Pisutoru opera

I was eager to see "Pistol Opera" for a variety of reasons. I had recently seen "Branded to Kill" and the idea of a follow-up/sequel/remake by the same director intrigued me. Furthermore, I am a fan of the lead actress, Makiko Esumi, from her work on Japanese TV.

Sadly, this film goes nowhere...slowly. The plot seemed simple enough but within minutes I was lost. These "professional killers" spend nearly the entire film killing each other which begs the question who is employing these people and what purpose they serve. Lots of these scenes look wonderful and have some fun ideas, but nothing makes any sense. Characters deliver long, meandering soliloquies into the camera, flip-flopping from Japanese to English and back again. Neither language adds any clarity to the circumstances. The whole thing feels like some kind of experimental stage play, especially the final showdown where characters enter and exit bizarre scenery accompanied by strange, nearly naked dancers.

What the hell?

Seijun Suzuki has made great films, and at least some very good ones. And oddly enough some of those films were done not with a completely free hand. Suzuki had resistance (and even got fired during the editing) with Branded to Kill, his 1967 masterpiece that serves as the sort of inspiration for this *extremely* loose remake/re-telling. But maybe that served him better than here, which is a little like Lynch with Inland Empire: the floodgates are open, and it's high time to just let whatever s***'s inside fly out. Only unlike a Lynchian DV mescaline trip into brain-tubes, this is like a Kabuki fever dream cooked up by the samurai in Lowry's dream scenes in Brazil. It's an artist working without a net and, frankly, without much of a story or close to identifiable actors, either.

If Pistol Opera weren't made by a director who has a sure hand with his craft, if not in his old age a mastery, then it would be just about unwatchable. This is something sad to say as I would have loved to consider Pistol Opera a luxurious expressionist piece, something that is so assured with creating a mood that it doesn't need a firm story. But in this story, whatever there is of it, about a female No. 3 killer (in Branded it was male) who has to face off against the Hundred Eyes killer and the No. 1 killer while fending off the pleas of a little girl who just wants to be a killer too, it needs some kind of focus from time to time. After a few scenes of strange set up where No. 3 faces her "boss" of sorts who wears a mouth mask and talk in abstract dialog, the film just goes off into tangents... and then more of them...

Some of this, perhaps, was meant to be parody, a delirious send-up of both Yakuza thrillers and Kabuki theater, and its shot half on location (there is, in one of the most satisfying and crazy scenes, a chase between No. 3 and a man in a skewed wheelchair along a riverbank), half in studio. But it's not very funny, and its not really all-encompassing as a work of surrealism. I was taken in by its cinematography and sets and a perversely awesome array of colors, and make no mistake there's rarely a frame of the film that doesn't look gorgeous. But there needs to be more than just fantastical camera moves. There's a shoot-out towards the end that not only breaks the 180 degree rule (you know the one if you're familiar with basic camera direction) but gives it a middle finger with a silver bullet right between the face.

But there needs to be something else, something that Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter just had instinctively, which is soul, a purpose in its subversion. Too much of Pistol Opera feels like exercise without result, like in those overlong scenes with the woman talking to the camera about God knows what. I expected the unexpected, but I didn't expect to be... bewildered to disappointment.

This is one of the best films ever made. An intense fever dream of surrealism, dream logic, and a beautiful painter's touch. I've never seen any other films that could straight-up be called "avantgarde action"; I wish there were more films like this...

What really strikes me are the colors, though the story (which is relatively straightforward; ignore the other reviews) is one extremely philosophical, awesomely existential dilemma after another.

Brilliant in every way a movie can be. Masterpiece. Hated by the same people who hate Izo and El Topo (aka people who can't wrap their head around true brilliance).

Don't understand how ANYONE could hate on this film, even if they didn't "get it" all. The visuals alone are reason enough to see this.

Suzuki Seijun is a master of craft, and one of the greatest visual stylists ever. This film is a loose reworking of Branded to Kill, the jakuza clasic that marked the end of his career at Nikkatsu studios, whom Suzuki was a contract director. That film took many risks in narrative and presentation, and it was post modern before post modern became chic.

Before you complain about why you don't understand this film, just look at it less in terms of narrative and more in terms of the abstract. It's a spectacle of sight and sound, and one of the most beautifully shot movies in recent times. The photography alone is reason enough to see it.

This is a film that does not bother to explain it's convoluted story because it's very design DOES NOT warrant that path. It's cinematic style brings to mind elements of Kabuki and opera theater. The performances are mannered and exagerated, something that is understandibly strange if you are not japanese.

All in all, it's a film devoid of anything rational and a spectacle of sight and sound. A 10.

If you've never seen a Seijun Suzuki film don't start with this one. I cannot state that strongly enough.

Taken as a film in isolation, judging it on its own merits, this film fails. Fails interestingly, but fails.

The acting is appalling. The script is pretentious gobbledegook. There are parts of the film when it seems like even the director is sleepwalking. The sets and props are clearly badly made. The actors aren't very good or even interesting looking. The soundtrack is bad. Your friends will think you're a paedophile.

BUT... There are incredible moments in this film. Jaw dropping changes of colour. Symbolic actions. Bizarre perspectives. A new way of looking at everyday items and interactions. Some moments that recall the old thrill of watching the original "Branded to Kill".

The sheer ambition of certain moments is heartening. You think of things like German Expressionism and pop art and say "wow". It's tantalising.

This is a film interesting for those people who've followed Suzuki's career and want to see his next experiment in non-realist cinema and storytelling. Unfortunately that's the only level on which this film works.