Sho o suteyo machi e deyô

I like to take a chance with the films I watch - sometimes it pays off, other times I wish I'd just skipped over it. This film belongs in the latter category.

It really was awful... The characters are abhorrent, the dialogue is nonsensical, the use of green and purple filters is nauseating, It's just a horrendous viewing experience. Not to mention the scenes of gang rape, bestiality and animal cruelty, all accompanied by a cacophony of screams, wails and weird chanting, used simply to shock the viewer and further twist the dystopian society this film presents us with. The worst example of art-house cinema... I advise you to stay clear.

...The prostitution song was fun though ;)

Surreal, experimental, loud, and chaotic, yet in other words, pointless, disjointed, perplexing, and unsatisfying. The epitome of style over substance. Filled with numerous overlong, inexplicable, and unnecessary scenes that tries so hard to deviate from linear storytelling yet at the same time failing to delve into it's main themes of teenage rebellion. I found it frustrating not to learn anything substantial about the protagonist, who oddly lacks screen time and remains nameless. Let alone his family. The surreal elements lack appeal and fail to provide significant artistic value, ultimately leaving me bewildered. Even the music fails to capture my attention as well. In the end, I was left disappointed. I really wanted to like it though.

This is why cinema is the superior art form. It started its journey in exactly the opposite way literature did. Literature was for the wealthy, educated people...then arrived to the masses slowly with more and more inferior books. And cinema started for the illiterate masses and relatively fast conquered the intellectuals as well. But that's what I'm trying to say, cinema was a more generous art form for humanity. It captured the human curiosity with a huge force.

Terayama should have instead just embraced and used every cinematic tool to enforce the idea that, comparatively, cinema is the more profound one because of its form factor, package and universality. He instead chose to place it at the same level with literature and condemn both, by association. It's all over the place but the title is something we always come back to, so we get the gist of it all. He places both categories of intellectuals (book and cinema) in the same boat.

Go outside sometimes and live life. Interact with your society, on all levels, understand it and make it better at the end of the day along with you, as an individual.

On first look, this movie appeared to have everything I desire, but I was let down. My biggest problem was there were too many distractions from the actual story of the movie which resulted in boredom. The beginning and ending of the film serves as a breaker of the fourth wall which, however interesting, doesn't add one iota to the actual plot. Instead, it seems to serve other political intentions/themes for which I was just not interested in. You can research 1970s Japanese subculture both on the streets and in cinema to understand the connections, but even then, unless you're a film buff with this particular regional interest, it doesn't add to the actual story at hand.

The second plot detractor, was the incorporation of the random scenes. These included things like street dancing, some guys smoking drugs in public, a stutterer reflecting on his speech, and video recordings of personal ads. I'm all for the collage style, but again, I could not find any connection from these to the actual plot or the setting.

The story and the cinematic effects used had so much potential, but I ultimately found myself bored and detached due to all the unnecessary scenes. The director was trying to accomplish more than one mission in this film and the result was that the objectives clashed and eroded each other, mainly the story of our teenage protagonist.

Fortunately the Sydney JFF had an excellent print off this masterpiece.

The use of colour is important to the director in aiding dream sequence and as part of the surrealism.

After being bored and not able to finish watching nitram 2021 the day before it was a real pleasure to be engrossed by a sort of Godard of the East.

The playful use of the media to create this film is always engaging and question the viewers relationship to what is on the screen.

Cinema that challenges our perception of itself requires real skill to be effective.

This tale entertains us while also achieving that. A little less demanding than Godard still done with a strong command of the tools available.

Music is a real takeaway. Being used really well and adding so much and yet now a snapshot of its time era

Best seen on the big screen!