mentemalleo

The film starts slow, but that's the point. We start to know a dedicated Tokyo toilet cleaner who goes through his daily routine, apparently happy with his life. Then a series of minor events cause upheaval: his colleagues, family, and romantic interest remind him of life's missed opportunities. All very subtle reminders that you can be perfectly happy in a bland life following your daily routine, but that life's circumstances are forever changing, and are inviting and challenging you to lead life on a higher, more interesting level. The closing shot reveals a clearly emotional toilet cleaner driving to work: life's new opportunities have unsettled him. The open ending leaves us wondering what's next. A great movie that is largely carried by the phenomenal Koji Yashuko: he superbly carries the story with his facial expressions between the extremely sparse dialogues. The cinematography by Franz Lustig is also incredibly good: the closing scene, the loving lighting of the numerous toilets, etc. I'd rate it higher but the film is vaguely unsatisfying in its sublety: it generates the itch but just barely scratches it. But definitely one of the best films of 2023.

After a pretty pathetic JW3, this sequel does deliver. JW3 suffered from boring and repetitive fight scenes: it seemed like a video game where headshot quantity was important. I literally fell asleep around 90 min in. JW4 recovers nicely, and is definitely worth seeing. A much better plot, with great and well-choreographed fight scenes. The spice is back. And great, aggressive cinematography, too. Eye candy, with attractive on location shots from Berlin and Paris. Yes, there is the obligatory empowered female fighter, but her role is limited to killing only 10-12 300 lb mercenaries. And the obligatory white male villain, but good news! He's French! So we can despise him regardless of sex or ethnicity. Of course it's not a JW sequel unless the laws of physics are suspended, but if you buy the premise, you'll buy the gag. Worth the watch.

The movie can be somewhat challenging/cringeworthy to watch nowadays. But in the last 45 minutes it really comes together as a story of a violent anti-hero and his pacifist sweetheart, and how they each in their own way deal with the racial and social injustices that are perpetrated against them. While the fight scenes are really good, it is the final scene - where the pacifist girlfriend convinces Billy Jack that a violent death does not serve his own moral code or interests - that steals the show. She tells him his deathwish destroys what he's been fighting for, and thereby delivers the main message of the movie. Highly original movie.