This precursor to Sonatine and Hana-bi (as well as Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown) has all the elements that become Kitano trademarks - the skewered dark humour, deadpan expressions, misogyny, long periods of everyday life suddenly punctured by explosions of brutality. The humour works best - the beer bottle over the head gag and the confusion with the gun outside the gangsters' office being particularly memorable. The dialogue is spartan, which works most of the time, but is plodding when it doesn't, as in the reconciliation scene that ends with shared ice-lollies. The biggest sticking point is the character of Iguchi. He dominates the first half- hour, and his failure to reappear after the Okinawa sequence is unsatisfying. In fact, it spoils the whole third act.
This is a bleak vision of modern Japan, strangely de-populated and amoral. It is Kitano's Japan, and if you have had some of that before, you'll lap this up. Certainly not his best, better than Sonatine but not as good as Hana-bi. But good nonetheless.
This is a bleak vision of modern Japan, strangely de-populated and amoral. It is Kitano's Japan, and if you have had some of that before, you'll lap this up. Certainly not his best, better than Sonatine but not as good as Hana-bi. But good nonetheless.