Boy did this movie really turn me around. I was absolutely hating the first fifteen minutes or so. It was so loud, so broad and so 80’s. What might have worked for John Waters or Pedro Almodóvar was not working for Kinji Fukasaku. I started to wonder why Criterion would have possibly acquired this film. Was it just because of the director? But since I also have a policy of always seeing movies through to the end, I soldiered on. Even if it is God-awful there is something that can be gleamed from a bad film. And like they say: You can’t appreciate sweet unless you have tasted sour. I just didn’t expect to get that entire experience within the running-time of the same movie.
Once the conceit of Yasu marrying Konatsu is set up and Yasu begins risking life and limb for their future, it becomes an entirely different movie. It becomes sweet, tender, angry and insightful. By the time of the big stunt at the end, I was absolutely riveted. Perhaps this was all intentional? Had Fukasaku deliberately made the opening so insufferable? Perhaps I wouldn’t have liked the latter half so much if I hadn’t disliked the early half so intensely? Who knows? All I really know is that I’d love to see this film on a double-bill with François Truffaut’s equally effusive cinema love-letter, Day for Night.
No comments:
Post a Comment