Boiling Point. (15.)
Directed by Takeshi Kitano. 1990.
Starring Masahiko Ono, Yuriko Ishida, Takeshi Kitano, Takahito Iguchi, Minoru Iizuka, Makoto Ashikawa, Hitoshi Ozawa. 96 mins.
The second film focuses on a Droopy Draws youth (Masahiko Ono) who works in a garage, is attached to a baseball team but rarely plays, and manages to get his baseball coach into trouble with the Yazuka. Halfway through the film him and a friend go to Osaka to buy a gun and meet up with a psychotic, loose cannon yakuza, played by Kitano.
It's a mess, to some degree by design. Kitano likes to work fast, one or two takes maximum, and then put it together in the editing. Here though you suspect that in the editing suite he found out that he hadn't got enough footage. The storytelling is disjointed and character motivation is haphazard and random. For example, you never get to see the moment the kids connect with Kitano, or what he sees in them. The overblown, melodramatic ending comes clean out of nowhere. It seems unearned and a letdown, but at the same time kind of effective; only Kitano can deadpan overblown melodrama. The casual away the film dolls out violence and death, makes it more affecting. Its always there and usually when it comes it'll be clumsy and pointless.
But among it all are striking moments. There is brilliantly executed flash forward premonition. The death of a major character is seen through a window from a distance. It's a queasy unpleasant vision, but often startling.
The film, and especially Kitano's character, is unrelentingly nasty. Women get abused throughout and by all the men. Kitano slaps his girlfriend repeatedly; so often that it is clear that this is way beyond showing how repellent his character is. Everything is meaningless and nothing has value and after a while, the weight of the misanthropy is hard to take, even with the moments of humour and clever editing strategies.
Sonatine review
Directed by Takeshi Kitano. 1990.
Starring Masahiko Ono, Yuriko Ishida, Takeshi Kitano, Takahito Iguchi, Minoru Iizuka, Makoto Ashikawa, Hitoshi Ozawa. 96 mins.
The second film focuses on a Droopy Draws youth (Masahiko Ono) who works in a garage, is attached to a baseball team but rarely plays, and manages to get his baseball coach into trouble with the Yazuka. Halfway through the film him and a friend go to Osaka to buy a gun and meet up with a psychotic, loose cannon yakuza, played by Kitano.
It's a mess, to some degree by design. Kitano likes to work fast, one or two takes maximum, and then put it together in the editing. Here though you suspect that in the editing suite he found out that he hadn't got enough footage. The storytelling is disjointed and character motivation is haphazard and random. For example, you never get to see the moment the kids connect with Kitano, or what he sees in them. The overblown, melodramatic ending comes clean out of nowhere. It seems unearned and a letdown, but at the same time kind of effective; only Kitano can deadpan overblown melodrama. The casual away the film dolls out violence and death, makes it more affecting. Its always there and usually when it comes it'll be clumsy and pointless.
But among it all are striking moments. There is brilliantly executed flash forward premonition. The death of a major character is seen through a window from a distance. It's a queasy unpleasant vision, but often startling.
The film, and especially Kitano's character, is unrelentingly nasty. Women get abused throughout and by all the men. Kitano slaps his girlfriend repeatedly; so often that it is clear that this is way beyond showing how repellent his character is. Everything is meaningless and nothing has value and after a while, the weight of the misanthropy is hard to take, even with the moments of humour and clever editing strategies.
Sonatine review
