Sadly Over-hyped

One of the best films i have seen

Masterful Movie

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is my third film from this director, following the two TETSUO efforts; he seems to have quite a following, but I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen so far – on the contrary, the combination of flashy style and intense approach resulted not only in being off-putting but, for this viewer, it provoked boredom more than anything else! Anyway, while in those two earlier films, the visceral tone and unrelenting bleakness could perhaps be excused given their sci-fi/body-horror plot lines, these come off as mere hollow gestures in the juvenile delinquent milieu depicted here! The plot, if so it can be called, concerns a middle-aged man (played by the director himself!) who, in trying to come to terms with his fiancée’s baffling suicide, frantically tries to obtain a similar weapon (presumably in order to join her in the afterlife). However, during his nightly rounds of the city’s back streets, he runs into a gang of small-time (read: low-life) thugs who rough him up – so, he then finds a new purpose for his gun! Still, through his ambivalent relationship with a sluttish and tomboyish girl in the group, he’s drawn into open warfare between clans – and even intercedes for them when a hit-man turns up to exterminate them at their hide-out! While such a narrative could have spelt considerable visual excitement and even thematic depth, the grungy feel of it all (the ugly black-and-white cinematography of an industrial wasteland setting – which can now be seen as typical Tsukamoto - rapid cutting, noisy soundtrack) plus the obnoxious characters prevents audience engagement for practically the entire duration (not that the ostensible bond between the hero and the girl is handled satisfactorily, or in any way comprehensively): mercifully, the thing lasts for just a little over 80 minutes! Finally, I have to say that, while I’m generally a devoted fan of Japanese cinema, there are certain elements inherent in the Oriental outlook (usually having to do with nihilistic violence and/or mundane melodrama), which I haven’t been able to get into, no matter how hard I try…

On returning home from work Goda learns from the police that his long-time girlfriend has just committed suicide with a gun obtained from yakuza she apparently befriended. Enraged, obsessed and increasingly desperate Goda tries to obtain a gun from black market and find the yakuza he holds responsible. Along the way he runs into a gang of middle class kids that had robbed him earlier and develops a companionship of sorts with the one female gang member Chisato who has similar selfdestructive tendencies as himself.Sounds fairly conventional so far, doesn't it? But Bullet Ballet doesn't quite play out like a conventional revenge story. With a title like Bullet Ballet one might expect to see heroic gunplay, but there are only two guns in the movie and we learn Goda isn't terribly good at dancing the ballet. His efforts at trying to obtain a proper handgun are repeatedly rather comically frustrated and when he finally does get his hands on one, he still is no master killer. I was a bit puzzled by this aspect but then realized the director wanted him and his pursuit of revenge to look frustrating and pathetic. Goda is after all just a whitecollar worker and perhaps the director also wanted to question revenge. ***heavy spoilers*** Indeed in the end he doesn't get his revenge or even learn for certain why his girlfriend committed suicide. Goda and Chisato are forced to face their lives' emptiness and selfdestructiveness, but that also makes possible their redemption in another way. ***end heavy spoilers*** Tsukamoto's expressive and atmospheric visual style propels the kinetic movie. Frequently shaking and moving frantically his powerful black and white imagery hypnotizingly reflects Goda's despair and obsession, bleak urban Tokyo and the chaos and brutality of fights, but also a couple of rapturous moments of beauty such as Chisato playing in Goda's apartment. However some of the shots which cut briefly to the details of urban surroundings seem a bit unnecessary. The soundtrack consists mostly of industrial, metal and techno, but also two beautiful slow pieces towards the end, and it is good. The cast's performances are also good.

First off, those expecting the David Lynch-on-Angel Dust style of the 1st Tetsuo movie and Tokyo Fist will probably be disappointed. Like Tokyo Fist, this is Shinya Tsukamoto at his most personal and heartbreaking. I saw this film at the Montreal FantAsia festival and came out puzzled by what I saw. Here I was, expecting Tsukamoto to cut loose again...and this movie was, by the standards of his earlier work, relatively calm. I'd compare it to Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" in that people will soon be hailing this one as a masterpiece.The film is the story of two people linked together by ideals and tragedy. Tsuda is a director of commercials who is heartbroken by the suicide of his fiancee for mysterious reasons. He soon develops a fascination with guns. Later on, we meet Chisato, a young woman who is the driving force behind a gang of Japanese toughs. Tsuda forms a bond with Chisato through multiple encounters with the gangs. Whereas the other members of the gang are middle-class kids looking for fun, Chisato has a death wish and a suicidal streak which propels her to violence.Here's hoping that Bullet Ballet gets released soon, as it is technically perfect as well as emotionally dead-on.

Bullet Ballet starts out as a fine movie: man wants to avenge his wife, who had connections with a criminal organization. But how does he, a businessman, get a gun? The first 45 minutes deal with this and his search for the criminals: it is turning out to be a sort of Japanese Taxi Driver... But then during a gang fight the story shifts, to its demise, unfortunately. From then on you're looking at a lost cause, as every thread of plot from the first half is trashed and an entirely new movie appears, a very bad movie. Too bad, since Tsakamoto has made some fine movies before.