3/5 BULLET BALLET marks a change for Tsukamoto
  by M. Sutton (Dallas, USA)
The success of his first major film, the experimental, surrealistic Tetsuo: The Iron Man, hurled Shinya Tsukamoto into the midst of the world film scene. With a slew of comparisons to David Lynch, critics hailed Tsukamoto as one of the greatest "style-over-substance" directors of our time: an apt description, as practically all of his early films are brilliantly shot and put together while their stories often feel ever so slightly lacking. With BULLET BALLET, Tsukamoto begins to challenge this mold and emerge as one of the world's greatest storytellers. Still, BULLET BALLET is only his first real attempt at putting story and character on an equal level with polish and style, and as such makes more than a few missteps.

Goda (Shinya Tsukamoto) is a successful director of television commercials - very loosely based, Tsukamoto states, on a man who in the 1970s was called the "Kurosawa of TV commercials" - with a serious, seemingly normal girlfriend of ten years. In the films first few minutes, however, Goda returns home to find her dead: suicide. The police discover that the fun she used was obtained from ties she had, unbeknownst to Goda, with the underworld. Goda's life is instantly changed, though for a short while he is able to keep up appearances, as his entire life is taken over by his urge for vengeance against those who provided his girlfriend with the means to kill herself. For the first (and strongest) half of the film, Goda's life sinks to one objective that controls his every action: obtaining a gun. Along the way, he comes upon the young thugs that he feels caused his girlfriend's death, including another young woman, Chisato (Kirina Mao), who will in many ways echo the behavior of Goda's late lover. When Goda eventually gets his gun by marrying a Korean immigrant, it is soon taken from him. And here, the film falls apart. the thief, Goto (Takahiro Murase), is forced to kill a random individual (he gets to choose, his boss just wants someone to die), but Goto's choice somehow brings a seemingly random hitman (Hisashi Igawa) upon the young gangsters, and in the film's corpse-laiden finale, shows the young people just how dangerous the stakes are in the "games" they play. This last half works fine on paper, but feels awkward, random, and heavy handed in execution.

Wearing nearly half a dozen different hats (including director, writer, director of photography, lead actor, and editor), Tsukamoto somehow manages, as he so often does, to fulfill his responsibilities with a talent, creativity, and energy that is rare even in films when each of those positions are filled by a different individual. Perhaps most notable, however, is his work as the film's director. As such, he manages to weave together elements of various important directors (both from Japanese cinema of the past and Tsukamoto's own international contemporaries). At different moments in the film, he evokes the wild, handheld style of Kinji Fukasaku, the dream-like beauty of Wong Kar-Wai's contemporary films (a sequence where Chisato invades Goda's apartment might have been a deleted scene from Chungking Express), the artistic experimentation of Seijun Suzuki, and, in some of the film's most memorable moments, a unique, almost neo-realistic, take on Eisenstein's montage theory. The film is beautiful to behold, and the care that Tsukamoto obviously put into every frame and every interaction pays off, even if the logic of the events themselves starts to rip the film apart.

As the film's lead actor, Tsukamoto is as good as ever when he calls upon himself to be the generally dry and cold Japanese everyman, with moments of explosive emotion, that has, after a 10 or 15 year hiatus, become so popular again in Japanese cinema. The rest of the cast is generally good as well, but any nuances they may or may not attempt to add to their roles get swallowed up in Tsukamoto's ultra-stylish world, rendering the characters realistic. Tsukamoto successfully imbues Bullet Ballet with the air of a documentary, and in so doing renders each of the performances invisible.

BULLET BALLET's problems are all inherent in the story, a real pity since the film is one of the closest to Tsukamoto's heart. It took reportedly ten or fifteen years from his original concept to Screen. Sadly, but not necessarily surprisingly, this original concept is the film's ending, where an older, war-hardened assassin teaches young hoodlums the terror of violence by forcing them to experience death; Tsukamoto may have been so blinded by his love for this long-held idea that, in creating BULLET BALLET's concept, he couldn't see what a destructive change of pace and tone it would be for the film overall. Still, BULLET BALLET marks a decided shift in Tsukamoto as an artist, and in a variety of ways is a truly mystifying film. It may not be one of his masterpieces, but it is a crucial and intriguing film in his development as a director.

The film actually deserves a little more than three stars, I'd give it 3.5, but I'd rather round down than up since some of Tsukamoto's other films are more imporant viewing than this one.

5/5 So... who is the bad guy here?
  by Daitokuji31 (Black Glass)
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.


4/5 I wouldn't compare it to ballet, but it is beautiful
  by PolarisDiB (Southwest, USA)
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 filmmaking 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

4/5 Brilliant bullet ballet.
  by Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
Bullet Ballet (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1998)

There's something wonderfully dynamic about Shinya Tsukamoto's movies, a feeling that even when everything on camera is still, there's a great deal of motion in the background, that if the camera were turned just a few degrees, everything would be flying along at warp speed. It's a wonderful effect, almost to the point where I'm starting to like Tsukamoto better than Takashi Miike. Almost, mind you, but Bullet Ballet goes a long way towards drawing the two of them even.

As the film opens, Goda (Tsukamoto) discovers that his finacee has committed suicide, shooting herself. Goda becomes obsessed with handguns, and his obsession is sharpened when a gang of thugs, led by the ruthless and beautiful Chisato (8½ Women's Kirina Mano), starts preying on Goda. His fascination with guns, and his fantasies of revenge, become inevitably entangled, even as he finds himself more and more attracted to Chisato.

As with all of Tsukamoto's movies, this is not a film you want to watch if you're just looking for an easy, linear, turn-your-brain-off romp. There is a great deal under the hood here, as with even the most mainstream of Tsukamoto's films, which is is emphatically not. Still, it is an action film (or, at least, a parody of one), and so sometimes it feels like that. But keep paying attention, and you'll get a lot more out of it. Tsukamoto has a thing for trying to get inside the mind of what mainstream humanity would consider the deviant; in this case, it's Goda's all-consuming gun obsession. (Note that Tsukamoto's philosophy in this regard tends to bleed over when he works with other directors; witness, for example, Shimizu's Marebito, so far different from Shimizu's other films, or his multiple collaborations with Takashi Miike.) Goda is a fascinating character through and through, and while Chisato originally comes off (by design, I assume) as shallow and jaded, she, too, grips the viewer after a while. Tsukamoto's films are as much studies of character as they are violent fantasies, and this is what separates Tsukamoto from the bulk of thriller directors; there's meat on these bones. Bullet Ballet is a stunning example. ****


5/5 Shinya Tsukamoto at his most complex and accessible
  by Dansa
With "Bullet Ballet", one man production crew/writer Tsukamoto departs from the surrealism, horror, eroticism, and overall bleak tone of previous films to venture into more grounded urban drama territory. This less threatening approach combined with the film's gradual hopeful outlook makes for one of Shinya's most accessible films. Yet at the same time it is also one of his most complex and reawarding from a narrative point of view. Revolving around three incredibly complicated and confused characters the film explores and convincingly resolves several difficult themes such as the widening generation gap, the angst of the civilized modern male, and last but not least, the simple quest for purpose. Needless to say this is a tough film to fully comprehend in just one sitting, not because it's vague but because it's so rich in subtle detail that key plot points can be easily missed.

Further complicating matters is the way the initial plot that drives the first half of the film is revealed to only be a small piece of a much larger puzzle; what you are led to believe is the answer is only the beginning of a deeper understanding. The story is mostly from the perspective of Goda(Tsukamoto in fine everyman form) as he searches for a gun in the hopes of solving the mystery of his long time girlfriend's sudden suicide. The film also follows the insecure thug whom Goda's wife was holding the fun for, as well as his implied girlfriend, who just appears to have a deathwish. All three characters are searching for answers, and while only two find the right path; they are all enlightened by the film's conclusion.

Shot in black and white, Shinya's engertic camera work shifts from wild cuts and shaky hand helds, to quiet contemplative moments while the music approrpiately shifts from loud industrial blasts to bittersweet melodies. Tokyo as with all of his films is a character unto itself, as the camera explores everything from neon shopping districts to amusment parks to arcades to the darkest alleys and nightclubs. Despite the dark noir like atmosphere, the film also has many moments of contrasting beauty; though the darker moments aren't so bad looking themselves. A shot of Kirina Mao staring at the rain from a shadowy alley might be one of the most haunting, gorgeous images Shinya has ever shot. While this is mostly a character study, there is still a great deal of fast paced action; whether it be chase sequences, muggings, gang fights, or Shinya waging pyschological warfare on himself alone in his apartment; the tense moments leading up to film's climatic surprisingly puts most horror movies to shame.

DVD Notes-The Enlish commentary is highly informative and interesting, possibly clearing up any questions one may be left with by the ending. The interview with Shinya also provides a great deal of information, as he never seems shy about explaining the meanings behind his movies.