Tomorowo Taguchi (Tetsuo: The Iron Man) and Toshiyuki Nishida (Outrage Beyond, The Magic Hour). Yuri Nakamura (The Grudge: Girl in Black) provides some femininity to balance things out.
Sumita Bank has a lot of gold sitting in its basement. When Kota (Tsumabuki) runs into his former college classmate Kitagawa (Asano) he hears about a heist which will take place. Helping them beat the bank’s security is a North Korean spy pretending to be a college student (Shim Chang-Min), Kitagawa’s brother Haruki (Mizobata), an elevator engineer known as Zii-chan (Nishida) and a bank employee known as Noda (Kiritani) Can they do it?
I love all of Sono’s films. Not equally though. As powerful as I find his dramas like Himizu and Noriko’s Dinner Table, I really loooooove his horror films like Suicide Circle and Cold Fish. This is the first time that I have watched Strange Circus, having only read a great review for it on Goregirl’s blog but I can safely say that this is one of Sono’s best.
Mitsuko Ozawa (Kuwana) is a young girl whose father Gozo (Oguchi) is the principal of the school she attends. Her existence is one of fear as her father is a sexual predator. At first she is forced to see her father having sex with her mother Sayuri (Miyazaki) but is soon sexually abused herself. This causes an insane jealousy to develop in her mother which leads to a deadly accident… Or does it? The above nightmare Mitsuko suffers is part of novel written by successful author Taeko (Miyazaki). She has taken on a new assistant named Yuji Tamiya (Ishida) who will expose dark secrets.
The 08th of October 2012 will be a momentous day for Japanese film fans as Third Window Films are going to release three Shinya Tsukamoto films which played a pivotal role in my Shinya Tsukamoto Season.
The first two titles are Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer which stunned me as my reviews show. They are released as part of a 2-disc DVD/Blu-Ray set and this Blu-Ray will be the first time the Tetsuo films have graced the format anywhere in the world. More importantly, Shinya Tsukamoto has been heavily involved with the release which results in a phenomenal set of extras which impressed me so much I felt they merited review themselves. Here are the details:
Two of the most talked-about Japanese cult films of all time makes their way onto a double-disc blu-ray set for the first time in the world with a brand new high definition transfer supervised by Shinya Tsukamoto!
TETSUO: THE IRON MAN
A strange man known only as the “metal fetishist”, who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese “salaryman”, out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal, and that his nemesis is not in fact dead but is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fueled transformation.
TETSUO II: BODY HAMMER
More of a companion piece to Tetsuo: The Iron Man than a sequel, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer sees Tsukamoto’s disturbing vision of a world populated by man-machines explode into a stunning colour interpretation.
I gave both films 5/5 because I was left flabbergasted by the arresting images, disturbing soundscapes and inventive use of the medium of film. I ended my review for Tetsuo: The Iron Man with the sentence, “If you consider yourself a cinephile willing to push the boundaries of your experiences then buy this film.” I stand by this because the works are just that great and show the power of film and the inventiveness of Shinya Tsukamoto.
Here is the UK trailer:
This 2 disc blu-ray and DVD set includes a brand new exclusive interview with Shinya Tsukamoto that lasts for nearly twenty minutes and goes into detail about how he started making movies, the making of Tetsuo and what film and cyberpunk mean to him. Also included is 45 minute ‘The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy’, an early film Tsukamoto made just before Tetsuo: The Iron Man which is an absolute riot and full of joy and creativity. This is the first English-subtitled release and it has also been remastered.
The release features both a slipcase as well as a reversible sleeve so fans can choose whether they’d rather have an image from Tetsuo I or II on the front of their box.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man – Japan / 1989 / 67 Mins / In Japanese with English subtitles / B&W / 16mm
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer – Japan / 1992 / 83 minutes / In Japanese with English subtitles / Colour / 16mm
DVD/BLU-RAY Special Features:
New High Definition Transfer supervised by Shinya Tsukamoto
Exclusive interview with Shinya Tsukamoto
‘The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy’ – Shinya Tsukamoto’s early film
New UK Trailer
Japanese Theatrical Trailers for both Tetsuo I & II
The third film released by Third Window Films is Kotoko which won the ‘Best Film’ award in the Orrizzonti at the Venice Film Festival last year, the only Japanese Film to ever win that award. When I watched it I was struck by the difference between Tsukamoto’s earliest films as seen in Tetsuo and the way he has changed his style but retained his visual literacy and kept his ability to use the medium of film to convey so many ideas. I described Kotoko as a harrowing film to watch but worth striving for because it is strong emotionally and visually and powered with a strong central performance from Cocco and I gave it 4.5/5.
Here are the details of the release:
KOTOKO
A film by Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo, Snake of June, Vital)
Kotoko (Cocco) is a young single mother who lives alone with her baby son. Suffering from an unknown illness that makes her see doubles of people and not knowing which version of the person is real, it severely impacts her day-to-day life, often leading to her lashing out violently. The only time she does not see double is when she is singing. As her situation worsens and she becomes a liability her son Daijiro is taken from her and put in the care of her sister. Kotoko is left alone with her own thoughts and is at a loss as to how to get Daijiro back. Then a man named Tanaka (Tsukamoto) enters her life when he hears her singing on a bus trip and finds something awoken inside himself. Tanaka is a novelist with a hit title called The Man Who Brightened the Moon in bookshops but he leads a lonely life. Despite initial rejections he persists but Kotoko’s mental state is not getting better.
Japan / 2011 / 91 Mins / In Japanese with English subtitles / Colour / HD
DVD/BLU-RAY Special Features:
Exclusive interview with Shinya Tsukamoto
UK Trailer
Japanese Theatrical Trailer
Despite the active presence of women, Tsukamoto’s early films like Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer end up being masculine stories of malign worlds full of inhuman technology, body-horror and destruction. 1995’s Tokyo Fist was the first where I felt that women were given equal footing. In A Snake of June Tsukamoto once again uses his keen style to explore and depict the dark psychological and emotional pressures that are awakened in a harsh urban environment but the violence and weirdness are replaced with a story of repressed sexual desires of a woman in the vulpine form of Asuka Kurosawa.
Tokyo Fist has no biomechanical nightmares and there is only one psychotic stop-motion vision but this film is an intense psychological horror which depicts how people can be warped by a hate so intense that it shapes their world and leads to dreadful violence.
Shinya Tsukamoto made a stunning debut with Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988) which became a massive cult hit. It allowed him to explore projects beyond the indie scene which he came from and so, for his follow-up, he picked the more mainstream Hiruko the Goblin in 1990, a film based on a manga by a favourite writer of his. It was a success. In 1992 he went back to the film which made his name but with a bigger budget and bigger ideas.
Tomoo Taniguchi (Taguchi) is a salary man who lives a happy life with his wife Kana (Kanaoka) and their son Minori (Tomioka). Then his life is shattered when his son is kidnapped by a group of skinheads lead by a mysterious man (Tsukamoto) and a mad scientist who then target him for a series of experiments designed to turn him into a human weapon.
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is classed as a reimagining of the first film. It uses the same ideas, actors and themes but broadens its palette by morphing from pure horror into, what Tsukamoto describes in an interview on the DVD extras, an urban action thriller. It is a choice which reaps rewards because the sequel feels totally fresh.
The first thing to note is the colour. Unlike the original which was shot in black and white, this was shot in 35mm colour. While the original felt brutal and oppressive, the colour here allows Tsukamoto a wider range of tones to explore his ideas. This world is close to our own with mellow blues and clean whites from the sun indicating safe havens but when things get really dark and the attacks and mutations begin those colours are replaced by scarlet sunsets, dark blues of towering buildings, stifling oranges from furnaces and harsh blacks from shadows bisecting the screen. The use of colour is vibrant thanks to the fact that Tsukamoto has worked on rebalancing them for this new release. While there may be colour what has not changed is the fact that the camera and visual effects are still insane.
Once again the world Tsukamoto envisions is one where the impersonal and unnatural nature of spaces, towering buildings and stretching corridors, swallow up characters. It is not uncommon to see character framed in window panes. There are places of danger like the abandoned factories and junkyards full of mysterious skinheads who train with construction tools around blast furnaces. Then there are the commercial areas of glass and concrete. In contrast, the family home is a happy bubble flooded with light, almost dreamlike when compared to the brutal environment outside, the camera sways gently around and zooms in on happy faces. It cannot last as the skinheads invade it and from this point on the darkness and energy pick up.
When I first watched this I was left stunned. I had no idea what I had just watched but it left me marked. Tetsuo: the Iron Man is considered one of the defining titles in the ‘body horror’ movement and a cyberpunk classic. While it may have been shot in black and white 16mm, the creative force in this film is near overwhelming and totally absorbing and it is easy to see why this became an international cult hit and why many hail this as a classic. Now, thanks to Third Window Films, we get to see why this is so highly regarded in a DVD package which is of brilliant quality.
