Review of Bullet Ballet (1998) by Ben S — 19 Feb 2014

While being photographed in muted monochromatic tones Shinya Tsukamoto's follow up to the intense Tokyo Fist is no less chaotic and livewire. A jittery handheld camera and relentlessly claustrophobic cinematography plunge us directly into the miserable life of our protagonist Goda (Tsukamoto), an unremarkable jobsworth shaken out of his routine by the unexplained suicide of his longterm girlfriend. Becoming transfixed with the revolver she used to take her life Goda stalks back alleys and internet forums to try and obtain the same gun. He crosses paths with a young street gang who give him frequent beatings and abuse. As indirect revenge for his girlfriend's death - and to prove his worth - he is determined to take them down.

This feels like an incredibly personal project for Tsukamoto that plainly explores his own troubled psyche and difficulty accepting his impending middle-age. Continually mocked by the young, cool street thugs, Goda barely mourns the loss of his partner and instead becomes psychotically obsessed with obtaining a handgun and regaining some control and power in his life. There are plenty of interesting themes here but for me, with its stylistic approach and wild ambiguity, it ends up being a collection of memorable scenes with little to get your teeth into emotionally. Within it there are a handful of moments of pure tension and adrenaline, so it's far from being a chore - but eventually it falls on the side of pulp while often hinting at something of more substance and depth.

Tsukamoto directs himself well as the snivelling, impotent Goda, capturing a palpable feeling of desperation and isolation in the grainy, imposing city environment - but he's the kind of manic unsympathetic protagonist it's impossible to really stay with, leaving us as bystanders in his dark spiralling tale. The slimline narrative affords Bullet Ballet a purity and a focus on its central character throughout, so although it has a frenetic pulsating madness there is a considered cohesion to draw us through. Storytelling falls by the wayside but the overpowering mood constructed in the grey city environment becomes a character in itself, and twinned with the director's raw physicality and tangible violence there is more than enough here to satisfy superficially.

Intentionally messy and chaotic it's far from conventional and requires a few leaps of faith along the way - but within Bullet Ballet there is something honest about urban solitude and the onset of age, presented in an energetic, spiky thriller that falls somewhere between arthouse and schlocky trash.