The New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts have been
co-owning New York City’s fantastic summer film scene for a few years now, with
the former kicking things off and bleeding into the latter’s outro. Somewhere
in the middle, the two stand side by side to co-present an extended weekend of
Japanese selections – this year it’s Thursday July 9 through Sunday July 12 –
and every year it contains many of the festivals’ highlights.
While I won’t be around to experience the mayhem directly, I’ve gotten access to a bit of a preview, which I humbly share with
you as the theater in the Japan Society is getting set for your arrival.
Thursday July 9, 2014
The opening salvo promises to be nothing short of a showdown
between renowned Japanese bad boy directors Takashi Miike and Sono Sion. The
former’s REIJI, SONG OF THE MOLE (MOGURA NO UTA) is a not at all subtle kicking
and screaming sendup of cop vs. yakuza crime dramas, adapted from a serialized manga.
It introduces Reiji, an incompetent beat cop who blunders his way to the top,
which ends being at the bottom of a deep undercover mole’s path toward the
inner circle of a dangerous organized crime group. The film makes outlandish
light out of the genre’s tropes, such as endless batteries of police tests and
stomach churning Yakuza initiation rights. There are humorous musical numbers sprinkled
in and a plot involving drug smuggling and a feud between gangs that escalates
to such farfetched proportions it’s like Miike taking the piss out of Miike
(those familiar with his DOA films may notice a few similar ideas). Yet while
the volume is dialed up to 100, it never really digs below the surface of a
silly comedy, making for a fairly by the numbers affair when you consider the
mind-bending proportions that many of Miike’s films have achieved.
The real attraction of the evening is Sono’s WHY DON’T YOU
PLAY IN HELL. The director’s most self-referential film to date, it channels the
notorious provocateur’s passion for no holds barred cinematic transgressions
through a group of movie-obsessed guerilla filmmakers called the Fuck Bombers.
After stumbling upon a real youth gang fight and racing to capture it on camera,
they meet their very own ‘Bruce Lee’ who joins them in their pursuits. We jump
through time to find the club becoming very comfortable in their auteur yet insignificant
conquests, and also very visibly aged. An opportunity lands in their lap that
gives them a once a chance to direct a dangerously lifelike film for a Yazkua group
with a limitless budget…and in 35 mm! Rationality is trumped by their
charismatic leader’s grandiose vision and an insane gambit is launched.
Viewed from another vantage point, we have the story of Mitsuko, daughter of the same powerful Yakuza clan who has been given a taste of
stardom as a child by singing the jingle in a beloved toothpaste commercial.
Used to getting her way as long as she doesn’t cross the boss, AKA her dad, Mitsuko is the embodiment of a tough as nails femme fatale who can turn instantly into
a crooning charmer. It’s a balancing act played electrifyingly by Fumi Nikaido
(who will introduce the screening in person!) The young adult Mitsuko wants a
leading role once again. Her father is happy to oblige since putting her in a
movie would please her mother after her loyal service to the clan. When Mitsuko rebels against the production
company her father hired, paths end up crossing with the Fuck Bombers leading
to bombastic conclusions, in which geysers of blood explode with feel good
fervor. An impossibility outside of the realm of film, which Sono never forgets
no matter how wild the proceedings get.
Throughout PLAY IN HELL there are numerous callbacks to
Sono’s filmography. Mitsuko is the sort of troubled yet strong-willed female lead
familiar to many of his standout films; HIMIZU (which also features Nikaido), LOVE
EXPOSURE, and NORIKO’S DINNER TABLE come immediately to mind. A diverse score
touches on the gravity of classical music used in HIMIZU, brings back Yura Yura
Teikoku’s slinky psychedelic grooves once featured in LOVE EXPOSURE, and the explosive
drum rhythms signifying impending madness as heard in COLD FISH. Sono also pays tribute to the notoriously
Japanese power of the pop jingle. In SUICIDE CIRCLE, themes and storylines were
advanced through catchy girl pop group anthems and here everyone in the cast is
seduced by the child Mitsuko's snappy commercial. You will be too and with any
luck, Miss Nikaido will feel compelled to treat the audience to a live
rendition.
With WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL, Sono delivers a missive on
the liberating power of being able to make unwieldy and confrontational
assaults on the common sense of decency through film. Who better to speak on this than the director
who once shocked international audiences with a scene of 54 schoolgirls jumping
in front of a fast moving subway train. Sono might’ve possibly outdone himself
here, and had a blast doing it.
Click on the links for more information on the New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts and check back here for PART 2 and more reports from Steve.
Me on twitter = @mondocurry.
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