Tokyo Tribe

Insane rap musical about warring gangs in Tokyo. This grows to be a lot of fun, but I had to get over a lot of annoyances before I could get into it. First and foremost, I had to get into the music itself. It's certainly not great hip-hop, and, at first, I found it kind of lame. As the film progressed, I don't know if the music got better or I just accepted it as it was, but I started to kind of like it. Second, the plot is a huge mess. I certainly wouldn't recommend you go it hoping for a clear plot, because you're not going to get one. It's just kind of your standard yakuza turf war stuff, with a good gang and a bad gang and a bunch of other, lesser gangs. Then there's something with a runaway princess or something that never quite gels into a coherent story. What you will find is a ton of cool bits scattered throughout, augmented by weird and wild costume and production design. The action is also very good. Sono continues to be a flawed director, but he's clearly one of the most interesting people working today.