User Reviews

Bullet Ballet (1998) is one of Shinya Tsukamoto's more personal and enigmatic films, attempting, as it does, to merge elements of narrative and character alongside his usual preoccupations with visual metaphor and cinematic experimentation. The manner in which these two very distinctive styles come together isn't always as seamless as many of the director's other films, with the juxtaposition of these two worlds creating a plot line and a sense of character motivation that is often quite hard to follow, no doubt enlivening and alienating the majority of its viewers in equal measures. Arriving home from work one night, TV commercials director Goda (played by Tsukamoto himself) is shocked to discover that his long-term partner Kiriko (Kyoka Suzuki) has committed suicide. Unable to cope with this tragic turn of events, Goda becomes obsessed with the idea of owning a Chief Special – the same handgun used by Kiriko in her own death. However, after wandering the streets of Tokyo looking for an arms dealer, he stumbles into a dark alleyway where he meets Chisato (Kirina Mano), a waif-like street punk who Goda saved from the path of an oncoming train during a previous encounter. Concerned for her well-being, he tries to give her a lecture but instead, is beaten and robbed by members of Chisato's gang – here led by the charismatic Goto (Murase Takahiro). After this encounter, Goda's pistol obsession becomes inexplicably intertwined with this gang of street punks, until events start to spiral desperately out of control for all involved.

Like many of Tsukamoto's other films, in particular the preceding Tokyo Fist (1995) and his later masterworks A Snake of June (2002) and Vital (2004), the film focuses on the idea of identity loss - as we are introduced to a character who, through a series of unfortunate events partially described above, can no longer understand his place in the world and attempts to reclaim his identity through primal violence. With this in mind, some have compared the film to Scorsese's masterpiece Taxi Driver (1976); however, the comparison is really quite superficial. Bullet Ballet lacks the sense of spiralling catharsis so central to Taxi Driver's gun-toting loner Travis Bickle, instead capturing the aimless need for something – anything – to give the protagonist's life a sense of purpose. The gun becomes a god-like symbol of power for Goda; something that can command and destroy without even being used. However, as the film progresses, it becomes clear that it is not the gun that has re-invigorated Goda's design for life, but the extraordinary, life-threatening scenarios he has witnessed in the pursuit of the weapon in question. Like Tsuda from Tokyo Fist or Rinko from A Snake of June, Goda, Chisato and Goto must enter into a series of self-inflicted psychological tests that will in effect shock them out of their sense of numbed, social paralysis - almost destroying them before they can truly feel whole. These are classic Tsukamoto ideas, prevalent in even his first acknowledged feature film, Tetsuo: The Iron Man. However, whereas that film and his subsequent projects painted in broad-strokes; combining the themes and ideas with heavy visual symbolism and bold experimentation, Bullet Ballet is much more conventional in scope. At times it was reminiscent of David Cronenberg at his most clinical and detached; recalling films such as Dead Ringers (1988) or his controversial adaptation of Crash (1997), which again, has a similar thread about discovering your true self and your lust for life by putting it (literally) on the line.

Tsukamoto captures the film in a noir-like black and white; creating a world literally without colour that perfectly underpins the feckless "do or die, life or death" attitude expressed by Goto's gang of misguided young tear-aways. Occasionally the director indulges in a moment of intense visual expression - recalling his more typical work with the use of rapidly edited montages, skewed camera perspectives and that pounding industrial soundtrack - but for the most part, the approach is fairly restrained; recalling his more recent film Vital and the earlier, more subdued moments of A Snake of June. As I said before, the film doesn't flow as seamlessly as I would have expected; often confounding viewers by going in directions that you wouldn't normally expect, which can be quite jarring and disconcerting for those of us trying to pick apart the motivation of the characters. As a result the film doesn't quite have the same impact of Tokyo Fist or A Snake of June, seeming somewhat formless (which is a real failing given the film's reliance on narrative over visual spectacle). That said; it's in no way a "bad film", but rather, one that will test the patience of many viewers expecting something as frantic and ballistic as the more iconic Tetsuo films, offering instead a story that is emotionally rich, thematically enigmatic, but at times, occasionally quite thin. If you're already a fan of Tsukamoto's work then I would say stick with it regardless. The film offers a number of standout set-pieces, from the initial scenes of Goda trying (and often failing in true deadpan fashion) to buy the weapon, to a series of fairly frantic action sequences that almost recall the Tsukamoto that many will be more familiar with.

Bullet Ballet was a bold departure for Tsukamoto; giving us more plot and deeper characters, as well as one of his most understated and sympathetic performances in the lead role (Tsukamoto, not only a great film director, editor and cinematographer, but also a fairly underrated actor as well). It doesn't quite come together as seamlessly as it should, leaving many loose threads and a myriad of unanswered questions, but also offers some truly intense and truly astounding individual sequences. A flawed minor-masterpiece then, from one of contemporary cinema's true originals.

Tsukamoto's "experimental entertainment" vacillates wildly between kinetic, pulse-pounding powerhouses (TETSUO, TETSUO II: THE BODY HAMMER, TOKYO FIST) and sometimes plodding- if not downright sleep-inducing- cinema (GEMINI, A SNAKE OF JUNE, VITAL). BULLET BALLET falls somewhere between these two extremes. There are too few of the patented strobing, kaleidoscopic sequences that have made Tsukamoto such a dynamic director for this to be considered one of his best; still, the scene where he brands himself with a hot iron before pistol-whipping himself into a killing frenzy is the kind of semi-sensual cinematic savagery that he does best and it singlehandedly saves this one.

Visually, each of Shinya Tsukamoto's films have their own differentiating look, while at the same time are unmistakably his. All his works are a manga come to life, with bursts of over-the-top, graphic imagery, with the energy of the moving image. Along with "Tetsuo", "Bullet Ballet's" use of black and white furthers the likeness of his films to manga: but instead quietly absorbing the images and texts from the page, they leap out at you and shake you to your core.

Goda (Tsukamoto), a somewhat timid and indecisive advertising exec, returns home to find his fiancée has shot herself in their bathroom. His life is devastated. But the key question on his mind is "how did she get hold of a gun?" To find answers, he takes to the streets, delving into the underworld of Shinjuku, approaching anyone, often foreign, he feels may be a connection to a source.

But, out of his depth, he soon finds himself the victim of con men taking his money for toys; as well as a failed attempt at some home engineering. Angered and frustrated, his further delving leads him to numerous beatings. But by chance, a foreign woman approaches him with a deal: marry her for a visa and she will hand over a gun to him. Immediately he agrees.

Seeking out the gang who repeatedly inflicted beatings upon him, he approaches them with his new toy, but is soon caught up in a gang war. Drawn to young Chisato (Kirina Mano), he helps the gang with the real gun, before joining them in their final battle.

You don't watch Tsukamoto films; you experience them. Regular collaborator, the late Chu Ishikawa, again delivers an industrial-metal-electro-punk soundtrack that seeps into every part of your brain, heightened by the sudden switches to complete silence. The urban development of Shinjuku is also used to good effect, with corrugated iron fences of building sites and cranes the backdrop to an industrial landscape of metal and violence. This is the world beneath the skyscrapers of mass urbanisation; a bleak and grotty underbelly of Tokyo of low lives, dirty clubs and gang violence.

Much like "Tokyo Fist" before it, the violence is exaggerated, with blows heavy and the resulting impact more true to manga than real life. Tsukamoto draws inspiration from the drawn image, with the facial impact and bruising those you would expect to see on the page, exaggerated so that you are aware they have been beaten. In black and white, as manga are, you feel you are watching the paper form.

The characters, typical of Tsukamoto, are obsessives, doing whatever is necessary to achieve their aim, fighting to the death. Mano's Chisato has something of Faye Wong's Faye in "Chungking Express" about her, secretly playing around in Goda's flat. Goda is also a man who will do whatever it takes to get hold of a gun, taking numerous humiliations along the way, but is in no way fazed by them.

But, as ever with Tsukamoto, the plot is a little clunky in parts along the way. Things seem to just happen out of nowhere, such as the approach of Goda's new "wife" regarding the gun; as well as his quick descent into the underworld. But plot is never what one looks for too much in his films. The style and the wild ride are what we are after, along with some iconic images. His own cinematographer again, there are numerous shots that make the camerawork a definite step up in quality from his previous films, and act as a precursor to 2002's "A Snake of June".

Overall, "Bullet Ballet" is perhaps a step down in terms of the innovation of "Tetsuo", the extreme violence of "Tokyo Fist" and the film noir style of "A Snake of June", but is certainly among Tsukamoto's better works in his distinctive brand of filmmaking that comes straight out of a comic book.

politic1983.home.blog

A visually stunning experiment in motion picture storytelling Shynia Tsukamoto's "Bullet Ballet" is a semi-revenge tale, semi-philosophical examination of the human condition. It explores themes and ideas concerning both the moral and social collapse of the modern man. As his earlier works such as "Tetsuo" and "Tokyo Fist" Tsukamoto uses the visual representation, the composition of individual scenes, minimalist colour palette, in this case a wonderfully sharp contrast between black and white, to express his ideas rather than just bombarding us with excessive amounts of expository dialogue.

From the opening Goda (Shinya Tsukamoto) seems content with his life. He has a nice job working as a commercial director, has a long term girlfriend, and at the moment he is sitting at a table apparently drinking. The phone rings, its his girlfriend. They have a nice little chat, and Goda seems pleased, and why shouldn't he be, everything is alright. The conversation ends, Goda returns home and finds his girlfriend dead. She killed herself. She killed herself with a gun. Goda doesn't understand why, everything was alright, just a minute ago they were talking on the phone and now she killed herself. She killed herself with a gun. Goda is lost. He is standing in front of an old mirror in a old room, drops of water violently hitting a half-dead cockroach on the floor, Goda raises his hand, as if a gun, he aims at his reflection, tense, and pulls the imaginary trigger three times. Titles roll "Bullet Ballet", a dance of death.

A dance of death, is the easiest way to describe the movie itself, but not in the usual way mind you. Bullet Ballet is more concerned with its characters and their lack of… connection, to put it bluntly, with the world, as Goda becomes obsessed with his girlfriend's death he tries to acquire the same gun with which she shot herself. Meanwhile he meets up with this girl he once helped, and gets in trouble with some guys from the gang she's in. The girl,Chisato(Kirina Mano), is on first impression simply suicidal, but that is just first impression. Goda's obsession grows, hardened by a burning desire for revenge against the gang, he sets out to make his own gun. And then it hits us, the reality of the situation, just hints at first, but even so it is becoming clear what is happening to this man. The gun, you see, is simply a metaphor, and of course it is a metaphor for death. He wants to understand his girlfriend's death, but he is losing himself in the process. He is losing his connection to life. Reason for being? He has none. And as the story slowly rolls forward, there is this impression that the dance of death is really the idea of facing death, witnessing death, surviving death, and then being reborn again. This idea comes the observation of the relationship between Goda and Chisato, the two characters obviously seem connected by their disconnection from the outside world. They understand each other. In a way they are one character split in two, with each segment providing hints to the overall motivation of the two. Chisato provides proof that Goda is dancing with death like she is, while Goda's past hints to a traumatic experience that lead Chisato to her current disposition.

The final scene is the catharsis of the story, when the two characters finally experience all the chaos, finally witnessing all the death, seeing its effect on others, are free from their emotional blockage.

Shinya Tsukamoto wrote, directed and produced "Bullet Ballet". He was also in charge of lightning, set design … and played a leading role. The man, much like his Tetsuo is a machine, a one man film crew. Chu Ishikawa, as usual, does the soundtrack and what a soundtrack it is, as percussive industrial music hits you like a jackhammer in some of the more dark scenes. While a gentler, more depressing, yet nevertheless more optimistic tune is composed for the film's ending scene.

Beyond all the horror of death, beyond all the disturbing scenes of violence, beyond the sociopathic behavior, "Bullet Ballet" shines with its search for humanity at the darkest places, at the darkest moments, at the darkest times.

Shinya Tsukamoto ranks up there with the most important Japanese filmmakers working today, along with Miike, Sion Sono, and still prolific Kitano. "Bullet Ballet" is a return to the dark imagery and grainy, video-like metropolis-scape of "Tetsuo: The Iron Man", only more realistic and familiarized--this is the cyber-punk that could exist in the back alleys of your own town.

A man obsesses over getting a gun after his girlfriend kills herself with one she was holding for a gang. Specifically, he wants her gun, but a gun of its same type will do. Meanwhile, the gang and he keep running into each other, with violent and abusive results, until eventually his obsession with the gun and their need to protect themselves from the violence of the city merge their paths into violent mayhem--and stark, abject beauty.

The sexual overtones of the movie are quite obvious, while the stated theme of "man's need to create violence" is a little more subtle. One thing I really liked about this movie is that although it's quite stylized, like most maverick Asian entertainment out there, Tsukamoto shows a real grasp of montage and experimental film-making on top of the narrative continuity needed to direct the audience's emotions as much as compel their intellect. Some of the most memorable uses of back-projection, intercutting, and hand-held cinematography are used with a movie that is not afraid to take a contemplative moment aside to build real tension. It's not just eye-candy, this one. Of course, neither is anything else of Tsukamoto's I've seen, but sometimes a movie is so well-done it bears worth mentioning.

A minor aside, one that has no real impact on the rating or receipt of this film in whole: that one chick who eventually ends up commiserating with the protagonist was scary thin. It was almost an abject horror unto itself to see her down to bra and underwear, looking like a skeleton. Because of the nature of the imagery, I don't know if the choice in that actress was intentional for the body-type or if she was the only one he could get.

--PolarisDiB

On returning home from work Goda learns from the police that his long-time girlfriend has just committed suicide with a gun obtained from yakuza she apparently befriended. Enraged, obsessed and increasingly desperate Goda tries to obtain a gun from black market and find the yakuza he holds responsible. Along the way he runs into a gang of middle class kids that had robbed him earlier and develops a companionship of sorts with the one female gang member Chisato who has similar selfdestructive tendencies as himself.

Sounds fairly conventional so far, doesn't it? But Bullet Ballet doesn't quite play out like a conventional revenge story. With a title like Bullet Ballet one might expect to see heroic gunplay, but there are only two guns in the movie and we learn Goda isn't terribly good at dancing the ballet. His efforts at trying to obtain a proper handgun are repeatedly rather comically frustrated and when he finally does get his hands on one, he still is no master killer. I was a bit puzzled by this aspect but then realized the director wanted him and his pursuit of revenge to look frustrating and pathetic. Goda is after all just a whitecollar worker and perhaps the director also wanted to question revenge. ***heavy spoilers*** Indeed in the end he doesn't get his revenge or even learn for certain why his girlfriend committed suicide. Goda and Chisato are forced to face their lives' emptiness and selfdestructiveness, but that also makes possible their redemption in another way. ***end heavy spoilers***

Tsukamoto's expressive and atmospheric visual style propels the kinetic movie. Frequently shaking and moving frantically his powerful black and white imagery hypnotizingly reflects Goda's despair and obsession, bleak urban Tokyo and the chaos and brutality of fights, but also a couple of rapturous moments of beauty such as Chisato playing in Goda's apartment. However some of the shots which cut briefly to the details of urban surroundings seem a bit unnecessary. The soundtrack consists mostly of industrial, metal and techno, but also two beautiful slow pieces towards the end, and it is good. The cast's performances are also good.