This is one of three ‘major’ films directed by Takashi Miike that have remained near impossible to source with subtitles, even on the bootleg market (the other two being LEY LINES (1999) and SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY (1995, soon to be released on DVD in the UK)), so I was very pleased when I finally got hold of a copy recently. I was especially interested in seeing this film as, apart from the fact that I’m a big fan of Miike, I had been unable to find hardly any information on it on the internet.

The film opens with a young boy called Chuji (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, best known for his role in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s CHARISMA (1999)) playing his harmonica on a dusty street, before jumping forward 20-or-so years. Chuji has now grown up and works in a musical bar in Yokosuka (also the setting for Shohei Imamura's influential PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS (1961)). Intercut with footage of a noisy band playing are shots of a man running for his life from a yakuza gang, his face already bloodied. The montage gets more and more hectic, reminding one of the similar opening to Miike’s later DEAD OR ALIVE (1999), with the credits interspersed, along with a few Batman-style “boom” exclamation screens just for good measure. The man who was fleeing the yakuza takes refuge in the side alley by the bar. Chuji ejects a foul-mouthed American customer who was harassing a female customer and goes for a cigarette outside. When he lights up, the flame illuminates the haunted face of Kenji, the fugitive. The gang arrive and ask Chuji if he’s seen anyone. Chuji seems familiar with them, but denies having seen Kenji. They leave and the girl Chuji intervened for earlier, Tokiko, stitches Kenji’s wounds (she’s worked as a veterinary nurse). We find out that Chuji’s father died in Vietnam and his mother was forced to prostitute herself, before giving him up to an orphanage at the age of 10. Kenji promises to repay Chuji for saving his life. We also find out that Chuji is a small time dealer for the gang that were looking for Kenji.

Meanwhile, Kenji hooks up with a loyal associate called Kaneko and starts hatching a plan for his revenge. Kenji has been having an affair with the head yakuza’s wife and plans to forge a new will for the gangster (called Hajima) which his wife will then switch for the real one. The fake will names Kenji as his successor.

Tokiko tells Yuya, the singer with the band at the club, about Chuji’s prowess with the harmonica. One night Yuya gets Chuji up on stage and he’s a great hit. Yuya’s father dies and he is forced to give up the band to look after the family’s store; he asks Chuji to replace him. Tokiko moves in with Chuji and everything seems to be going great. Kenji meets up with him and gives him a lot of money in thanks. Kenji’s friend Kaneko is acting somewhat strangely by this point, and it’s clear that he has some homosexual inclination towards Kenji, though Kenji seems completely unaware of this. Kenji expands his plan to include forging an alliance with a yakuza from the gang that Chuji deals for, Kojima. This involves setting up Kojima’s gang to look as if they arranged for Hanimura’s death. Kenji will then be able to kill Kojima’s boss as revenge, allowing Kojima to become head of that gang. The two can then forge an alliance and take on other gangs.

Chuji visits the gang to tell them that he wants to stop dealing for them, which angers the boss. A record company talent scout sees one of his performances and tells him that he wants to sign him up. The only catch is that his boss will need to see a performance on Thursday night to convince him. Kenji arranges the assassination attempt for – guess when? – Thursday night. Tokiko discovers she is pregnant. Kenji’s plan requires Kojima to send a member of his gang to see Hanimura so that they can be framed. Kojima elects to force Chuji to go, by blackmailing him over his girlfriend. Kenji’s scheming friend Kaneko knew all about this, but kept it from Kenji as he wanted him 'all for himself' so to speak. Kenji rushes to save Chuji. Will they survive? Will Kenji get back to the club in time to perform for the record company executive? Well, you’ll just have to see it yourself to find out…

As the above breakdown of the film’s narrative should clearly show, this is a melodrama through and through. Miike throws in every ingredient, plus the kitchen sink: pregnant girlfriend, blackmail, loyalty, race against time, characters conveniently removed by family's deaths, etc etc, but in true Miike-style he manages to make it all hang together... fairly well, at least. The theme common to most of Miike’s films rears its head here once again: loneliness and cultural isolation. Chuji feels that he is an outsider because of his lineage, but he gains acceptance by the band, and by extension the outside world. Kenji visits the club in one scene and cannot bear to stay: “ Tell Chuji he’s the greatest,” he tells Tokiko, “We don’t belong here”. Kenji feels that he is an outsider to the yakuza and wants to force his way in. He feels an attraction to Chuji that he cannot express: in one scene he asks Chuji if he likes him: if he *really* likes him. Chuji replies “Well yeah… of course,” to which Kenji mutters under his breath “You just don’t get it, do you?”

Ultimately, the viewer is forced to suspend disbelief once too often, and there are far too many indulgent scenes involving the band for an impatient Western viewer such as myself (perhaps some of the people featured are 'real' music stars in Japan? I’m not sure), and these play just like rock promo’s, devoid of Miike’s usual stylistic flourishes. Having said that, there are some interesting scenes, most notably an outstanding shot at the beginning of the film: from a low point near to the ground, the camera looks up framing the young Chuji against the sky, and a large building. Overhead swoops a massive jet in completely the wrong proportion to the rest of the foreground. As mentioned above, the opening scenes to the film could definitely be viewed as a dry run for DOA’s later excesses, particularly as they also feature a loud rock score. There is some unusual editing and a few other tricks, but it’s all fairly restrained by Miike’s standards.

The whimsical feel of the film is shared by Miike’s other major film of 1998, BIRD PEOPLE OF CHINA (I’m not going to mention ANDROMEDIA here as it doesn’t really fit with the rest of Miike’s work in the late 90’s, though it's interesting to note the music-themed link between the two films), which similarly fails to completely involve the viewer. Regular DP Hideo Yamamoto serves Miike well as always, and one other interesting thing to note is the welcome reappearance of Mickey Curtis, familiar to Miike viewers as the over-zealous hitman who (literally) loses his head at the start of FUDOH (1996), as well as more recently appearing in Miike’s AGITATOR (2001) amongst other things..

In conclusion, if you get the chance to see this film then I’d certainly recommend that you do so, especially if you’re a Miike fan. Just don’t be expecting an early DOA, or even RAINY DOG.

Cast:
Hiroyuki Ikeuchi - Chuji
Seiichi Tanabe
Saori Sekino
Atsushi Okuno
Mickey Curtis

Crew:
Director: Takashi Miike
Screenplay: Toshihiko Matsuo & Toshiyuki Morioka
Score: Atsushi Okuno
Editor: Yasushi Shimamura
Producers: Naoya Narita & Youichiro Onishi
Cinematography: Hideo Yamamoto