bloody_frets

This was a roller coaster through the sickness of the human mind and back up to blue skies. I watched this after suicide club (that in my opinion was very average to not so good) and was amazed. The movie did not even need the Suicide Circle background. The symbolisms were nicely presented and the metaphors were very tight to the storyline.

The atmosphere is heavy dramatic and suits the movie's concept fantastically. While watching you feel like you are passing from reality to fantasy and back again up to the point you don't know whats real anymore. We have to thank the very well presented characters for this (just enough info but not too much). This was a very very good movie. Long but good!

I just finished watching the film and went straight online to see the reviews hoping something will come out of it. It is true this movie had some metaphors and it doesn't deliver everything straightforward but it was really a mess! If you are going to say something through metaphors and symbols your structure should be SUPER SOLID so every "symbol" adds up and connects to each other.

A lot of people claim that you have to know the Japanese culture or be a Buddhist (or whatever) to get the film which I believe is totally ridiculous! Even the "what happens when you die" belief the Buddhists have is widely known all over the world (it is not 300BC anymore). This film did not mention that it is for Japanese Buddhist only and if that was the case then the director the writer and everybody else simply failed to deliver their message to a wider audience.

It is very easy to throw stuff in a movie and then just say it means something whether it is "the poor pop culture" or "the love of animals" or even "Christmas! (the scene were the police officer has the last bag of flesh and he is covered in Christmas lights". At least if you are going to be absurd about it and just talk with symbols do it like Alejandro Jodorowsky did on his masterpiece Holy Mountain - meaning leave the detective story a little more to the side and prepare us for it.

Conclusion - The movie tried to tell a detective story with a deeper meaning/message. The connection of the detective story with the symbols was a failure as they were just all over the place. IMO There are no symbols or concepts or topics in this film concerning only the Japanese Buddhist Asian etc culture - yes we pretty much have the same concerns, society problems and worries over here too (And chickens and Christmas lights and tattoos and stupid pop bands). I give 5 cause they tried. You can watch this film if you want but i wouldn't recommend it.