Did you people see the same film I saw?

Better Late Then Never

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

As always, Takeshi Kitano focuses on characters excluded from Japan's 'economic miracle'. His protagonist Masaki (Ono Masahiko), is a hopeless loser: no education (he is slow on the uptake); no prospects (he works part-time as a petrol-station attendant); no baseball skills (which implies a deficient sense of his place in Japanese society). He imagines crashing a stolen oil-tanker into the yakuza headquarters. In his mind, this suicide gives meaning and shape to a life-time of underachievement. Kitano's own extended cameo as Uehara, the Okinawan gangster who commands self-sacrificing loyalty from his friend Tamagi despite expecting his to sever a finger, submit to sodomy and so on, is a creation in the league of French writer Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi: a lord of misrule, the embodiment of the disorderly underside of orderly Japan. As a controlled, music-free account of violence, crime and immorality on the verge of erupting through society's placid surfaces, the film is remarkable enough. What makes it phenomenal is Kitano's completely instinctive reinvention of the grammar and syntax of narrative filmmaking, unique in the popular cinema of the 1990s. Although it gave Kitano his second director credit, Boiling Point has all the hallmarks of a film by a debut director determined to get every idea he has ever had about film, life, death and baseball up there on the screen. His subsequent films, such as Sonatine (1993) and Hana-Bi (1997), are more mature but cannot recapture the raw aesthetic excitement of these beginnings.

This is the kind of Japanese movie that Tarantino and other have been inspired by. Super-creative mix of crazy (but "working") story, violence, humor etc.I can't really explain what it is that's soo good, but I will ll try:Silent Japanese gansters are SO MUCH TOUGHER than tough-mouthed western ones (I'm talking movie gansters/crooks NOT "Godfather" types. Just seeing the Japanese guys interacting is much more interesting than seeing westeners (because I'm a westerner)Their humor is soo strange (but hilarious)What can I compare this movie with? Pulp Fiction? - Yes, a bit similar, especially Harvey Keitel's role is the same as "IRON MAN" = "BEAT TAKESHI"'sReservoir dogs, True ROmance... yes IT is like a TARANTINO MOVIE! / J

Having heard good things about Takeshi Kitano's films, I was looking forward seeing "Boiling Point", having purchased both this and "Sonatine" in the sales, even though it broke my Golden Rule of impulse buys: don't buy any film with quotes from un-named sources on the sleeve (especially if they've got spelling mistakes), in this case "A Genuine Original", "Beautifully directed, Indispensible viewing".Anyway, the quotes were more misleading than lying, as the film definitely is both original and beautifully directed, but only really indispensable for fans of Kitano's, who don't need me to tell them to watch it. For everyone else, it probably isn't the best Kitano film to start with. Marketed as an action movie, the film is much more and much less: it has more heart and intelligence, but much less in the way of action or excitement, feeling more like a slow-burning drama with a little bit of gun-play and one big explosion; John Woo this ain't. However, the acting, from Kitano in particular, is excellent as is the stylish direction: Kitano fills the screen with beautiful images and twisted humour.Worth a look, if you keep in mind that's very slow moving tale, with more baseball action than there is action movie. *** out of five.

*3-4x jugatsu* is a cocktail of drama,crime and absurd situations that never convince.The plot isn't interesting at all and its boring after 30 minutes. Sometimes very bloody,sometimes very hilarious but the humor comes on the wrong moments. The cast does a good job and that's the only positive element of this movie. 4.5/10