Bullet Ballet

Tsukamoto is like a spiritual brother to Cronenberg. The grotesque body horror that accompanies most of their films. Their purpose to replace sex (in the classical sense) with a metaphorical equivalent. In Tetsuo it was mechanical, in Tokyo First it was violent punches and in this one there is that weird gun and bullets (of course)...that also replace war and death / suicide.

Tsukamoto is, however, a more rebellious soul. A soul less prone to the parameters of conventional filmmaking. More experimental and more cryptic in a more Japanese sense.

This is not ment to be enjoyable, it is ment to satisfy an already tormented viewer with more of what they already feel, angst, fear, uncertainty, inner violence.

Shinya Tsukamoto's unique vision is fairly amazing. I thought the better known "A Snake Of June" was brilliant and provocative, but this film is also, even though they are hardly about the same thing. Mr. Tsukamoto, who produced, edited, wrote and directed this, also stars in it as Goda, a commericals director whose girlfriend has killed herself with a gun. Goda's life and reason unravels, and he obsesses with finding a gun. He falls in with a gang of disenfranchised youth in Tokyo's Shibuya (the Harajuku district, which is next to Shibuya in Tokyo, is a prime place for these young people still) and gets involved in a gang fight as well as other violence. The film was shot in black and white, which was an excellent idea, since the film is too stark to be in color. This is not for casual film goers, but fans of Tarantino and Darren Aronofsky's work will like this. Mr. Tsukamoto has created a film about the lure of non-redemption and brilliant shoots it almost documentary style. The other characters, especially the brooding model like Kirina Miao as Chisato, are also good, but this is Mr. Tsukamoto's film. Obtain the DVD, which has an interview with him taken years later in which he answers certain questions about the film. It is a candid view of his process and idea. This movie is very in your face and its effectiveness in spreading the message of violence and hopelessness is fascinating. I highly recommend it.

Goda seems to be having a pretty good life. He is a successful television commercial maker who seems to be quite and demand. Also he has had a steady relationship with his long time girlfriend for ten years. However, one night while he is out having a drink, his girlfriend commits suicide. It soon becomes evident that his girlfriend had close ties with the underworld and had somehow acquired a pistol which she used to end her life.

Although suffering a horrible tragedy, Goda seems to be in control of himself, and his co-workers seem to think that he is actually doing better despite the fact that his girlfriend committed suicide. However, this is not quite the case. Goda is seething underneath, wondering how his girlfriend got a hold of the pistol and he soon becomes obsessed with acquiring the gun like the one his girlfriend used to kill herself. This draws Goda into the underworld himself and he seeks the help oh yakuza members and foreign crime elements to attain his desired possession. However, because he is unsuccessful, Goda makes his own gun.

While creating his gun, Goda intentionally encounters members of the gang his girlfriend had been associated with. These members include Goto, a gang kid with long sideburns who is looking to enter the business world, Idei a club owner and leader of the gang who has a serious acid habit, and Chisato a short haired, leather skirt sporting waif who acts as bait for johns whom the male gang members beat up and rob. However, it is interesting to note it seems Goda has had run ins with the gang before and he even has a scar where Chisato bit him quite deeply when he pulled her away when she came dangerously close to being hit by a subway. These characters develop quite an odd relationship with each other in only ways Tsukamoto could create.

This is quite a good film and Tsukamoto does a wonderful job of being Goda. He seems far more dangerous than the gang members and almost emotionless at some points. Mano Kirina is also quite sexy in a sleazy kind of way. This film was quite difficult for me at some moments though because I could not quite figure out how the threads were woven together at some moments, but the film is well worth a watch or two.

Ever since I watched Bullet Ballet for the very first time it's been by far my favorite of all Tsukamoto films. Being a director with a cult following, Tsukamoto is one of the better known Japanese Directors of the last twenty years with a unique visual style of movement and imagery. After watching this film, Bullet Ballet could arguably be Tsukamoto's best film as some of his succeeding works have faltered to produce better quality of work ever since.

As the main character in Bullet Ballet, Tsukamoto himself plays a man named Goda who one night after his usual daily drinking routine goes home to find that his girlfriend of ten years has committed suicide by gun. Torn by his girlfriend's own demise, Goda goes out looking to buy a gun in the streets and along the way runs into a gang of punks who beat him up for a previous spat with the female gang member Chisako (played by the actress Kirina Mano), which leads Goda to hold a personal and unforgivable grudge towards Chisako that he will not let go without violence of his own.

The story and the cinematography of this film holds up this movie and while the acting may be questionable in some minor scenes it doesn't affect the film in any way. Like most of Tsukamoto's other films, Bullet Ballet is presented with plenty Tsukamoto's usual signature hand-held kinetic camera style in most of his films. In my opinion there's room to say that the story of this film could have benefited from some improvements here and there for the characters, though based on Japanese culture and behavior should they had made certain changes would have made the film a bit unusual for Japanese audiences to understand opposed to Western style filmmaking.

Compared to other Tsukamoto's films that I have enjoyed, this is definitely his best looking film to date. Tetsuo "The Iron Man"(1989) which blew me away still had a very dark look and even at times looked underexposed in some scenes. Still, I was amazed with what Tsukamoto was able to accomplish on Tetsuo with very little. A Snake of June is another one of his films that nicely paints a picture while being a very daring film to awe the viewer. In many ways A Snake of June would have given Bullet Ballet a run for its money to be Tsukamoto's best looking film had Tsukamoto have filmed A Snake of June in widescreen format instead of 4:3 full screen which I did not care for and annoyed the hell out of me.

Personally, I can't say I care for any of Tsukamoto's films shot in color except for maybe Vital which was beautifully shot. In spite of it, I still wonder whether I care for the story in Vital by itself, which I am still a bit conflicted about. Style over substance or not, Tsukamoto's visual style in itself is very unique, which can only be seen in films like these.

Whether it's old fashion or not, I still hope for Tsukamoto to one day go back to shooting films in black and white. I feel that in black in white movies he's able to present a much better looking product compared to the ones he made in color. As the current Japanese movie trend is shooting movies in Digital HD that look like video (which in my opinion ruins the visual aesthetics of a traditional film even though you save in budget by in shooting video) I hope Tsukamoto doesn't go on to follow just to save money and sacrifice production quality on his films. That would be a shame to say the least.

There are many versions of Bullet Ballet out there. The version I saw was the standard 87 minute version. There are longer versions in the mid 90 minute marks out there even one that goes on almost close to two hours, but are those rare to come by.

All in all, give Bullet Ballet a go and some of Tsukamoto's other works if you wish. You might enjoy some of them if you're into bizarre, weird and unusual stories. 8 out of 10.

Another Japanese film choice last night , by writer/director/ actor Shinya "Tetsuo: The Iron Man". Like that classic , this is also shot in grainy black and white , employing frantic at times camerawork and some montage / animation briefly . It also has a Thirlwell/ Foetus style industrial soundtrack, and again deals with themes of alienation in a mega city.

Bullet Ballet, released in 1998,starts with Goda (played by the main man Shinya Tsukamoto) as a commercials director living in Tokyo who arrives home to find his wife has shot herself - either by accident or intent - with a .38 "chief's special" revolver. Goda suffers a breakdown of sorts and becomes obsessed with getting himself a similar piece. This leads him into contact with various underworld characters and into direct conflict with a gang of so-called street 'teamsters' - Japanese youths who work straight jobs but commit gang crimes at night. It is said that the idea for the film came from an actual street robbery experienced by Tsukamoto and the film mirrors his own very real feeling of complete helplessness as the gang take his money and deliver a beating without a whimper of resistance. This is just the start, and the viewer is introduced to a wide selection of criminal characters and becomes involved in a gang war triggered by the demand for an "honour" shooting to save face by gang boss Idei, played by the convincing Tatsuya Nakamura, who tells his minion to "get on with the shooting" and treat it like a dream... "In dreams you can kill and not get hurt ... Tokyo is one big dream" The gun as a motif throughout the film gives a strong focus on the finality of pulling the trigger rather than just spraying everybody in a blur of flashing muzzles and deep red, and there are several intense " will they or won't they " moments. Kirana Mano stands out as Chisato, a part time sex worker addicted to speed who comes across as a complex and deliberately contradictory person. However, it is the overall the style of the film : dingy back alleys, concrete industrial backdrops and claustrophobic camera shots emphasising the brutal relationships of the main players that is the real standout. This was often my experience of Tokyo at night when I lived there when out and about, in both places I went to and the type of characters encountered. To sum up, "Bullet Ballet" delivers an element of gritty realism to a believable storyline that makes sure not one round in the clip is wasted. Great punk-style movie-making.