It's not that no one else does what Shinya Tsukamoto does, but that when he's at his best, nobody does it better. All the common staples of his style are here: loose, frenetic camerawork; sharp editing to produce rapid successions of imagery; industrial music. Add to this the black and white presentation of a very independent production, and the stage is set.
If Tsukamoto's boorishly over the top sequels to 'Tetsuo: The iron man' proved anything, it's that the filmmaker does his best work when he begins with the simplest idea and develops his story from there. In the case of 'Bullet ballet,' that means a man's obsession with obtaining a gun following his partner's suicide. From that premise comes a movie about a person living on the edge, and accidentally becoming involved in still more seedy matters in the process. By all means, it's a concept with great potential. I'm not convinced that the result here was entirely successful, but it's duly engaging, and compelling enough to mostly hold our attention.
Tsukamoto is a capable actor, and inhabits the lead role with strong range and nuance to realize the protagonist's anguished desperation. The writing of other characters is less discrete, but the rest of the cast are suitable nonetheless. I think each individual scene is composed and executed very well, with varying moods and temperaments across them all. I'm less enthused about the overall narrative, as it seems too disordered and busy for its own good. There are sound ideas here, both the central focus and the misadventures that the main character becomes involved in. But I feel like 'Bullet ballet' would be so much better if it were more concentrated on protagonist Goda and his flailing effort to acquire a weapon and end his own life. The more that the film spins out to weave in the thread of gang warfare, the thinner and weaker it becomes, especially since the two elements as they are written fail to converge with the cohesiveness they could have. The movie is full of solid possibility, but the rendition of the tale that we get just doesn't quite cut it.
With that said, I don't think this is bad. In fact, I'm inclined to say it starts out very strong, and even as the component parts fail to wholly integrate, I think the ending is pretty well done, too. The real issue is a floundering midsection that's a little all over the place, and just not tightly centered enough to totally work. More time spent developing the screenplay would have gone a long way. Still - while in part I wonder if I'm not being too kind as it is, more so than not I liked 'Bullet ballet.' It's far from perfect, but tells an engrossing story while refraining from the utmost bombast that bring down some of Tsukamoto's other pictures. This isn't necessarily a movie for someone who doesn't already appreciate the filmmaker's style, but for anyone open to it, it's a fair watch. Don't go out of your way, and keep the indelicacies firmly in mind, but if you happen to come across 'Bullet ballet,' it's not a bad way to spend 85 minutes.
