Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6950 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-05-29
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Synopsis
Three storylines are threaded together in this offbeat Gen Sekiguchi film. A man is left believing he is a bird when the hypnotist is murdered during his act; a group of burglars deal with their mutual desires for each other as they patrol the streets; and a wife that has been murdered by her husband returns from the dead to destroy him using missile arms and breathing fire.

Customer Reviews

What is your purpose in life?
I saw this at the Sci-Fi London film festival and really enjoyed it - it's very, very funny but brutal too. Vinnie Jones is the face most westerners will recognise and he's pretty good as the hitman with a philosphical bent - but there are lots of Japanese actors here that you might recognise if you watch many Japanese films (Tadanobu Asano "Ichi the Killer", YosiYosi Arakawa "Ping Pong" and , of course, Sonny Chiba "Kill Bill") and they all do good work.

The plot features five threads - there is a man who has killed his wife, but she won't stay dead; a salary man who gets hypnotised to believe he is a bird; the story of a female advertising executive whose idea of what makes a great advert is... unconventional; and three young burglars, two of whom are undergoing an important awakening.

Tying it all together in a most satisfying way is the fifth thread, Vinnie Jones the ultraviolent English hitman who has a tendency to demand of people "What is your purpose in life?" and his wannabe tough-guy translator who bring chaos wherever they go.

If that all sounds confusing, well it is sometimes, but it is also hilariously funny, entertainingly acted, there's a fantastic pumping soundtrack (turn it up loud) and a brilliant conclusion.

This is fun. Highly recommended, in case you hadn't guessed.

artistic insanity
This is one of the few times reviews and straplines have not lied when they say "You will never have seen anything like this". This film is truly original. I admit that maybe the fact there are five interlinking stories is similar to Magnolia, The Player and Pulp Fiction, but the content of these stories is so insane you would only ever encounter them in an arthouse short film. This film however has far more budget and talent than that.

You can enjoy this film purely for visual reasons. Each shot is beautifully sculpted and the sets are amazing. Asano's house is probably the visual highlight, at times sophisticated and at times garish, but never less than eyecatching.

The acting talent on display is also top level. Asano of course keeps up his standards of excellence, Sonny Chiba plays a nice humorous cameo and Vinny Jones at least looks the part.

I must admit it took me almost half of the 2 hour running time to actually get into the style and humour of this film. Despite its audacious visual flair the jokes are actually quite subtle, not slapstick. There are some amazingly funny lines which almost escape you like the schoolgirl's conversation about being pecked by a crow. Most hilarious is definitely the advertising exec laughing as she imagines the campaigns she has in her head, these are...well...unconventional. It's truly a case of us laughing at her and not with.

The first time director (name escapes me and is not on Amazon) does an excellent job pulling this together. Supposedly his background is in TV ads which is very visible from the style of this film, a lot of cuts, extreme visuals etc. It will be interesting to see what he does next.

This is definitely a film worth watching, maybe not for all but even if you dont like it, you wont forget it.

Off-the-wall Japanese cool!
Japan has the ability to produce cultural artefacts ranging from the downright cheesy to cutting edge cool and everything inbetween. Well, this movie is definitely a rollercoster which arrives at the cool end of the spectrum. Other reviewers have summarised the 5 interlinking scenarios, each of which is bizarre in its own fascinating way, so I won't retread that ground.

Good performances from Tadanobu Asano, Sonny Chiba and Vinny Jones and also from the very beautiful Reika Hashimoto (gorgeous as the wife who refuses to stay buried) and ditto, Kyoko Koizumi, the advertising executive. The whole look of the film is trippy and colourful; interiors particularly underline the bizarre feel of the movie, (check out the inside of Tadanobu's house!)

Suffice it to say, this is a weird and wonderful mix of black comedy, violence (which is thankfully not as gut-churning as in some J-movies) and, particularly at the end, life affirmation.