User reviews

A futurism crime thriller was a different venue for Fassbinder, whose stature had grown lately with films in historical settings. Though he didn't direct "Kamikaze," it was helmed by fellow New German filmmaker Gremm & has the moody complexity for which both directors are known, as well as more action. In the near future, West Germany's economy (remember, the fall of Communism was yet unforeseen) has become the world's largest. Virtually all broadcast & print media are controlled by a single, family-run corporation whose head (Gober) styles himself "The Blue Panther" & carefully crafts an elaborate personality cult, including a line of action comics. You still have a lot to learn, Rupert Murdoch. A terrorism campaign against the company by a nebulous entity called "Krysmopompas" (more impressive than "Osama," more intelligent than "Carlos the Jackal") brings on a police investigation headed by the force's most famous detective, Jansen (Fassbinder), who's never failed to solve a case. Clues indicate that someone well-placed in the corporation is responsible, but Jansen soon learns that the company itself is trying desperately to keep secrets. Is Krysmopompas really just an element of the Blue Panther personality cult? The story from Swedish writer Wahloo's novel "Murder on the 31st Floor" is frighteningly accurate in some of its visions, including the rise of cheap, inane reality TV (the marathon laughing contest is a classic) & the creation of euphemistic, self-serving police propaganda machinery (there's no such thing as murder or suicide anymore, only "accidental death"). The props are gleefully, stylishly cheap & cheesy, including Jansen's pajamalike leopard outfit, which might be some sort of uniform (remember Sylvia Anderson's purple wigs in "UFO?"), the burly assassins in black lingerie, the 3-wheeler choppers of the police & the Superman executive phone. However, they're no more outlandish than those of the wildly popular "Mad Max" films (Tina Turner in chain mail, oh, my!). Fassbinder does a remarkable job of projecting an air of old-fashioned, authoritative competence from Jansen through the futuristic absurdity, in contrast to the bland, painted-smile routine of the other cops & the worried urgings of his dying chief (Marquis). His relationship with his temperamental, long-suffering sidekick Anton (Kaufmann, Fassbinder's frequent collaborator & longtime companion) adds a complex human touch to the film. The brilliant Jansen is curtly condescending & critical ("Don't use unnecessary words, MK1 Anton") while the energetic Anton is alternately effusive & sullen. The portrayals of the media executives & personalities are delightfully bizarre & over-the-top, but probably less enjoyable if you don't understand German. The futurism venue was probably a good one for Fassbinder & Gremm (the latter's copious work remains almost unknown in the US) to venture out of the art-house domain of New German Cinema while keeping much of the technique that they had developed. Despite its similarity to "Soylent Green," "Kamikaze" is far less literal & direct but stylish beyond the point of parody. Hardly the most important work of the New Germans, "Kamikaze" is a valuable film in the near-future genre that died out in the 1980s but is about due for a revisit.

This film comes across as a very ambitious project. It features Rainer Werner Fassbinder (only acting, he has no creative role in the project beyond that as far as I can tell) in the lead. It has appearances by Franco Nero and Brigitte Mira. Co starring is early Fassbinder regular Gunther Kaufman. The point is, the cast is pretty damn good.

The soundtrack is entirely original and is penned by Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream. I am assuming that was not cheap for the producers to arrange.

With a good cast, good soundtrack, you have what appears to be a good futuristic sci fi script. An antihero cop and his partner are called in to organize an evacuation of the building for the most important corporation in the country (or world, was a little fuzzy of how far it reached). The bomb threat turns out to be a hoax, then things get twisted and confusing. I'd describe the story has having half devils battling half angels except you can't tell if they are fighting themselves or there really is a certain opposition. The film ends with major events not appearing on film. In fact, the film feels like it's missing most of the third act before coming to an abrupt conclusion. You sort of have closure during the very end but the exposition is coming from a news broadcast. It could have been thrown on in post production just to save the project and get it rushed to release in time to still cash in on the international success of Blade runner (both are futuristic sci fi stories but Blade Runner debuted a month before this), or perhaps to capitalize on the untimely death of Fassbinder who died unexpectedly 6 weeks before this film was released.

Regardless of the reasons, you get what might have been a complex story, well acted and brought to life via an interesting plot and without the need for cheap special effects. Alas, you get the pretense of a good story and are stuck trying to piece together the events in the second and third acts. It's a chore.

I've watched this several times. I, like most I imagine, was drawn to this movie if only to see the type of film project Fassbinder would simply act in without much more creative input. The film looked like it was trying to follow the same approach of Fassbinder sci fi experiments like World on a Wire. Maybe if Kamikaze '89 were almost three and a half hours long to explain what the heck is happening like World On A Wire is then perhaps things would be different. Instead, good luck with the 106 minutes you get.

Kamikaze 1989 is an ambivalent film that manages to be both anti-corporate and anti-statist at the same time. It was perfect for 1982 when I was an anarcho-rightist skateboard punk. Today, it couldn't be appreciated by 1 in 100,000. This is the last of the great pre-Microsoft/ pre-End-of-USSR films that sought to reflect the hunger of the dawning information age. A bad phosphorescent TV look to the film makes it look fresh in our day. Fassbinder is Lt. Jansen and his investigations are predominately self-defeating - and that could be the point.

Disguised as a predator, Lt.Jansen is an amoral and voyeuristic, yet totally flaccid being. Tired and sluggish this detective only incriminates himself - but the Inquisitor he faces - is us.

I liked this odd movie - it is neither all low nor all high-brow art. It will probably put many to sleep - the violence is gratuitous and minimal, the main character is a walking dead man (interesting fact is that Fassbinder after dying in real life was BURIED in the costume of Lt.Jansen) - it has a charm that remains intact despite its pedigree as art-house junk.

What kind of movie is 'Kamikaze 89'? Science fiction? Dystopia? It is definitely a special film from many points of view. The film is directed by Wolf Gremm (who is also a co-screenwriter), one of the well-known directors of the 'new German cinema' of the 1970s, author of films about inter-war Germany and of thrillers, all of them politically charged. The most important cinematographic personality that appears on the movie poster is however in this case not the director, but the actor who plays the main role. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the leading figures in German cinema of that period. 'Kamikaze 89' was his last appearance on the screen, he died in June 1982, shortly after filming was completed.

The story takes place in 1989, 1989 as anticipated in 1982, in a future and totalitarian Germany. Fassbinder plays in this film the role of police lieutenant Janssen, called to investigate a suspected bombing, followed by a crime in the corporate headquarters that controls the morale of the population through television entertainment. His mission to solve the crime in the next four days is hampered by the fact that in the utopian society described in the film, officially, there are neither crimes nor suicides. The world of 'Kamikaze 89' is a rosy dystopia, in which the population is kept under control by Big Brother surveillance while the brains are washed and occupied by television shows such as the 'World Laughter Record'. The cynical, alcoholic and disillusioned Janssen may be the right man to solve this case, but as the circle of suspects gets closer to the company's bosses and that mysterious, secret '31st floor' in which the scenarios of future are written, the solving of the crime becomes a danger for the stability of the system.

The comparison between the future imagined in the literature and the films of anticipation and the reality of the anticipated period is, as always, fascinating. Although the interval is only seven years, the essential changes are those that take place in the social structure. Director Wolf Gremm did not have a budget that would allow him to create spectacular special effects, so he relied more on cultural extrapolations, some subtle, some less subtle. The Internet does not exist yet, and computers are as large as refrigerators and do not have graphical interfaces. Telephony and mobile videophones are controlled by the authorities. The population is fascinated by popular entertainment, and on this topic Gremm was able to correctly anticipate the devastating effect of 'reality show' genre, even if the phenomenon he described will occur one or two decades later than 1989. Electronic music and psychedelic clothing have become an aesthetic norm, and if we look at some societies in Asia today, we see that cultural conformism is not necessarily gray and militarized there. Leopard coats or jackets are police uniforms. The control of populations is facilitated by their addiction to escapist entertainment. The framing of the film in the patterns of the genre of punk anticipation is formally correct, but the stylistic decisions are motivated by a clear and not at all optimistic vision about the future.

Fassbinder's acting reminded me Orson Welles in the second part of his career. The director who gave the world in his youth the masterpiece 'Citizen Kane' constantly projected for grand plans, but after a few financial failures Hollywood no longer believed in him as a director. The result was that he appeared more as an actor, some of his roles were memorable as he succeeded to be both expressive and 'to melt' in his characters, modeling them according to his personality.

'Kamikaze 89' anticipates from many points of view the world 30 years later, with the domination of the big global corporations and the popular entertainment and communications as means of leveling the thinking of the population. 1989 however brought something else, the fall of the Iron Curtain followed by the reunification of Germany, historical events that Fassbinder prepared and anticipated artistically and ideologically in other films. Those were the milestones in the evolution towards the world of 'Kamikaze 89'.

1989, to be precise. As imagined by Germans in 1982. Germany has become the world's foremost economic superpower, suicide is a thing of the past, and everyone does drugs, except there are no nasty side effects anymore. An overweight Rainer Werner Fassbinder mostly scowls his way through a quest to find out who's behind a series of murders that may be linked to a new resistance group. Or something like that. The plot seems secondary to the outrageous costumes (Fassbinder wears leopard tights throughout the whole film) and scenarios (like a police discotheque where you can shoot on firing ranges). It's an ugly film, and a stupid one, too, but it is perversely fascinating, and worth watching once, if only to impress your friends.

I see in Kamikaze 1989 both echoes and premonitions of other much more famous films, all with considerably larger budgets. I recognize that this must be because all dystopic fiction commences from the two greats, Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. What subsequent creators have done is to put the pieces together in different orders, but the overarching totalitarian force governing the dystopic world, whether Blade Runner or The Hunger Games, Brazil, Robocop, or this obscure work not by but starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who in a bizarre reflection of a recurring trope of the film, himself became at the young age of 37, in the year 1982 (the year of this film's release), "ein unerwarteter Tod" = an unexpected death.

I am not sure whether this film would have been much better had it had the budget of Blade Runner or The Hunger Games, but I suspect that it would have been. On the other hand, we have grown accustomed to and now expect extremely fast-moving, often frenetic action in dystopic films. The pace here is incredibly slow, as though everyone is on some sort of downers (aside from the contestants in the Laughing Game, who are hooked up to IVs filled with hebephrenia-inducing drugs). Again: Huxley and Orwell already wrote it and others inspired by their works decided to dramatize the essence of dystopia.

Worth watching once, if only to see how later films may have been influenced by this creation.

First off, yes, you're right, this is a godawful movie.

Being a big Fassbinder fan, I rented this with excitement. Fassbinder stars, and he's always fun to watch. It's one of those punk-future-dystopian movies that popped out a bit in the early '80s, always good for some cult fun. It came out at the end of Fassbinder's career, and Fassbinder's whole 12 year filmmaking period only got better and better until his end.

So half way through I thought "what the hell happened? This movie is an atrocity exhibition."

Then I glanced at the cover, and in horror noticed this movie was NOT directed by Fassbinder. He just starred in it in a coked up narcisstic haze. I read he actually wore that leopard outfit he was giving in this movie on and off again in the last few weeks of his life.

Fassbinder was proud of this movie, somehow, and that gives it an odd charm. It's horrendous, but I haven't regretted watching it. There's a scene where Fassbinder climbs to a roof of a building, odd buzzing music is playing and the wind is blowing his hair and he has this perverse smile on his face as he gazes out across the city. There's also the ending where Fassbinder, bloated, in a robe, girates his body against a photo of an astronaut (I'm guessing this is Fassbinder's input, as the exact same ending pretty much is used in Stationmaster's Wife). These two scenes made it worthwhile. Otherwise, mark it off as an awful "Alphaville" rippoff.

Wolf Gremm's "Kamikaze 1989" portrays a Germany that is rich, in which all problems are solved, where there is no pollution of the environment, where people work in sterile dust-free rooms with artificial light and air-conditioning, where alcohol is forbidden, since it causes incalculable reactions, where private persons are not allowed to grow vegetables on their own, since seeds may be contaminated, where there are, finally, no suicides anymore, but just cases of "unexpected death". The whole industry is in the hand of one gigantic concern, and all of its leading crew are family members. Competition is excluded, since creativity is dangerous. Even the handful of intellectuals who are working in the "cultural" department of the concern, have just to confirm the "intellectual" doctrine of the concern. Thus, the totalitarian company represents the good, because what is good is always associated with might (cf. the definition of the "axis of evil"). And since everything seems to be under control, the position of the evil is empty. However, strictly speaking, good cannot exist without evil and vice versa, because these ethic terms define one another logically. However, the position of evil is empty only until the company gets a bomb threat. It seems that the "spirit of evil", Krysmopompas, whose members once belonged to the "prokos", the intellectuals that used to work in the hidden 31st floor of the building, are behind the threat.

Police lieutenant Jansen, unforgettably played by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in his last role, is charged with the investigation, during which the open position of Krysmopompas is offered to him several times, but he refuses to take it over. Since the concern represents the good, the police must represent the evil. Even the police president is in the hand of the concern and looks like a caricature of Dr. Mabuse turned himself into a puppet. Possibly Jansen realizes that becoming Krysmopompas and thus fulfilling the vacuum of evilness would just consolidate the omnipotent concern, because it needs the evil to define itself as the good. Consequently, the director of the concern offers him a job, which Jansen also refuses. Therefore, Jansen takes a third position in a world in which there are only two, and this is presumably the reason why the movie is called "Kamikaze". However the title may be meant, this movie offers a highly complicated situation in which the categories of ethics are perverted. The typical 80ies' German TV-style of this movie should not make the audience blind that in portraying paradoxical ethical categories in a world in which metaphysics has been shoveled out like the alcohol, the seeds and suicide, "Kamikaze" goes way beyond thematically related movies like Godard's "Alphaville", Kubrik's "Dr. Strangelove" and even Tarkovsky's "Solyaris". A few years before "Kamikaze 1989", Fassbinder himself had directed the science-fiction movie "Welt am Draht" ("World on wire") which many people believe to have surpassed "Solyaris". In the final scene of Kamikaze, Fassbinder says his ultimate goodbye to his audience grinning in front of a picture of Armstrong's moon landing.

(1982) Kamikaze 1989 (In German with English subtitles) SCIENCE-FICTION

Adapted from the novel "Mord på 31: a våningen" by Per Wahlöö, co-written and directed by Wolf Gremm, dystopian movie which alcohol and leafy vegetables was forbidden and that CEO's have has a grasp over the general public through television. It stars known director Rainer Werner Fassbinder as Lieutenant Janson investigating a fake bomb threat of a building where TV CEOs' base is derived from. Because the threat was taken seriously, Lieutenant Janson was left figuring out the culprit that started the clearance of the building before given only four days to solve it. At the same time, he is also in a middle of a radical group for the intention of shutting the entire tv organization altogether, who call themselves "Krysmopompas" who often clash with the comp. Green Panther. And then from the very same building. Someone jumped off the building from the 31 st floor with the lieutenant refused access in in comparison to the other rooms and floors.

First of all, this is an incredible bad film. Before I saw it, I to believed that anything Fassbinder touched would turn out to be pure works of genius. You are reading the comments of a very disillusioned man. Kamikaze -89 is ugly, stupid and impossible to take seriously. It shoots at a million different directions, but fails to hit anything but its own feet. After 100 minutes in the company of Kamikaze -89, my brain started hurting.

That said, it's not a complete waste of time. Seeing a pi***ed, drunk out of his mind, Fassbinder strousing around in leopard outfit, like a wounded walrus, DOES have its perverse charm. In fact, seeing Fassbinder and some of his regulars degrade themselves in this totally psychotronic film is the only thing that makes it somewhat worthwhile.

The story takes place in the near future... 1989 to be specific. Everybody wears the ugliest new wave outfits on this side of Culture Club and Germany has become the most advanced and powerful country in the world. All social and political problems have been solved and everybody is happy. Or so it seems. The state of Germany have but one enemy, a person or organization called Krystopompas (!), who believes that the people of Germany has become pacified and dehumanized by the regime. He starts giving bomb threats, and the state of Germany puts their best man on the case, police lieutenant Jansen (Fassbinder in a leopard suite). Then a lot of nonsense takes place. People start pointing fingers at Jansen, yelling "Krystopompas!" for no apparent reason. Jansen goes to a strip-joint where everybody is laughing hysterically for no apparent reason. Lots of other nonsense follows. And then the film takes some awful 1984-inspired turns and mysterious conspiracies like "The blue panther", "unexpected deaths" and "the 31st Floor" become visible. Needless to say, Fassbinder somehow cracks the case and then he screws a picture of an astronaut. The end.

A must-see!

A movie worth seeing for none other that three main reasons: The absurdist exercise in retrofuturism. The drunkenly charming performance of Fassbinder. The colorful anarchism of a production design that rewrites all the rules of what was then known as cyberpunk. The movie with his unbridled and convoluted plot owes way more to William Burroughs than William Gibson. The satire, in this unique cinematographic experience is more a direction chosen by director Wolf Gremm, than a clearly defined series of remarks that one can extract or decipher in the script. It is certainly witty and doesn't take itself seriously but you will hardly find any classically intended humour in the short and surreal lines of the actors. However this is the true strength of the movie and what allows it, to stand the test of time.

This film essentially takes place in the future with Germany having become a type of paradise where there is no unemployment and all of the citizens appear to be extremely content. Of course, the fact that most of the people there are drugged and the government controls the press has a lot to do with this state of affairs but even so things appear to be quite good for everyone. Yet in spite of these positive developments there exists a small rebellious faction which is cause for government concern so when a bomb threat is called in to the corporate press headquarters known as "the Combine" a special investigator by the name of "Polizeileutnant Jansen" (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) is assigned to the case and given just four days to find the culprit. Making matters even more difficult for him is the fact that--not only does he have to navigate through the bureaucracy of the Combine--but it also appears that his main assistant "MK1 Anton" (Gunther Kaufmann) seems to have his own special agenda as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather bizarre low-budget film which-despite its inherent flaws-kept my attention pretty much from start to finish. That being said, I don't necessarily recommend this movie to most viewers as it has a cult-like quality to it but even so it still managed to pass the time fairly well and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Preposterous sci-fi nonsense is full of bizarre, outlandish designs (Fassbinder's leopard suit!), bad acting and pseudo-philosophical pretensions plus an illogical plot to boot.

NB: Among German film buffs bad German movies are rated in "Gremm-Einheiten" (Gremm units).

You really have to be in a very particular state of mind to appreciate the utter katastraüm that is this film.

You can read all over the internet that RW Fassbinder used to direct up to 4 films a year EXCLUDING acting assignments for other directors and it shows perfectly in Kamikaze how little time he had to prepare for an acting job.

I think Fassbinder and the gang only wanted to have a good laugh with 90 minutes worth of jokes that only they would understand.

Remember that this is NOT a Fassbinder film. Like, if you're going through a "Fassbinder Marathon" (if that would ever be a thing), you wouldn't include Kamikaze. It's a punk film - well, it's only a film - in which he acted (if you want to call that acting).

If you're a film fan and/or Fassbinder fan or if you're simply interested in West German indie pop culture, Kamikaze is perfect for you, because it's an orgy of everything and nothing.

If you're studying cinema, this is perfect as well because it breaks every technical rule in the history of everything in the space of less than an hour and tells you exactly what you mustn't do if you want to be a merely competent film technician.

But, seriously, there's only one advice I can give you: don't watch it sober.

I came into this movie with an open mind because I knew the chances of this movie being an authentic Cyberpunk film was minimal. Boy did this movie suck my prostate clean. It was boring, unimaginative, pseudo- intellectual and above all, GAY! To call this movie Cyberpunk is like calling Friday The 13th a romance movie. It is misleading and stupid. Either that or the morons who think this is CyberPunk haven't the faintest idea WHAT CyberPunk is. In either case this movie IS NOT recommended AT ALL unless you like self indulged, tedious crap!!

This must be one of the worst films I have ever seen! There is no beginning, no story, and no end! What on earth went through Nicole Heesters mind when she accepted that part, is beyond me. An otherwise brilliant actress has her biggest - an until now only - genuine fiasco.

If it shows anything, it's the mess in Fassbinders mind near the end of his life. So many cliché's, I'm surprised I watched it 'till the end. I suppose that's because of the clothes, which is an interesting study of the extremes of the time. I suppose you could also see inspector Jansen as a parody, which might make it a bit more bearable, but the storyline is still too thin to make it worth while.

I'm sorry to say that, but i can hardly say it's a good film... The cinematography is dull, the photography is so cheapo that you could think you're in a "Derrick" episode. The scenario losses some parts during the timeline... Even the music (composed by the professional Edgar Froese) is - uhm... Outdated? No 80s revival will save this film from the brink of extinction. The only advantage for its producers is that you CAN'T forget it after a vision. Uhmm... Not for the good, i'm afraid..

Highly recommend Fassbinder's brilliant meisterstuck. Evil commie-rat empire was a ravening beast bearing down upon the planet when they shot chunk of celluloid prophecy. Had any the prescience to suggest the events of our squalid doomstruck post-90s era, they'd have been carted off to the booby hatch. Or would Fassbinder have made a film about them?

No further comments from undersigned needed. This film serves as prequel to our era. With but a little thought, can one 'project the lines' to our short term destiny? "Avoid unnecessary thoughts."

Dr. Paul Vincent Zecchino

Manasota Key, Florida

29 December, 2006

"Truth leads a wretched life -

and always survives the lie."