A Masterpiece!

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

There are some movies that are such a mishmash of awesomeness, it is hard to believe they exist as a movie. By this, I mean - there are so many genres that co-exist in one movie, it is hard to believe they exist period. Most movies choose to exist in one genre with maybe a subgenre; anything beyond that and we get into the realm of comedy and ridiculousness. Enter "Why Don't You Play in Hell" which is just that. The movie co-exists between documentary, college friends going out on a (local) adventure, Samurai showdown, Yakuza, a discrepancy of nearly ten years that separates two halves of the movie (past and future), as well as the artistic style that is Japanese blood and limb dismemberment. Did I mention that this film is not American, but is actually of Japanese origin? And with a title like "Why Don't You Play in Hell", I can see why. This is just the tip of the iceberg though.The film starts out with what appears to be a packin commercial for "Gagaga" toothpaste; it stars a young girl in a white outfit. This commercial actually plays a larger part in the movie and is referenced numerous times. Fast forward to a group of amateur movie making enthusiasts that are in the midst of making their own movie; they crash into a gang that is mid-scuffle and they start to record and direct. Fast forward again to two different Yakuza groups that have their own skirmishes. Fast forward again and we see the little girl from the commercial walking into a home full of blood. Turns out her mother did some handiwork with some Yakuza that tried to take her (mother) down; the girl turns out to be the daughter of a Yakuza lord. The film jumps back and forth between these groups frequently and it leads to a very confusing, but interesting mish- mash. It isn't evident how they will all play together, but it does happen in the latter part of the film - I won't spoil it.The film has a lot of blatant humor - it has a homage to Bruce Lee in the form of an actor in a film directly copying and mimicking his known style. The opening commercial, while confusing as to why it is there, is funny in its own right and then gets many references to it as a running gag in the rest of the film. The movie's claim to fame would have to be the amateur film makers that call themselves the "Fuck Bombers". The artistic feel of Japanese blood spraying from dismembered limbs is used throughout the film; it has a few moments where it is both ridiculous and fake. The pool of blood that awaits a young girl in her kitchen is nearly a foot deep - impossible with the amount of people involved. The entire movie almost feels like it is a parody of many genres at once; it also feels like a Quentin Tarantino movie, specifically "Kill Bill", but it could be that Kill Bill uses a similar premise - not to mention it also has "The Bride" in a yellow Bruce Lee jumpsuit.The film is far from being a train wreck, and due to the mashup of things, it must close all of them or it wouldn't be a very good movie. It does just that in the last half of the movie. More importantly, we get to see why all of the characters interact and are involved the way they are. Just about every character gets some kind of closure, although at least once gets an inappropriate death. The film only has one bad side - and that is when all of the action built up to a certain point is suddenly dropped due to an outside force; but I will not spoil that either.If you like B-grade movies of a foreign affair, this will most certainly be a pleasant viewing.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/? p=11073).

Shion Sono is a filmmaker that I've several films from before, and I've never been less than impressed. WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL? continues that trend by delivering something completely bonkers, but also really funny and a little bit poignant. The plot, which is a bit difficult to sum up, is about this group of friends who make movies. Through a convoluted series of circumstances, they end up filming a Yakuza feud between the Muto and Kitagawa clans. One thing the film does extremely well is have a sense of fun about itself and not take itself too seriously. There is a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor, and the over-the-top performances help a lot to set a manic tone. The film is also gloriously, even gleefully, bloody and violent. This might turn off a lot of viewers, but the insane levels of violence are largely played for laughs. I don't want to spoil anything specific, but there are several moments that practically made my jaw drop in incredulity. Finally, this film works as a love letter to film and shooting on film. The group of kids (later, adults) who are at the center of the story have a lot of fun shooting stuff on their 8mm cameras, but shooting this Yakuza feud on 35mm provides them with the opportunity they've been waiting for their entire lives. If there's anything negative to say about the film, it's that it might have bitten off a little more narratively than it could chew. At 130 minutes long, it juggles a lot of narrative threads and moving parts, some of which could have been trimmed. For starters there is a fairly long opening sequence that takes place 10 years before the events in the film proper. It sets up all of the necessary characters and relationships, but it could have been a little bit shorter. There's also a subplot about the daughter of one of the Yakuza boss' daughters who has aspirations to be a famous actress. Granted, this is necessary to how the burgeoning film crew comes into contact with the Yakuza, but I'm sure they could have come up with a less convoluted way to accomplish this part of the plot. Still, I will say that the film was never boring nor dragged. Not only does it have comic levels of violence and over-the-top humor, but the cinematography and editing keep things moving along at a good pace. And this all culminates in a final battle that alone is worth the money you spend on it. Overall, this is something that will probably mostly appeal to Shion Sono fans, or of Japanese cinema in general, but if you're in the mood for something weird you can't go wrong with this.

Beneath all my suffocating inhibitions, my inability to share my true feelings, my fear of doing what it is that I really want to do - there is a character somewhat akin to 'Hirata', in Sion Sono's 'Why Don't You Play in Hell?'. Here is a ridiculous and frankly insane character - a wannabe film director (and leader of the 'F**k Bombers' cinema club) who'll go to literally any length to realize his dreams and is not remotely discouraged by his complete lack of accomplishments over the past ten years. He's nuts, and yet my soul is frankly screaming for me to live my life with the same liberated, unashamed, energetic, joie d'vivre, that Hirata maintains in the face of it all... The spirit of the F**k Bombers!Before Sion Sono was a filmmaker, he was part of a poetry collective called 'Tokyo GAGAGA', that took their poetry screaming into the streets. 'GAGAGA', Sono's explained, is the 'sound of the soul'. By that same token, I've often felt that Sion Sono's characters are the soul, personified: their actions are crazy, over-the-top, and usually comically violent - they're not realistic, normal characters - and yet I see my own soul realistically reflected in his characters, more strongly than anyone else's.Like Kurosawa's 'Dreams', 'Why Don't You Play in Hell?' is autobiographical in the most uniquely and completely outlandish way. Hirata is Sono, from his early amateur filmmaking days, when he really did go round with his gang, calling themselves the F**k Bombers, playing Bruce Lee in the park, and being called an idiot by young children. That just about everything else in this movie is heavily fictionalized is pretty obvious, but just as Sono's characters don't reflect normal people, but capture their spirits, his story, if you consider it autobiographical, captures the spirit of his experience becoming a professional filmmaker. It's a movie about the spirit of movies, the spirit of filmmaking, and as Sono says, the 'love of 35mm'.It's also about a yakuza turf war. And there's some romance as well: a meek boy falls in love with a girl after seeing her shove a piece of broken glass through another guy's cheek with her tongue, and shortly gets over his own shyness. The movie is a crazily-ridiculous breathlessly-paced action-comedy, capturing the same punk rock energy as Sono's Love Exposure, and it's his most polished-looking film yet. It's a lighter affair than most of the movies he made before - the psycho-horrors and the Fukushima-dramas - but it's no less good; it's thoroughly entertaining from start to finish, and especially, everything after the F**k Bombers finally cross paths with the yakuza is pure genius.It's a movie that had me laughing, had me tapping my feet to the music (all written and composed by Sono himself), and had me grinning cheek-to-cheek the whole way through. And, like Sono's very best movies (Hazard, Love Exposure), it might have even inspired me, to loosen my inhibitions a little bit.

I saw the film last night and it was not the first time I saw Shion Sono's film but it was really the first time that his movie made me laughing for several minutes and I felt very very excited about it when it ended.The movie's last 30 minutes is a must see! Yes,it is!!!Although the pacing of it's first half is a little slow,it just like a foreshadowing for the plot and the relationship between the characters. Jigoku de naze warui is a movie which put filmmaking, yakuza,blood,dream all such cool elements together and it saluted many directors such as Quentin Tarantino(The yakuza use swords instead of guns which reminds me of Kill Bill), John Woo(shooting at the same time falling the feather everywhere), Johnnie To( there is always an old funny guy wipes his sweat up when the situation became very emergency .)…….I found a thing that I'd love to see a movie which is about filmmaking itself and I don't know why,it just like I will always fall in love with sinister gang movies and cult movies.I also want to appreciate that Japan is really a great place to have cult films came out.The style of the movie twists several times and some strange scenes just hit the point which is morbid in some ways but hilarious at the same time.The ending is OK, but if it's not turn out a "Cut" it will be fine too.I mean the "director" running down the road scene is already the best, maybe we don't need a play within a play thing like that 'cause many films end like that way already.And for the fight at close quarters, the executions is perfect and spectacular!!! I also found a very very sweet song called BARKER LOMAX LOVER BOY,first heard it from Big Bad Wolves's trailer .here is the only link I can find http://www.songtaste.com/song/3367639/ Can anyone tell me who is the singer???tks!