Blood and Bones

This great movie is not just a study of domestic violence. It's much more than that. It's a historical document of the life in Japan roughly from WWII to the 1970'. It shows the life of Korean immigrants in Japan, the constant latent hostility between the Japanese and the Koreans, the difficulty to have a reasonable life in Japan during that time, the way of life in Japan for the "simple folk", the strong hierarchy in the family and in business, and many more aspects. This movie is not entertaining as such and is certainly not fun to watch, it's brutal and often makes you sick. But you can learn more about domestic violence and about the Japanese way of life than in any other way. The script and the actors are great and everything is not just authentic but REAL. So you should not watch this movie for fun but because the subjects are so very important and because you will learn so much – even if you know Japan quite well already.

The Korean born Japanese director Yoichi Sai brings the tale of family violence to the screen, which is based on the adaptation of Yan Sogil's same title novel.

With Takeshi Kitano playing the leading patriarch Kim Joong Pyong, the story begins in Osaka, Japan in 1923. Kim, a native Korean who left Cheju Island from Korea, reaches Osaka, hoping to find a better life.

When harsh reality makes his dream a far cry from where he stands, he resorts to violence and stubbornness to achieve his goal. He rapes Yong Hee (Masai Suzuki), another Korean immigrant, and they get married, and have a son named Masao, and a daughter named Hanako. He opens a fishcake factory and abuses his workers in long hour work, together with his barbaric behavior, which is an idea he strongly believes in. As time goes by, he earns a fortune, which makes him creating the second path of wealth: loan shark. At an extremely high interest and hard pressures on anyone who borrows from him, he was left with nothing but money and mistresses.

Years passes and his family is still under his pressure, which eventually leads to the fall of the family.

Bllood and Bones is a tale of family violence from a ruthless man who attempts to dominate what is around him. Raw and direct to your face, this is certainly not a family friendly tale on how a man repents from the sins he committed to his family.

Being a Korean immigrant in Japan, Yoichi Sai knows best on the facts of the Korean community living in Japan in the previous century, and how the first generation Korean immigrant blends their culture in the Japan society during the post Depression era and World War 2. While the film is portraying the glorious side of how the Koreans seek better life in Japan, it is not a smooth path they are taking. They are still faced with the discrimination of the Japanese as a second rate citizen, even though Japan wants Korea to join forces during World War 2.

Back home, Joon Pyong terrorizes the family thru endless violence, both physical and emotional. Workers were abused, creditors were driven to death, lust for beautiful women and endless physical relationship and abuse on the mistresses were just part of Joon Pyong's lifestyle. Yoichi Sai is not reaping the seed of fear in the audience, creating a negative impression. More rather, these are the bare naked facts that happens around us, even till today. The harsh environment in a developing country makes Joon Pyong's behavior, unfortunately, a norm to him.

As the title says, Blood and Bones. No blood were seen, no bones were broken. Instead, it's the emotion that bleeds and breaks into pieces, which can be explained by the downfall of the Kim family. And Takeshi Kitano's performances makes everyone bleed and left broken.

Blood and Bones is not a feel good movie of any kind. It makes you want to stop more people from bleeding, and breaking into pieces.

I'd watch Blood and Bones for one reason, and that's for 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano. Local audiences will probably remember him in recent roles from Battle Royale, Brother, and Zatoichi. Here, he plays Jyombion Kim, one of the early pioneer Koreans who emigrated to Japan.

From the start, the narration tells us the story of this one man and his life, from a teenager, until his deathbed. And he's a violent man at that, always with a drink in hand, which brings out the worst in him. If he wants to copulate, he makes sure he does. If he wants to whack the living daylights out of a person, or family member, he does too. He's Mr Domestic Violence personified, with cruel beatings to get his way. From opening a fishcake business, to loan-sharking, his aloof, and philandering ways created his extended dysfunctional family, their trials and tribulations. He is an independent, wandering soul, and will probably provide for an interesting character study.

Besides the nice cinematography, the beautiful soundtrack is probably what made it easy to go through this excruciating slow paced movie. If you're not careful, you might nod off at time. The material might be uncomfortable for some; though there was violence, there isn't much gore.

Weaved throughout the show at various points, is the look into the treatment of these Korean immigrants in Japan, the discrimination and difficulties faced in living in another's homogeneous society. There are many characters in the movie - sons, daughters, in-laws, half-siblings, wives, mistresses, that you'll probably be able to create a neat family tree if you link all of them on paper. But don't expect too much story on the ensemble of characters, most of them get their focus at various points, then are quietly dispatched to the background.

It's an awfully sad tale, nothing in it that will make you cheer. But there is something to cheer about the movie though, and that it is shown here uncut and unedited. Meaning you get to see it as it was intended, including male genitalia.

In 1923, a teenager by the name of Kim Shun-Pei moved to Osaka, Japan from Cheju Island, South Korea. There, he grew into a cruel, selfish man of violence who intimidated and exploited all he came across. Founding a fishcake factory- and later a loan sharking operation- he amassed a fortune, creating for himself a fiendish reputation in his community to boot. Married multiple times and father to a brood he cared not for, Shun-Pei was a menace who made life hell for those around him- as his son Masao tells us in Yoichi Sai's 'Blood and Bones.'

A tense, grandly photographed drama written by Yan Sogiru- and based on his own semi-autobiographical novel of the same name- 'Blood and Bones' is a hard-hitting (if somewhat repetitive) exploration of a family unit beset by violence, that also makes interesting commentary on the experience of Korean immigrants in post-war Japan, depicting the harsh realities of discrimination, poverty and social isolation they faced. As the film shows, they work in low-paying, highly dangerous jobs, live in segregated, impoverished housing and face harassment from the police, soldiers and even civilians on a day-to-day basis. They struggle to maintain their cultural and ethnic identity- while also having to contend with the volatile machinations of Shun-Pei.

Featuring many uncomfortable scenes of brutality, rape and even murder, 'Blood and Bones' portrays Shun-Pei as a psychopathic figure who manipulates and bullies any and all he can, though doesn't offer us any reasoning or motivations behind his cruelty. Could he be a product of his environment, or was he born a monster? Is he a symbol of Japan's colonial past, or a completely unique individual? Neither Sogiru nor Sai attempt to answer these questions, leaving the film without a clear perspective on his actions. Furthermore, the narrative structure is somewhat disjointed and episodic, jumping from one scene of violence to another without much connection or development. Additionally, there is little character development of anyone, such as Masao or his mother, nor much reason to care for them beyond our distaste for the callous Shun-Pei.

However, this is not to say that 'Blood and Bones' is by any means a bad film, for the tale is consistently engaging, despite its faults, and contains many scenes of genuine power and pathos, as well as some terrifically realized moments of action. A sequence involving a funeral is a real stand out, as well as a terrifying exchange between Shun-Pei and Masao, as the two men brawl through a wall and out into the street; their hatred for one another having reached fever pitch.

'Blood and Bones' also boasts fine cinematography throughout from Takeshi Hamada, as well as superb production design from Emiko Tsuyuki. Spanning nearly five decades, the locations and sets look consistently period accurate, reflecting the changing times in subtle, clever ways- a testament to Tsuyuki's work. Hamada, meanwhile, creates contrast and mood with his camera work, employing high angles and long shots to show Shun-Pei's dominance and power over his workers and family, while using low angles and close-ups to show their submissive fear. Additionally, he makes expert use of shaky camera movements to bolster the intensity and violence of some scenes, such as during the aforementioned street fight between Shun-Pei and Masao.

Another strength of 'Blood and Bones' is the central performance from Takeshi Kitano, which is powerful and menacing. He plays Shun-Pei as an exceedingly complex, ruthless character who is driven by greed, pride and- above all else- anger. His Shun-Pei is a man who has no remorse or empathy for anyone- even himself. However, he is also capable of moments of humour, charm and generosity, which makes him even more unpredictable and frightening. Kitano's performance is perhaps the highlight of the film; and rightfully earned him several awards and nominations. His supporting cast all do similarly fine work- Tomoko Tabata, Yutaka Matsushige and Susumu Terajima in particular- but 'Blood and Bones' belongs to Kitano.

An unremitting film that is quite hard to watch in places, Yoichi Sai's 'Blood and Bones' tells a familiar story- the life of a man of violence- but tells it well, showing at the same time how the Korean experience in postwar Japan was a difficult and harsh one. Tense and full of brutality, what the film lacks in narrative cohesion and structure it makes up for with its striking visuals and power-house performances- namely Takeshi Kitano's. 'Blood and Bones' may not be for everyone, but some will surely find it a compelling portrait of a psychopathic character they'd be hard pressed to forget.

This is the tale of Joon-pyong Kim, who immigrates to Osaka from Korea as a teenager in the 1920's. The film flashes about 10-15 years forward and it turns he's a horrendous wife beater with a successful fish cake business. This film reminded me a little of Scarface: replace gang violence with the domestic variety and cocaine with fishcakes.

As in Scarface, the main character is devoid of compassion, mean, violent and you loathe him. In this respect the film succeeds with a very good performance by Kitano.

Where it fell short for me is Joon-pyong's life is kind of uninteresting. I liked the idea of a true story of a Korean immigrant trying to make it in Japanese society, through two wars and with all the racial strife.. but this theme was really a side bar to the depressing and unrelenting abuse Joon-pyong's family endures.

The film does succeed in demonstrating cycles of domestic violence and how a man can be successful in business and yet have a totally failed family life. But I think this theme was firmly established 1/2 hour into the film, and the film continues in that vein, not really introducing any highs or lows or change, in the next two hours.

The film has some good components but as another review said, there's nothing here to really cheer about.