9 Almas

This 2002 Japanese film is the third feature film showcased in the inaugural Singapore Fantastic Film Festival (The first two being Kontroll and Immortel, which I should be able to watch by the end of the fest).

9 Souls is at times a complex movie, and at times one which has a simple tale to tell. It blurs and crosses the line so often, it makes it difficult to try and classify its genre - part gore, part comedy, part social commentary.

The title refers to 9 prisoners, who are introduced in more detail during their escape from prison (in a very creative introduction by the way), ranging from murderers to a porn king, from a juvenile delinquent to a vertically challenged escape artist. It turns into part comedy once they escape, and have to find the means and substinence to help keep themselves alive in a strange new world.

Prior to their escape, their world is their prison cell, rudely interrupted by a tenth crazed prisoner, a counterfeit king who leaks out the secret to the whereabouts of his stash. With this bit of information, they embark on a quest to recover this lost promise of treasure before going their separate ways.

Which forms the second half of the movie. Throughout the first half, we are exposed to the dreams and hopes of these escape convicts. Being locked up for some time, they each have a secret desire to either reunite with their loved one, or have plans to live a better life. At some point, you will ponder if it was wise of them to each seek their dream, knowing its dire consequences, or would rather choose to stick together in their new found family.

Thoughts on second chances in life also crosses your mind, if these serious crime offenders deserve another break in life, or are forever condemned in the eyes of society for their one moment of folly which has kept them locked up.

The pacing of the film is at times choppy, and you'd have scenes that come out of the blue (like cross-dressing as a disguise). I heard quite a number of people around me give the "hmm... where did that come from" comment.

The soundtrack is kept simple, to a constantly played guitar tune, which in scenes of peace are kept soft, and in scenes of angst, being played to a crescendo. I find this effective in conveying emotions in the film, without the need of a bloated soundtrack.

Rated R21 here for its subject content and scenes of gore which is not really shown on screen, this film is recommended for those who seek a different film offering, which is what this film fest is striving to achieve.

I watched "9 souls" in Athens' 12th International Film Festival (September 2006), where Toshiaki Toyoda, the films's director was also present and answered many questions of the audience. This road film is about 9 fugitives, all very different characters from each other. They decide to stay together travelling with their red van across Japan. Every time the van stops, we see these 9 fugitives trying to escape from their past in order to build up a new life or to fulfil a dream. However, no matter how hard they try, it seems impossible and their violent past comes after them and leads them to their final destruction.

Though a very pessimistic film, it is not a dark film. On the contrary, it is full of beautiful pictures, surreal elements and elegant humor. Toyoda's heroes cannot escape their "prison" and they face a divine(?) punishment for their "crimes". They are small pieces of a beautiful painting, where the tower of Tokyo depicted as a huge knife turned upside down prevails!

The third film I got to watch at the philly film fest was this outstanding drama from Japan. After breaking out of prison nine escaped convicts plan to find the "key to the universe" that a tenth convict who didn't break out told them about. Along the way we get to know each of these men fairly well. Each has their own dreams. For much of the movie it seems to be mostly a comedy, but a shift takes place that the film ends up a tragedy. All of the actors give great performances. I can't say much more without spoiling the film, but suffice it to say that you end up feeling for some of these individuals. At 2 hours, this film is a tad to long, but good none the less. I have no qualms recommending it with the warning that it does have a bit unsettling violence for the tender-hearted. Toshiaki Toyoda hit a home-run this time out, and it makes me want to search out his prior films as well as look forward eagerly to his future ones.

My Grade: A

Here is another great film critics will love. The problem is that it is not a very good movie.

The films premise is simple. Nine convicts escape a prison after the tenth one goes crazy and tells them where the treasure is.

The first half has a lot of slapstick some of it very broad while the second half is a character driven descent into fantasy and melancholy.

The two halves simply don't mix. Individual scenes do work very well (The guys crashing a friends house who has a new Filipino bride is hilarious While a later scene with the big guy working in the restaurant tugs at the heartstrings.) They simply don't mesh with each other.

The movie as well is missing entire set-ups. One scene shows the guys desperately looking for change under a deserted vending machine to buy a snack. The very next scene has the whole crew in drag sitting down in a restaurant. Where did they get the dresses and wigs? (The crew includes both the big guy and a midget) How did they get all the clothes and money to buy the meal? And most puzzling is why are they in drag? They are clearly guys in drag and lets face it is there anything more memorable to witnesses than a big guy and a dwarf eating a meal dressed as women? I mention the big guy and the dwarf because besides the old guy everyone else seems to blend into each other. (In fact they wear matching white jumpsuits throughout most of the movie) The movie has very little character development in the first half and as a result the second half really lacks an emotional punch. As we are often trying to figure out who is who in their individual payoff scenes.

Speaking of a drag the second half has all those wonderful sweeping camera shots and big emotional moments and great symbolism that makes a great film. It is also excruciatingly slow which makes for a boring movie.

9 Souls is a big disappointment, the reviews gush about a great film and it's in there somewhere, good luck finding it yourself.

Highly recommended to all those who appreciate watching movies. Great acting, perfectly surreal awkward humor, requisite prison sh-t, accurate depiction of the male condition. Music is also spot-on. I think the artist is "Dip" but not sure. The short loop of the title credit song on the DVD menu is well-timed, and sounds like Slint. (one thing to know is that IMDb maintains a ridiculous policy of a MINIMUM comment length based on, not CHARACTERS, not WORDS, but rather LINES. Measuring post quality and quantity based on LINES in the bold era of UNICODE and flexible, web-based typography, is like smoking poles.) ! Your comment does not contain enough lines - the minimum length for comments is 10 lines of text. Please see the guidelines. Attempts to pad the comment with junk words can result in your account being blocked from future submissions.