Chi to hone

I'd watch Blood and Bones for one reason, and that's for 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano. Local audiences will probably remember him in recent roles from Battle Royale, Brother, and Zatoichi. Here, he plays Jyombion Kim, one of the early pioneer Koreans who emigrated to Japan.

From the start, the narration tells us the story of this one man and his life, from a teenager, until his deathbed. And he's a violent man at that, always with a drink in hand, which brings out the worst in him. If he wants to copulate, he makes sure he does. If he wants to whack the living daylights out of a person, or family member, he does too. He's Mr Domestic Violence personified, with cruel beatings to get his way. From opening a fishcake business, to loan-sharking, his aloof, and philandering ways created his extended dysfunctional family, their trials and tribulations. He is an independent, wandering soul, and will probably provide for an interesting character study.

Besides the nice cinematography, the beautiful soundtrack is probably what made it easy to go through this excruciating slow paced movie. If you're not careful, you might nod off at time. The material might be uncomfortable for some; though there was violence, there isn't much gore.

Weaved throughout the show at various points, is the look into the treatment of these Korean immigrants in Japan, the discrimination and difficulties faced in living in another's homogeneous society. There are many characters in the movie - sons, daughters, in-laws, half-siblings, wives, mistresses, that you'll probably be able to create a neat family tree if you link all of them on paper. But don't expect too much story on the ensemble of characters, most of them get their focus at various points, then are quietly dispatched to the background.

It's an awfully sad tale, nothing in it that will make you cheer. But there is something to cheer about the movie though, and that it is shown here uncut and unedited. Meaning you get to see it as it was intended, including male genitalia.

Blood and Bone might as well be called 'Once Upon A Time In Japan' for the strong resemblance it bears to Sergio Leone's epic account of the immigrant experience in post-war America. The immigrants in Yoichi Sai's unrelentingly violent film are Korean, displaced there after the Japanese occupation, the country and any national identity further destabilised after Japan's defeat in the war. Arriving in Osaka in 1923, Kim Shunpei is determined to make a better life for himself, and when he returns from the war sets up a fish-cake factory, expanding later into the loan shark business. His explosively violent temperament however means that he leaves behind him a trail of death and destruction that doesn't even spare his family.

Well-known for violence in his own gangster movies, 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano takes brutality to monstrous proportions in a performance of remarkable and terrifying intensity, but you could tire very quickly of him punching women in a yet another appalling rampage. In some ways however Kitano is just too big a personality, even for such an epic film, overshadowing any finer points it might have made about the Korean-Japanese experience.

Yoichi Sai's long film is about a Korean immigrant (to Japan), played by Takeshi Kitano, who cares about nothing but his own pleasure and gain. His destructive personality and violent temper decimate everything and everyone around him. Based on a true story, the script does not attempt to explain or justify Kitano's character. It presents him without judgment.

The rapes and beatings (mostly of family members) are relentless and occasionally surreal. One brutal exchange between father and son takes place during a rainstorm and is visually arresting. Another sequence, where father and son respectively destroy each other's homes, has a dark, humorous edge.

The director chooses his shots carefully and recreates the periods in which the film is set (circa 1923 to the mid-80's) effectively but never ostentatiously.

Although there is much repetition, the film does serve up a smörgåsbord of atrocities for exploitation fans. The treatment of women is harsh. One beating, in particular, of a young woman by her coarse husband, is strong stuff indeed and flawlessly conveys the cycle of violence a perpetrator creates within his own circle and extended family.

Clearly given a generous budget and clearly a labor of love, BLOOD AND BONES is well worth seeing and should not be forgotten.

Kitano is extraordinary.

In 1923, the Korean teenager Kim Shun-Pei (Takeshi Kitano) moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploring his employees. He makes fortune, abuses and destroys the lives of his wife and family, having many mistresses and children and showing no respect to anybody. Later he closes the factory, lending the money with high interests and becoming a loan shark. His hatred behavior remains until his last breath, alone in North Korea.

"Chi to Hone" is an extremely realistic, sad and cruel movie about the life of one of the most hideous characters I have ever see. The impressive story has a fantastic direction, awesome interpretations and Takeshi Kitano is simply stunning. The scenes of rape, fight and brutality are amazingly well choreographed and real. The cinematography and art direction present a reconstitution along decades of Osaka, supported by one of the most beautiful soundtracks of the cinema. I regret only my lack of knowledge of Japanese and Korean histories for a full understanding of some historical moments showed along the years. This masterpiece is absolutely underrated in IMDb. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Consumido Pelo Ódio" ("Consumed by Hate")

This is the tale of Joon-pyong Kim, who immigrates to Osaka from Korea as a teenager in the 1920's. The film flashes about 10-15 years forward and it turns he's a horrendous wife beater with a successful fish cake business. This film reminded me a little of Scarface: replace gang violence with the domestic variety and cocaine with fishcakes.

As in Scarface, the main character is devoid of compassion, mean, violent and you loathe him. In this respect the film succeeds with a very good performance by Kitano.

Where it fell short for me is Joon-pyong's life is kind of uninteresting. I liked the idea of a true story of a Korean immigrant trying to make it in Japanese society, through two wars and with all the racial strife.. but this theme was really a side bar to the depressing and unrelenting abuse Joon-pyong's family endures.

The film does succeed in demonstrating cycles of domestic violence and how a man can be successful in business and yet have a totally failed family life. But I think this theme was firmly established 1/2 hour into the film, and the film continues in that vein, not really introducing any highs or lows or change, in the next two hours.

The film has some good components but as another review said, there's nothing here to really cheer about.