User Reviews

Sion Sono's "Bad Film" is an exploration of human nature in cultural conflicts. The central themes are racism, homosexuality and violence. The characters are marginal misfits who make mayhem in various neighbourhood of Tokyo. The central dilemma of the high-density Chinese immigrants who are perceived as a threat especially as the 1997 Handover of Hong Kong to China is looming, coupled with the more comically-toned fear of "Blacks" for their hypothetically huge penises and ensuing vagina-stretching paranoia for the poor Japanese girls from their "protecting" male counterparts.

The long movie follows a rather typical gang attacks gang pattern with periods of peace and respite, but despite its shortcomings and simple story, it shines with bouts of beautiful artistic cinematography (especially for the budget and guerilla-style street film-making) and engaging, endearing and strange characters. It also showcases Sono's humour, innovation, eclectic vision and symbolic synthesis.

The soul-searching in society's fringe is evident and the sedated pace allows for much reflection. At part life-affirming and at parts looking- glass alarming, this examines the essence of being alive in our melodramatic times.

The racist dialogue is consistent with typical bigotry, ignorance and fear anywhere in the world, but there is a well-researched and executed scene where the two warring interpreters discuss the merits and underachievements of China versus Japan in a more didactic and less derogatory way which is extremely effective. The other memorable scenes are the visceral eye-stopping "Slap Scene" and the various non-sexual lesbian scenes between the two "Juliette & Juliette" of the rival clans. The music and editing work well in most part and the ending brings closure to this epic episode, while not necessarily inducing change like epigenetics.

So this movie is no clear masterpiece as Canadian "Crash (2004)" did much better (and more subtly) evaluating our remaining racist societal compass, but it certainly pushes the boundaries in a beautiful and thoughtful way. All and all, it is a worthwhile, if at times long, watch.

It enviably sits in the same decadent universe as Sion Sono's "Hazard (2005)" which takes place in New York, versus the elaborate erotic worlds of "Strange Circus (2005)" & "Guilty of Romance (2011)" but does not completely achieve greatness like "Noriko's Dinner Table (2005)" and "Cold Fish (2010)" which are more refined on almost every level.

The movie follows two street gangs in Koenji, Tokyo that are at constant odds with each other. One gang consists of Chineses while the others are local Japaneses. Both sides have ups and downs in the war but none are willing to give up their turf. At some point they try to put up a truce but the two gang's translators talk to each other and have sinister plans to keep the war going. At the same time, there is a sort of Romeo and Juillet plot going on with a Chinese girl falling in love with a Japanese girl.

Being a big fan of most of Sion Sono's work, I was very excited that he was able to patch up this long lost work of his into and actual movie. I also told myself that my favourite Sono movies seem to be the really long ones, so I had good hopes for the feature. Love Exposure and Cold Fish are long and very well stringed together. This one is long and very oddly put together. It's obvious that this movie spent a long time in the editing both since there are a lot of awkward cuts and scene transitions. The quality of filming could also be a element that some would find very hard to endure for two hours and forty minutes. But I will acknowledge that this was filmed in 1995 with a seemingly cheap camera. So this is one of Sono's earliest films. It was fine for me, but might be hard for others. I was also disappointed when I seem to recognize some music tracks from Cold Fish, on a few occasions by that. the movies still has it's great moments of dark humour and bloody violence like most of Sono's work but they are too many long and boring scenes in between them which almost killed the movie for me. So in the end, I had put my hopes up, and I got disappointed. This is not an actual bad film. It just needed to be edited more.

If this is your first Sion Sono, go take a look at Cold Fish, Love Exposure, Strange Circus, Suicide Club and Guilty of Romance to get a better feel of what his movies are all about.

Shot in 1995 and edited in 2012, Bad Film is, as the title suggests, a Bad film, at least in a technical sense. Sono, now an accomplished professional filmmaker, can look back on this movie he shot with no budget and 90s era home camcorders and have the sense of humour to name it "Bad Film". But the truth is, Bad Film is kind of an amazing film, a mind-boggling achievement in guerrilla filmmaking, as well as a beautiful memento of Tokyo GAGAGA.

Before Sono was a filmmaker, he formed what I would loosely term a "poetry collective", that staged marches through the streets of Tokyo, shouting their angsty poetry through megaphones. The group's name, "Tokyo GAGAGA", is meant to be onomatopoeia for the sound of the screaming soul. This film appears to have been made at the height of the group's existence, as the end-credits inform us that the film was made with the co-operation of over 2000 (!!!) Tokyo GAGAGA members.

The movie aspires to be a Godfather-esque gangster epic, or at least what one might look like if you and your 2000 closest unemployed university-aged friends decided to make your own styled gangster film for the fun of it. There are warring gangs, divided along lines of ethnicity (and later by sexual orientation), and there's a lot of violence and bloodshed, but at the heart of the story is the tragic romance between a Chinese woman and a Japanese woman caught in the middle of it.

It would be extremely difficult even for a big-budget film to obtain shooting permits for such locations as the Tokyo subway, which is where the appeal of guerrilla style filmmaking comes in (that is, risking arrest to shoot in unauthorized locations). But whereas most guerrilla filmmakers would take a skeleton crew and try to avoid being noticed, what makes Bad Film so astonishing is the sheer scale of the stunts they pull off in well-known locations. The movie opens with a huge clash between gangs on a packed train car on the Chuo line, and perhaps the most impressive scene takes place on the Shibuya scramble, with the participation of probably hundreds of extras who split up and run down various alleys when we finally hear the police whistle.

I think what I like best of all though, are the scenes that are spontaneously light and playful, such as when the gangsters run past a building and notice an aerobics class going on inside, stop, and start doing this crazy dance in imitation of the people inside. Another scene has them playing with their unloaded guns like children, having a pretend shootout. It's moments like these that not only makes you like the characters, and gives weight to the tragedy of their needless bigotry ending in bloodshed, but these are also the scenes that make me think: they were having soo much fun making this film! What I wouldn't give to have been a Japanese teenager/friend of Sion Sono in the 1990s!

Sion Sono made two other films kind of similar to this: his feature debut titled "A Man's Flower Road" (1987) and its followup "Decisive Match! Boys Dorm vs. Girls Dorm" (1988). Both have the same kind of chaotic amateur energy as Bad Film, but both are way messier, and that's saying something because Bad Film is all over the place, and almost 3 hours long to boot. Bad Film, if I have my timeline right, was made after two experiments in comparative cinematic coherence (Bicycle Sighs and The Room), and I think of it as Sono going back for a third, much more successfully realized attempt, at whatever those first two films were... Unrestrained Tokyo GAGAGA cinema, inviting the collaboration of as many members as possible.

Bad Film also benefits from being edited and finished (and narrated!) by 2012 Sion Sono. With over 150 hours of footage shot, had this film been completed in 1995 I can't imagine it would even be the same film. 2012 Sono's brilliant editing and music choices make this feel almost like a modern Sono film. Sono, I should also mention, plays one of the main gangsters ("a closeted homosexual!", 2012 Sono hilariously explains). There's a lot that's fun about this film, but as a huge admirer of Sion Sono and his art, the biggest appeal of Bad Film for me is getting a small window into Sono's past pre-professional life. When, penniless and rejecting society, he managed to form a giant almost commune around himself, of like-minded social outcasts, and together create some kind of transgressive art that was an expression of themselves, the likes of which a studio filmmaker could never dream of. GAGAGA! My own soul screams to be a part of it.

We live in a time where there is war in Europe and the Middle East.

All news that is not liked by your countries government is labelled as fake news.

One side are terrorists and do crimes against humanity and their side is all about bringing peace.

Today in the news the pentagon wants the Congress to pass a bill so they can make one that is 20 times stronger than the ones they dropped in a a Japan.

As it is good to have it their arsenal, with the growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.

I am sure that if you look from these countries, it is the other way around.

The world is on fire again as we are entering a arms race . Haven't we learned anything.

Sion sono shows early in the movie a story of Kana a person who is loveable . She gets hit, by someone who is telling he means well for her. In the gay bar nobody steps up from her. And it is a really uncomfortable watch This senseless violence happens over and over again. And the world just watches.

It is pretty clear that most of the people involved want to get out but it is hard to do with the current leadership. And people fear to stand up.

Civilians get killed now yet our countries keep producing and sending weapons to these regions. So the war can continue.

We really should ban all weapons. Yet a bigger atom bomb is waiting for us.

I saw a movie once, where a line was told. The gist of it was that if a gun appears in a movie. A gun will go off in that movie. It's not a question of of but when.

I think this movie 's message about senseless violence and not accepting cultures that are different from ours is almost a mirror of what is happening in the world right now.

Anyway the movie is surprisingly well shot. I was expecting needless shaky camera's but it is pretty darn good.

The editing of the footage , sure shows Sion sono's skills.

The acting is better than in most American series.

I hope more people will see this movie and reflect what we are doing. What our leadership is doing.

There is hope . As these actors from different countries made this collective . And they had this message for us.