Tokyo Tribe (Tokyo Toraibu).

Sono Sion’s battle rap musical is a violently cool sexy and insane movie, although I’m sure many will find it tacky and offensive. But any devotees of the cult director work, which has included Love Exposure (2008) Guilty of Romance (2011) and of course Cold Fish (2011), will have a grand idea of what to expect. Written and directed by the Japanese filmmaker Tokyo Tribe (2014) is a live action adaptation of the legendary seinen manga series Tokyo Tribe 2 by Santa Inoue.

Lord Buppa shows off his weapon. 

Mrs Lord Buppa gives a helping hand. 

Mira gets cross.

Set in Tokyo in the near future. The opening segment sets out how the city is controlled by 23 rival gangs known as tribes. Each is different from the next but the most powerful Tribe is led by Lord Buppa a morbidly, bisexual crime lord with a lecherous sadistic personality and a depraved son who collection of ‘live’ furniture beats anything Ikea can provide. Mera and his Wu-Ronz gang back up Buppa. But when Mera’s hatred for the Musashino-Saru kingpin Kai boils over its time for the Tribes to pick sides. If I were to tell you that before the brilliantly choreographed final battle take’s place we are treated to some complete mayhem involving a High Priest who wants to sacrifice and his virgin daughter Erika who you can imagine is not keen on the idea, a wonderful mobile phone in the shape of a gun, leather clad female warriors, Day-Glo captions and dialogue like ‘it ain’t the size of a mans penis that makes him great but the size of his heart’ something I’m sure would make a great discussion down your local pub. 

 

Will the Leather Clad warrior chief join with the other tribes....

.... to fight a common enemy?

Said to be the world’s first battle rap musical most of the dialogue is ‘spoken’ in rap backed up by a pulsating rap soundtrack and some Clockwork Orange type Beethoven interludes. As far as political correctness is concerned this movie is way off the scale but for this blogger its exciting, full of fun and a great addition to Sion’s body of work. Fans I’m sure will love it.

Himizu.

Director Sion Sono had already completed the script for Himizu (2012) when the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck the pacific coast of Japan. Following the disaster he rewrote the script to include the aftermath of this tragedy as a backdrop that showed the ravaged urban wasteland. This tragic catastrophe adds an extra dimension to what would have already been a powerful story involving the unhappy life and uncertain future of a 15-year-old teenager.

The teenager in question is Yuichi Sumuda who it would be fair to describe as a rather sad and depressed young man. His mother has abandoned him to go off with her latest lover; his father is an alcoholic who only see’s him when he’s short of money and wishes his son was dead so he could collect the insurance. Sumuda has to try to juggle his school life with running the family rental boat hire business. Classmate Keiko Chazawa home life is also traumatic with her mother and father building a gallows in their house and feel that their lives would be better off if their daughter hung herself! Keiko has a severe crush on Sumuda and is happy to assist him in the running of his business but is rejected by Sumuda who physically assaults her. Further complications occur when the Yakusa come looking for the 6 million yen that’s owed by Sumuda’s father and when they can’t locate him, hold the forlorn teenager responsible for the dept.

 

The movie is based on Minoru Furuya’s manga Himizu, which is the Japanese word for a particular breed of moles found in that country. The film boasts two great central performances from Shota Sometani as Sumuda and Fumi Nikaidou as Keiko as the troubled teenagers. Its a sensitive study of lives affected by this colossal disaster and a subtle attack on Japans older generation all to accompaniment of Samuel Barbers Adagio, coupled with a beautifully affecting ending, makes this a great addition to Sono Sion’s body of work.

Guilty of Romance.

Poster.

Sono Sion’s ‘Hate Trilogy’ finally comes to an end with his latest movie Guilty of Romance (2011). The first, and probable the best was Love Exposure (2008) a film that really impressed me. Although it had a running time of a little over three hours it never seemed that long. Written by Sono, it’s a wonderful story of Shakespearean dimensions, featuring, amongst other weighty subjects, castration, transvestism, religious cults and lots and lots of Catholic guilt. It also poses that long-standing question “can you be a pervert with dignity”? The penultimate film in the trilogy Cold Fish (2011) is a black comedy that was apparently based on a serial killing that took place in Japan in the 1990’s. After a sedate start it descends into a manic portrayal of murder, sex and gore with some brutal and shocking scenes similar to those that can be found in Takashi Miike’s somewhat bizarre movies.

Izumi's part time work escalates.

This final film masquerades under the premise of a murder mystery that begins with the discovery of mutilated female body parts cut up and rearranged into two life size mannequins. But the heart of the story is the curious tale of Izumi (Kagurazaka Megumi) a subservient Japanese housewife married to a romantic novelist (Tsuda Kanji) who feels that at 30 years old she is becoming stagnant and drifting through life. She starts to question her very existence embarking on a journey of self-discovery that tackles the belle de jour question of the female division between wife and whore.  Without her husbands knowledge she gets part time work that progresses from selling sausages to nude photography in to porn. Izumi strikes up a friendship with a university professor (Togashi Makoto) who moonlights as a prostitute and whose mantra is ‘sex without love requires a monetary payment’. This change of lifestyle gets ever darker leading her to the ‘Castle’ which is a metaphor for the unobtainable or out of reach, bringing to mind Tarkovsky’s Room within the forbidden Zone[1].

Not your normal university professor!

As with all Sono’s movies it’s a beautifully made and choreographed film with a meaningful soundtrack that complements the action on the screen. This mesmerising experience references both Kafka’s The Castle and the poem On my way Home by Tamura Ryuichi. Kagurazaka Megumi states on the DVD extras that the director does a lot of his work with the actors before any shooting takes place and this certainly shows. A sexually explicit film for the more discerning viewer.

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[1] Stalker 1979.

Cold Fish.

As you can gather from a recent blog, Sono Sion’s Love Exposure (2008) really impressed me and I’ve been looking forward to seeing his latest release Cold Fish (2011) ever since. I can assure that I was not disappointed. This ultragoreistic black comedy is apparently based on a serial killing that took place in Japan in the 1990’s. An exotic dog-breeder Gen Sekine and his common law wife Hiroko Kazama poisoned at least four people and then dismembered and disposed of the remains. The couple were eventually caught and hung for their endeavours. With Sono’s film substitute tropical fish breeder for exotic dog-breeder and you’re some way there.

Domestic bliss.

Shamoto Nobuyuki (Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Love Exposure 2009, The Twilight Samurai 2002) runs a small tropical fish outlet from his dysfunctional home. His daughter, Mitsuko, is resentful of her stepmother Taeko, who in turn refuses to have sex with her husband for a variety of reasons. When Mitsuko is caught shoplifting in a local store, middle-aged rich businessman Murata Yukio offers to mentor the young girl and allow her to work in his much larger, and what seems a more prosperous, tropical fish emporium. Yukio’s attractive sexually obsessed wife Aiko (Kurosawa Asuka, A Snake in June 2002) takes the girl under her wing.  Meanwhile Yukio starts a sadistic affair with Taeko who in turn try’s to convince her husband to go into partnership with this rather overpowering businessman. The timid Mr Shamoto soon wishes he had never become involved in Mr Murata rather dubious business affairs.

Aiko see's the funny side.

After this fairly ordinary start the movie quickly descends into a manic portrayal of murder, sex and gore with some brutal and shocking scenes similar to those that can be found in Takashi Miike’s somewhat bizarre movies. For some reason these scenes do not seem especially disturbing! The reason for this is the dark, but very funny, black humour and secondly It’s like reading a comic book with lots of violence on the page that you don’t tend to take seriously, does that makes sense?  Although I would suggest it may offend some people. Philip French describing it as “rather like attending a school for apprentice butchers” But please don’t think I’m trying to dissuade you from this movie, it’s an intriguing film whose run time of 146 minutes seems no longer than 90 minutes and the acting is absolutely first class with a special mention for the Japanese comedian Denden who plays the outlandish Murata Yukio, his presence on the screen is totally mesmerising, you can’t take your eyes off the man. The cinematography will not offend either. Go on you know you want to see it?

Whats for lunch dear?

Love Exposure

Poster.

Any movie with a running time of over 3 hours can be quite a strain on a viewers patience unless the film is exceptional, one with an absorbing and interesting narrative. Examples that immediately spring to mind are last years Carlos Olivier Assayas brilliant story of Carlos the Jackal at 330 minutes, Ingmar Bergman historical family drama Fanny and Alexander (1982) 312 minutes and of course the longest single narrative Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexandeplatz (1980) well worth 15, yes 15, hours of your time. Now we have Sion Sono’s lengthy tale of lust and religion Love Exposure (2008) originally meant to be some 360 minutes but edited down to a mere 237 minutes at the behest of the films producers. This wonderful story of Shakespearean dimensions, written by Sono, features, amongst other weighty subjects, castration, transvestism, religious cults and lots and lots of Catholic guilt. It also poses the question “can you be a pervert with dignity”?

Yoko.

Yu Honda.

Having grown up in a devout Christian family, Yu Honda (pop singer and Japanese heartthrob Takahiro Nishijima) has always been a well-behaved child. When Yu mother dies, Kaori seduces his father Tetsu and eventually breaks the Catholic priest heart. Tormented by the loss of the women he has fallen in love with, he takes his frustration out on his son forcing the boy to confess to sins he has not committed and then forgiving him for something he has not done. Yu gets tired of lying his father and sets out to become a true sinner. He teams up with three other lads who are well accomplished at the art of sinning, they introduce Yu to a man that teaches him the art of sneak up skirt photography which he takes too with a great deal of enthusiasm as he knows that pornography is the one sin a priest has a problem forgiving.  One day while out with his pals dressed like Miss Scorpion, the end result of loosing a bet, he meets the strikingly beautiful Yoko (award winning Hikari Mitsushima) stepdaughter of Kaori who he helps out in a glorious street brawl and ends up kissing her. Yoko now thinks she is in love with another women! But worse is to come when the devious cult leader of the Zero church Aya (Sakura Ando) attempts to manipulate both their lives.

Catholic guilt?

This is a beautifully made and choreographed film with a meaningful soundtrack that complements the action on the screen. It’s a film full of great characters all very well acted with a dark stream of black humour running through the heart of the movie. Watched over two nights, the DVD comes as two disks, the movie never drags. Yes it’s an oddity, but a very engaging one, and the question “can you be a pervert with dignity”? Well watch the film and you tell me!!