Review of PARTY7 (2000) by Christopher B — 17 Jun 2008

Being a Katsuhito Ishii fan, I'm biased in the film's favor. It's probably the most flawed and weakest overall of all that I've seen - falling somewhere between Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl in terms of gangster comedy and where he went with The Taste of Tea and Funky Forest: The First Contact in terms of surrealist humor.

It doesn't hit every note perfectly, but he pulls it off well enough that the film entertains and still feels fresher than most of what's out there with ease. Worth checking out if you've enjoyed Ishii's other films, but as more focused cinema goes, Shark Skin Man, Taste of Tea, and Funky Forest all work better.

The cast's really going all out in playing their characters certainly helps as well. A little more tightening of the script could've made many of the film's problems quickly disappear - we spend a little too much time with the voyeurs, and some of the dialogue comes off as overly redundant for the sake of humor.

You can only make that gag work so many times, and Ishii didn't know when to hit the brake pedal on those bits. But otherwise, Party 7 thoroughly entertains. It delivers a fun '70s flavor similar to - though not as consumingly well done as - Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, and the characters are goofy, likable, and fun to watch, from the more archetypal ones to the fresher ones.

The animated intro is similarly as memorable as shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl's crazy opening as well. You can tell Ishii and company had a lot of fun making this one. (As you can with all of his films.

Ishii is on the cutting edge of Japanese comedy cinema.).