Bullet Ballet

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.

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.

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.