Chinpira

Dear dear. Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but such sincerity may not equate to quality. The director here is clearly paying homage to Beat Takeshi. There is Beat's minimalist look and feel, petty squabbling and bonding between a couple of idiotic young hoods (these are the titular "Chinpura" - low-grade yakuza), sudden outbursts of senseless violence.

But missing are other essential ingredients. None of Beat's flair is present, and of course this is hard to reproduce. But, more practically, the editing is poor. Beat's films, even when the scenes apparently lack connection of run slowly, rarely go for too long. Unfortunately, Chinpira has many scenes which lack sense or connection, go very slowly and, most importantly, fail to be cut short enough. The result often looks sloppy. Furthering this impression is the overall cheap look. The film is shot in a grainy look which simply doesn't help.

If you think I'm overstating the comparison with Beat T, observe that one of the lead actors (Dankan) is an associate of the Beat camp.

This film could well be an honest attempt to tell a story about the relationship between two young men with more aggression than brains and their to-and-fro friendship. There are certainly people for whom this will be watchable, but I'm not one of them. Although I don't like some of Beat's stuff, there's really no substitute for the real thing.