Why Don't You Play in Hell?

I watched this movie few days ago and it is the first Sono Sion movie I have ever watched in cinema. The movie is quite funny with bloody scenes and mad characters (especially the film producer/director played by Hiroki Hasegawa) as Sono always does. You can say that the theme is actually about 35mm film and enthusiasm towards filmmaking (or in general pursuing dream). The thing that touches me (as non film geek) is that film encourage audience to get crazy for our dreams and wild out for it (I think at this point is quite similar to Love Exposure). I would recommend this movie to film lovers but in my viewpoint, this probably cannot really come close to Love Exposure.

Nutty yakuza comedy from Sion Sono. It's overlong, particularly with an interminable set-up, but once we get to the big action set piece you'll find it well worth the wait. A group of amateur filmmakers calling themselves the F Bombers (led by Hiroki Hasegawa) has spent a decade looking for the opportunity to make a real movie. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for them, a yakuza gang is looking for someone to make a feature starring the boss's daughter (Jun Kunimura is the boss, Fumi Nikaido the daughter). Hasegawa proposes that they film the real-life gang war that is bound to happen with the rival gang (led by Shin'ichi Tsutsumi). Sono really could have shortened the film considerably had he realized the character played by Gen Hoshino, the love interest of Nikaido, was worthless and jettisoned him. Or, more obviously, he should have been combined with Hasegawa's character. As it is, Hoshino plays a shy, ineffectual character and he pretty much gets shoved to the background anytime the more lively Hasegawa is on screen. I can't imagine anyone caring about his burgeoning relationship with the drop-dead gorgeous Nikaido. None of this really matters once we get to the blood-soaked finale, which is about as fun as any movie I've seen in recent memory.

This film is an absolute riot. It's ridiculous, hilarious, brutally violent, and unapologetically strange. While this film will certainly not be for everyone, it was right up my alley. It's a film you can't take seriously, but you can have a lot of fun with. I absolutely recommend this film, particularly to fans of the films of Takashi Miike ("Audition", "As the Gods Will") or other Japanese cult directors. I will probably work my way through Sono's filmography until I make it to his four-hour epic, "Love Exposure".

Tokyo gore with a hit of influence from Guy Richie.

It was the perfect midnight movie with such an over the top cartoonish violence about an Amateur filmmaker who stumbles upon the opportunity of a life time (or as he sees it, a gift from the film God) when a young man needs his help in making a movie after getting caught up with a Yakuza boss' daughter.

A series of events with a large ensemble cast that wove together perfectly.

This movie was strange but so entertaining I did not stop smiling throughout the whole thing

The more movies of Sion Sono's that I see, the more I realize that he is one of the greatest artists working today. It's a big claim and I don't like to kiss ass, but the man is one of the few people working in entertainment and art that sees through the current state of the world and instead of criticizing it, he creates a stylish farce that inspires, entertains, and breaks our balls for believing in what we do, in the way we do. He challenges us in a playful way, that I believe is more compelling than the other artists that attempt to do the same thing through relating trauma in films that Hollywood seems to like concerning war, disease, rags to riches to rags, etc...

The world is absurd because of the people in it. The characters. Of course this life is a saga, a tragedy, an adventure, a romance, but above all it is a chaotic mess filled with jokes and gore. Filled with weirdos that are completely out of place on this planet and weirdos that are even more in place.

I love Sion Sono's films and this one in particular lives up to what I love about them. This film gives me hope in the world. I won't spoil it for you. It's about yakuzas clashing with a film crew. It's about me and you. It's about you and me. Yakuzas and a film crew.