Boiling Point

A lot of the comments have been about the film's relationship to the nature of violence, and it's true that it is a violent film. However, that's not the point of the movie. The film starts showing a young man sitting in the dark. He comes out into the light and walks slowly to where the action is taking place. He is dull, uninvolved, uninterested in what's going on. In the beginning, events happen to him. It is only after he is attacked by a hoodlum that he begins to take action himself. He volunteers for the mission to buy a gun and while on that expedition he is exposed to a wide variety of experiences that force him to become a more active personality. After his return he shows himself to be a take charge guy. The symbolism of the butterfly eggs is one of metamorphosis. The title "Boiling Point" has a meaning of change, the point at which water turns to steam. Finally, the last scene is of him in the same darkness as he was at the beginning, but this time when he emerges his movements are quick and jaunty. He is a different man.

Simply an awesome movie. I have no idea whatsoever if I got the movie the way intended. But what I did get was a couple of things. It's one of the funniest and most bizarre films I have ever seen. No matter what happens, people crashing motorcycles, getting beaten etc, no one, ever, shows any emotion. Just the "classic" japanese stone-face. There is no soundtrack in this movie either, and tempo is kinda low, but explodes now and then with meaningless violence. This might sound like utter crap, but Kitano pulls it off, and does it very well. It works, it's fun and it's interesting.

While not as good as some of Takeshi Kitano's other films like Violent Cop or Fireworks, this still has much to recommend it. For one, this has Kitano's always-stunning direction and twisted mix of comedy and shocking violence. Kitano himself appears in a small role as a gangster, and it's perhaps his most twisted role to date. I would probably only recommend this film to Kitano fans, since it is very muddled and not as tight as his other films. But as a Kitano fan myself, I did like it very much.

Boiling Point (1990) is about a goofy guy who works at a convince store and plays sandlot baseball in his spare time. His head is always in the clouds. One day he insults a high ranking Yakuza member while at work. Then that's when all of his troubles begin. An interesting film by Kitano. This is his second directorial project (after taking over the directorial reigns for an ailing director in Violent Cop). Even though he's prominently featured in the film's trailer, Kitano is only in the film for several scenes (but his part is very memorable). Don't be fooled by the trailer. This is not a hardcore Yakuza film. It's about a young guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He should've "stayed in bed" that day. Poor kid. Recommended.

A.

This is the second film of Kitano, but the first which is really his, since "Violent Cop" was not initially to be directed by him. What is striking is that in this first film, we can see the premises of the next ones. Though not a real 'yakuza' film, they play a great role in it, and many scenes, are they shot in a bar, on the beach or in a flower field remind us of what Kitano will shoot later for Hana-Bi or Sonatine. A very interesting film, very satirical towards the japanese society and the yakuzas that behave violently just to convince themselves they are tough guys; even if I personally prefer his other movies.