User reviews

Goda seems to be having a pretty good life. He is a successful television commercial maker who seems to be quite and demand. Also he has had a steady relationship with his long time girlfriend for ten years. However, one night while he is out having a drink, his girlfriend commits suicide. It soon becomes evident that his girlfriend had close ties with the underworld and had somehow acquired a pistol which she used to end her life.

Although suffering a horrible tragedy, Goda seems to be in control of himself, and his co-workers seem to think that he is actually doing better despite the fact that his girlfriend committed suicide. However, this is not quite the case. Goda is seething underneath, wondering how his girlfriend got a hold of the pistol and he soon becomes obsessed with acquiring the gun like the one his girlfriend used to kill herself. This draws Goda into the underworld himself and he seeks the help oh yakuza members and foreign crime elements to attain his desired possession. However, because he is unsuccessful, Goda makes his own gun.

While creating his gun, Goda intentionally encounters members of the gang his girlfriend had been associated with. These members include Goto, a gang kid with long sideburns who is looking to enter the business world, Idei a club owner and leader of the gang who has a serious acid habit, and Chisato a short haired, leather skirt sporting waif who acts as bait for johns whom the male gang members beat up and rob. However, it is interesting to note it seems Goda has had run ins with the gang before and he even has a scar where Chisato bit him quite deeply when he pulled her away when she came dangerously close to being hit by a subway. These characters develop quite an odd relationship with each other in only ways Tsukamoto could create.

This is quite a good film and Tsukamoto does a wonderful job of being Goda. He seems far more dangerous than the gang members and almost emotionless at some points. Mano Kirina is also quite sexy in a sleazy kind of way. This film was quite difficult for me at some moments though because I could not quite figure out how the threads were woven together at some moments, but the film is well worth a watch or two.

Ever since I watched Bullet Ballet for the very first time it's been by far my favorite of all Tsukamoto films. Being a director with a cult following, Tsukamoto is one of the better known Japanese Directors of the last twenty years with a unique visual style of movement and imagery. After watching this film, Bullet Ballet could arguably be Tsukamoto's best film as some of his succeeding works have faltered to produce better quality of work ever since.

As the main character in Bullet Ballet, Tsukamoto himself plays a man named Goda who one night after his usual daily drinking routine goes home to find that his girlfriend of ten years has committed suicide by gun. Torn by his girlfriend's own demise, Goda goes out looking to buy a gun in the streets and along the way runs into a gang of punks who beat him up for a previous spat with the female gang member Chisako (played by the actress Kirina Mano), which leads Goda to hold a personal and unforgivable grudge towards Chisako that he will not let go without violence of his own.

The story and the cinematography of this film holds up this movie and while the acting may be questionable in some minor scenes it doesn't affect the film in any way. Like most of Tsukamoto's other films, Bullet Ballet is presented with plenty Tsukamoto's usual signature hand-held kinetic camera style in most of his films. In my opinion there's room to say that the story of this film could have benefited from some improvements here and there for the characters, though based on Japanese culture and behavior should they had made certain changes would have made the film a bit unusual for Japanese audiences to understand opposed to Western style filmmaking.

Compared to other Tsukamoto's films that I have enjoyed, this is definitely his best looking film to date. Tetsuo "The Iron Man"(1989) which blew me away still had a very dark look and even at times looked underexposed in some scenes. Still, I was amazed with what Tsukamoto was able to accomplish on Tetsuo with very little. A Snake of June is another one of his films that nicely paints a picture while being a very daring film to awe the viewer. In many ways A Snake of June would have given Bullet Ballet a run for its money to be Tsukamoto's best looking film had Tsukamoto have filmed A Snake of June in widescreen format instead of 4:3 full screen which I did not care for and annoyed the hell out of me.

Personally, I can't say I care for any of Tsukamoto's films shot in color except for maybe Vital which was beautifully shot. In spite of it, I still wonder whether I care for the story in Vital by itself, which I am still a bit conflicted about. Style over substance or not, Tsukamoto's visual style in itself is very unique, which can only be seen in films like these.

Whether it's old fashion or not, I still hope for Tsukamoto to one day go back to shooting films in black and white. I feel that in black in white movies he's able to present a much better looking product compared to the ones he made in color. As the current Japanese movie trend is shooting movies in Digital HD that look like video (which in my opinion ruins the visual aesthetics of a traditional film even though you save in budget by in shooting video) I hope Tsukamoto doesn't go on to follow just to save money and sacrifice production quality on his films. That would be a shame to say the least.

There are many versions of Bullet Ballet out there. The version I saw was the standard 87 minute version. There are longer versions in the mid 90 minute marks out there even one that goes on almost close to two hours, but are those rare to come by.

All in all, give Bullet Ballet a go and some of Tsukamoto's other works if you wish. You might enjoy some of them if you're into bizarre, weird and unusual stories. 8 out of 10.

After the amusing opening credits, playing with the title's two words, this takes an immediate dark and dangerous turn and doesn't stop till the end. The lovely Kirina Mano shines like some angelic figure amidst the grime, the violence and the mayhem. But even she has a very mean streak and it is clear that these are not the colourful, welcoming streets of Tokyo we love, these are the back alleys teeming with bored punk kids desperate to emulate or at least impress the raging yakuza. Shot in stark b/w, there is confusion as to quite what is going on at times but there is such a drive and confidence to the filming that there is no doubting that the director knows where the ride lead even if even some of the participants are unsure. Dirty, dynamic and disturbingly dark drama set in the underbelly of the backstreets of Shibuya(?) in the 1990s

This movie is rather underrated i feel.

This is the third movie i've seen by the director, the first being Snake of June and the second being Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

I'd say this film is better than those two films, although i very much like those two films i feel this one blows them out of the water in a lot of respects.

It's a much darker vision than Tetsuo, it's really full of dread this film. So that may put some off but it's a really interesting film and is amazingly directed and for the most part i feel it's really well acted.

For me this movie is like the two other Shinya Tsukamoto films i've seen mixed with Ichi The Killer sort of things. There are a lot of things in here that it seems Miike Takashi knowingly used in Ichi The Killer, of which Shinya Tsukamoto stars.

Yeah, a confusing and disjointed film and a film of two or maybe even three parts but a really interesting watch and the context and the interaction of the characters is excellent.

I'd say this film is very worth seeing indeed.

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.

A much more articulate Shinya has used his extremely visceral palette to produce a deeper film that passes over the gorehound's head and explores the scars of depression and self-destruction in ways that other film-makers have overlooked. From the beginning where Goda confronts his fiancee's death in a mirror while a cricket twitches under a dripping tap beneath him, to a deathwish game that the hoodlum girl Chisato plays later on in the subways, hooking her heels over the edge and delighting as the passing train throttle passes her, the imagery is amazing. Shot in intimate black and white, the graphic impact of its intense releases (There is a bit of animation on guns that's like a KMFDM video) hit you to hold you and keep you with the story until the end. At the screening I attended there were those who were disappointed that the violence lacked the kind of escapist punch that make other Hong Kong films so fun to watch, but I think Shinya was aiming for something different, and he succeeded. This is my favorite film of his and I definitely look forward to his next. For those trying to get an idea of what to expect, well it's the kind of surrealistic dreams that are often thought of by David Cronenberg and David Lynch. If you follow that path and walk with such minds than you should take a walk with Shinya Tsukamoto and see Bullet Ballet.

Tsukamoto is like a spiritual brother to Cronenberg. The grotesque body horror that accompanies most of their films. Their purpose to replace sex (in the classical sense) with a metaphorical equivalent. In Tetsuo it was mechanical, in Tokyo First it was violent punches and in this one there is that weird gun and bullets (of course)...that also replace war and death / suicide.

Tsukamoto is, however, a more rebellious soul. A soul less prone to the parameters of conventional filmmaking. More experimental and more cryptic in a more Japanese sense.

This is not ment to be enjoyable, it is ment to satisfy an already tormented viewer with more of what they already feel, angst, fear, uncertainty, inner violence.

First off, those expecting the David Lynch-on-Angel Dust style of the 1st Tetsuo movie and Tokyo Fist will probably be disappointed. Like Tokyo Fist, this is Shinya Tsukamoto at his most personal and heartbreaking. I saw this film at the Montreal FantAsia festival and came out puzzled by what I saw. Here I was, expecting Tsukamoto to cut loose again...and this movie was, by the standards of his earlier work, relatively calm. I'd compare it to Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" in that people will soon be hailing this one as a masterpiece.

The film is the story of two people linked together by ideals and tragedy. Tsuda is a director of commercials who is heartbroken by the suicide of his fiancee for mysterious reasons. He soon develops a fascination with guns.

Later on, we meet Chisato, a young woman who is the driving force behind a gang of Japanese toughs. Tsuda forms a bond with Chisato through multiple encounters with the gangs. Whereas the other members of the gang are middle-class kids looking for fun, Chisato has a death wish and a suicidal streak which propels her to violence.

Here's hoping that Bullet Ballet gets released soon, as it is technically perfect as well as emotionally dead-on.

Shinya Tsukamoto (the director) takes up the lead role, Goda. Goda seems to be your average guy. On the way home he listens to his girlfriend sing on the phone to him. Life is good. As soon as he gets home, he finds out that his girlfriend shot herself in their apartment. Depressions sets in. He wants to know why. He doesn't understand why she did it ? Who gave her the gun ??

Goda is a pretty successful commercial director, who seems (to others like his friend and coworkers) to be dealing with the loss quite well. It is even mentioned that he has not even taken one day off. From there he spirals into this underworld search for the reason his girlfriend killed herself and a gun. He is runs into Chisato (leather clad mannequin-like woman wishing to die, it seems) and the bait is taken. He is beaten up and his money taken, yet he continues to follow Chisato and her gang. The funniest aspect of the movie is Goda's attempt to get a gun. He is rejected by most dealers (who are mostly gaijin and are selling only drugs) and is even sold a water gun filled with sand. He follows this with an equally funny series where he orders gun parts and assembles his own gun, complete with bullets. The funny part is when he actually tries to use the gun.

Shinya Tsukamoto continues the visual style that we are used to seeing from him. This movie is black and white and is quite industrial looking. There is some action (which is usually pretty graphic), but that is only the vehicle for the "story". I had heard a lot about this movie, and had seen 4 of the director's previous movies (Tetsuo, Snake of June, Gemini and Tokyo Fist). I was quite bored and disappointed with the movie. The director does a pretty good job at playing Goda, however, the rest of the cast is a little cardboard. I think there is suppose to be a unconventional love story in there (Chungking Express on acid), however, its quite flat, not to mention that the actress playing Chisato is quite annoying. I think getting someone straight off the street would have done a better job.

I have seen other avant-garde movies, some which made less sense than this movie, however, they were more interesting visually and/or conceptually. I think the Tetsuo length would have been more appropriate for this movie (namely 60 minutes instead of 90). I would not recommend this movie. If you want to see a good Shinya Tsukamoto movie, go see Tokyo Fist. If you want to see an avant-garde Shinya Tsukamoto movie, go see Tetsuo or Snake of June.

About 95% of Tsukamoto's movies talk about the body and mind relationship or a protagonist suffocating between Tokyo's cemented skyscrapers, and I was expecting he would tackle those subjects yet again in Bullet Ballet. Unfortunately nothing special can be said about this movie. It's very decent, which is bad for Tsukamoto especially when we got used to his previous cult-classics one after another. Will not keep you scratching your brains and is ultimately a forgettable 90 min of your life.

There's a feeling you get after watching "Bullet Ballet", and it's like the story is kind of incomplete. There's a lack of something, maybe a little information about the characters and their lives. That's a big burden and it doesn't matter how attractive is the look of the film with all those nebulous textures, it does not matter if Tsukamoto probes that he knows how to use the camera (although sometimes everything looks a little bit dizzy), 'cause if you don't have a story or a script, you got nothing.

It's a short movie and still you feel like it will never end. That's what it happens when you don't have a clue about what's going on in the screen (shoots, gangs, suicide... ???).

*My rate: 4/10

Shinya Tsukamoto's unique vision is fairly amazing. I thought the better known "A Snake Of June" was brilliant and provocative, but this film is also, even though they are hardly about the same thing. Mr. Tsukamoto, who produced, edited, wrote and directed this, also stars in it as Goda, a commericals director whose girlfriend has killed herself with a gun. Goda's life and reason unravels, and he obsesses with finding a gun. He falls in with a gang of disenfranchised youth in Tokyo's Shibuya (the Harajuku district, which is next to Shibuya in Tokyo, is a prime place for these young people still) and gets involved in a gang fight as well as other violence. The film was shot in black and white, which was an excellent idea, since the film is too stark to be in color. This is not for casual film goers, but fans of Tarantino and Darren Aronofsky's work will like this. Mr. Tsukamoto has created a film about the lure of non-redemption and brilliant shoots it almost documentary style. The other characters, especially the brooding model like Kirina Miao as Chisato, are also good, but this is Mr. Tsukamoto's film. Obtain the DVD, which has an interview with him taken years later in which he answers certain questions about the film. It is a candid view of his process and idea. This movie is very in your face and its effectiveness in spreading the message of violence and hopelessness is fascinating. I highly recommend it.

This is my third film from this director, following the two TETSUO efforts; he seems to have quite a following, but I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen so far – on the contrary, the combination of flashy style and intense approach resulted not only in being off-putting but, for this viewer, it provoked boredom more than anything else! Anyway, while in those two earlier films, the visceral tone and unrelenting bleakness could perhaps be excused given their sci-fi/body-horror plot lines, these come off as mere hollow gestures in the juvenile delinquent milieu depicted here!

The plot, if so it can be called, concerns a middle-aged man (played by the director himself!) who, in trying to come to terms with his fiancée’s baffling suicide, frantically tries to obtain a similar weapon (presumably in order to join her in the afterlife). However, during his nightly rounds of the city’s back streets, he runs into a gang of small-time (read: low-life) thugs who rough him up – so, he then finds a new purpose for his gun! Still, through his ambivalent relationship with a sluttish and tomboyish girl in the group, he’s drawn into open warfare between clans – and even intercedes for them when a hit-man turns up to exterminate them at their hide-out! While such a narrative could have spelt considerable visual excitement and even thematic depth, the grungy feel of it all (the ugly black-and-white cinematography of an industrial wasteland setting – which can now be seen as typical Tsukamoto - rapid cutting, noisy soundtrack) plus the obnoxious characters prevents audience engagement for practically the entire duration (not that the ostensible bond between the hero and the girl is handled satisfactorily, or in any way comprehensively): mercifully, the thing lasts for just a little over 80 minutes!

Finally, I have to say that, while I’m generally a devoted fan of Japanese cinema, there are certain elements inherent in the Oriental outlook (usually having to do with nihilistic violence and/or mundane melodrama), which I haven’t been able to get into, no matter how hard I try…

Another Japanese film choice last night , by writer/director/ actor Shinya "Tetsuo: The Iron Man". Like that classic , this is also shot in grainy black and white , employing frantic at times camerawork and some montage / animation briefly . It also has a Thirlwell/ Foetus style industrial soundtrack, and again deals with themes of alienation in a mega city.

Bullet Ballet, released in 1998,starts with Goda (played by the main man Shinya Tsukamoto) as a commercials director living in Tokyo who arrives home to find his wife has shot herself - either by accident or intent - with a .38 "chief's special" revolver. Goda suffers a breakdown of sorts and becomes obsessed with getting himself a similar piece. This leads him into contact with various underworld characters and into direct conflict with a gang of so-called street 'teamsters' - Japanese youths who work straight jobs but commit gang crimes at night. It is said that the idea for the film came from an actual street robbery experienced by Tsukamoto and the film mirrors his own very real feeling of complete helplessness as the gang take his money and deliver a beating without a whimper of resistance. This is just the start, and the viewer is introduced to a wide selection of criminal characters and becomes involved in a gang war triggered by the demand for an "honour" shooting to save face by gang boss Idei, played by the convincing Tatsuya Nakamura, who tells his minion to "get on with the shooting" and treat it like a dream... "In dreams you can kill and not get hurt ... Tokyo is one big dream" The gun as a motif throughout the film gives a strong focus on the finality of pulling the trigger rather than just spraying everybody in a blur of flashing muzzles and deep red, and there are several intense " will they or won't they " moments. Kirana Mano stands out as Chisato, a part time sex worker addicted to speed who comes across as a complex and deliberately contradictory person. However, it is the overall the style of the film : dingy back alleys, concrete industrial backdrops and claustrophobic camera shots emphasising the brutal relationships of the main players that is the real standout. This was often my experience of Tokyo at night when I lived there when out and about, in both places I went to and the type of characters encountered. To sum up, "Bullet Ballet" delivers an element of gritty realism to a believable storyline that makes sure not one round in the clip is wasted. Great punk-style movie-making.

Bullet Ballet starts out as a fine movie: man wants to avenge his wife, who had connections with a criminal organization. But how does he, a businessman, get a gun? The first 45 minutes deal with this and his search for the criminals: it is turning out to be a sort of Japanese Taxi Driver... But then during a gang fight the story shifts, to its demise, unfortunately. From then on you're looking at a lost cause, as every thread of plot from the first half is trashed and an entirely new movie appears, a very bad movie. Too bad, since Tsakamoto has made some fine movies before.

At the time of writing this review I am 20 years old. I Haven't had a lot of time under my belt to appreciate the vast world of cinema but I can say with complete honesty that Tsukamoto Shin'ya as a filmmaker has completely changed the way in which I perceive filmmaking and Bullet Ballet is without a doubt his masterpiece.

While most other good and even great filmmakers might feel restricted by a low production budget, Tsukamoto manages to make his lack of resources his greatest strength in all of his films. Bullet Ballet, however, is on another level.

Taking place in the late 90s, Bullet Ballet follows the story of a man that unexpectedly returns home to his apartment on day to discover his girlfriend has committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Following this event, the man dives deeper and deeper into the tokyo underworld in desperate attempt to find a gun for the simple purpose of understanding what ot feels like to wield such immutable power.

What begins as a setup for a relatively standard drama quickly explodes into a complex, gritty noir-drenched exploration of grief, depression, power and the human condition.

It may not be for everyone but if you were to ask me, this film stands easily as my pick for the most underrated film I've seen and my 5th favourite film of all time. 10/10.

Hi everyone. I am huge fan of Japanese cinema. I have already watched movies form Takeshi Kitano, Shinya Tsukamoto, Toshiaki Toyoda and Yôji Yamada. Also I very like Roman Polanski works (Rosemary's baby, Tenant), Chan-Wook Park (Mr. vengeance, Oldboy...), Kim Ki-Duk (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring ...)

Can somebody recommend me more movies like Bullet Ballet, movies than contain exploration of human nature, especially their dark side. It isn't necessary that it is Japanese movie, or what is the movies age. All it matters is, that is contains such themes.

Thanks for help.

As a huge fan of Tsukamoto I was very excited when I finally got hold of a copy of this film, subtitled and widescreen - too bad that it turned out to be a real disappointment. Tsukamoto has gone back to black and white for this film and as a result the film suffers when compared to 'Tokyo Fist' or 'Tetsuo II'. The initial idea (about a man trying to get hold of a gun) is good and Tsukamoto handles things well, with his trademark wobbly camera and multiple jump cuts, but the film just loses its way about half way through and starts to drag. A pity, but I'm still looking forward to 'Gemini'...