Ai to makoto

While the start of this is promising, the final third of the film is what really lets this down. The (somewhat awful) musical numbers are what made this film awful, but amusing, and once they start to disappear towards the latter third, what is left is just a bad film. The fight sequences are not particularly inspired, however, it is nice to see girls getting in on the fighting. What stands out is the choreography for the musical numbers. While not being particularly spectacular, they are camp and so bizarre that they are the stand out features of the film. The film is based on a manga (comic book), and as such it should have had a tighter script, but may account for some of the more bizarre characters in the film. However there are no particularly stand out performances, and the greatest star for the film would be choreographer Papaya Suzuki.

"For Love's Sake" is director Takashi Miike's take on musicals; but Miike is known for his genre-bending films, whether he's skewering the Western ("Sukiyaki Western Django") or Japanese horror ("One Missed Call") or historical epic ("13 Assassins," his most straightforward film I think). So "For Love's Sake," as you might expect, isn't like any other musical you've seen.

Ai (Emi Takai) is a wealthy schoolgirl, attending a posh private high school where she is first in her class for everything; Makoto (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is your quintessential Bad Boy, from the wrong side of the tracks and reeking with a bad attitude. All Makoto wants to do is sneer and fight, and he's completely indifferent to who he fights - boys, girls, old people, he'll take on anyone who looks at him the wrong way. Ai and Makoto have a secret history, one that means that Ai will do anything to help Makoto, but she wants more than anything for him to stop fighting. Of course, he won't and he very quickly is sent to reform school; Ai pulls some strings (via her father) and gets Makoto out of juvie and into her high school, where he lasts all of five seconds before heading to the nihilistic trade school, run by girl-gang boss Gumko. Makoto gets himself into hot water there too, but what he doesn't know is that Gumko isn't the true leader of the school, and when he gets on the wrong side of the *real* leader, he's really in trouble....

But yes, of course, it's a love story - aren't all musicals? A love story with very catchy J-pop tunes circa 1972 (when the film is set), including amusingly choreographed song-and-dance numbers, and with numerous breaks for extreme violence. The violence is so over-the-top, though, that you don't believe it for a second and instead it becomes funny, in a slapstick kinda way. Except when it doesn't - there are a few scenes here where the tone shifts from melodramatic hyperactivity to something darker and less fizzy, if I can use that term. At 133 minutes running time, I felt it had perhaps two or three more fight scenes than necessary and, sadly, fewer songs than I'd have liked, but the actors are all fine (fine singers too!) and that slightly surreal sense that seems to accompany Japanese films make "For Love's Sake" the perfect start to FantAsia 2012 here in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Musical movies are cringe by default so that's the first problem. This one is not the worst though, since the musical scenes at least seem somewhat "ironic". Still, the story is uninteresting and shallow. In other words it's bad and boring.

SPOILERS!

For Love's Sake (or Ai to Makoto) is a recent Takashi Miike production that is as equally adorable as it is preposterous. Some people will think it is a wonderfully brilliant piece of comedy, while others will be left asking themselves WTF was that piece of pointless indulgent crap they just watched?...Personally, I loved it, but it is clearly not going to work for everyone.

Your story here involves a young rich high school girl who falls for the poor bad boy outsider from the wrong side of town. She's determined to change his self destructive ways and become his girlfriend no matter what she must do. Along the way, she must contend with various love interests, high school gangs, evil plots, and other roadblocks to win his heart. Simple enough!...Oh, and it's a musical infused with typical Miike style!

The fact that this film is a musical is almost beside the point. At its heart, this film is a straight up parody of an amalgam of movies, and, it is exceptionally well done in that aspect. The problem lies with the fact that you must have a real solid familiarity with, and likely some fondness for, the movies and genres it is satirizing, or it just won't make any sense at all. In essence, you will either "get it", & it therefore might connect with you, or not. If you do "get it" though, you're likely going to enjoy it.

I found this story, and the movie in general, to be both inventive and hilarious. Several of the people I watched it with were baffled by this however. I was asked several times what was so funny, only to clumsily attempt to reference other Miike films/typical high school girl angst tales/standard Asian melodrama fare/wrist cutter send ups/Japanese gangster themes/manga adaptions/etc, in order to try to explain the humor behind it all.

This film takes it time getting started, and it's longer than it should be. But, it's worth it big time for the right moviegoer. By the time the final act rolls around, and all ludicrous plot points converge, this is one magnificently sardonic steamroller running on all cylinders; the male lead is busy beating up every guy and girl in sight while racing to reconnect with his estranged mother before she commits suicide, the 2 female leads are obliviously determined to act out their own preconceived notions of how they think events were destined to unfold (regardless of what is actually going on around them), the 40 year old student is seeking to lay claim as the toughest high school gangster in town once and for all, the nerd is trying to save his love while not losing her to the cool guy hero, and, on it goes. Meanwhile, everyone is going about their business with over the top musical flair.

From the performances, to the story, to the wonderful set designs, this film accomplishes exactly what it set out to achieve. Even the musical numbers were obviously & deliberately dubbed in post production just to add one more comical oddity to the whole experience.

Indeed, this is not a film for everyone; I can think of only a select few acquaintances I would even try to bother recommending this to. And, it is almost certain to draw wildly varying ratings and opinions, depending on the viewer. For those of you who think you know what you're likely in for though, it is well recommended!

7 out of 10 stars.

Very definitely worth seeing, Miike's latest starts out wonderfully strong, but tends to bog down during the middle third of its 131 minute running time. Though based on a manga, this is also a clever send-up of romantic/tragic musicals that - at its best - sets hilariously cheesy dance numbers to vintage Japanese pop songs (one song sounds very much like a variation on "Urami Bushi", aka "The Grudge Song", popular from both FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION 701 and KILL BILL: Vol. 2, while another would appear to be the theme song to the 60's TV cartoon show, WOLF BOY KEN). FOR LOVE'S SAKE also features a lot of violent, over-the-top fight scenes, perhaps too many of which involve the male heartthrob nearly punching the life out of a adoring schoolgirls (I found these scenes a bit repetitive after a while). Still, despite it's drawbacks, fans of Miike will not want to miss this one.