If you happen to like Japanese weird films then you could be in the right place, if not: run like hell.
We’re all familiar with the Japanese sense of creativity that knows no limits and this film falls under that category. Takeshi Miike is surely a genius director but he comes up with pretty crazy films sometimes, that’s why I understand people who think of this as unwatchable and I also relate to those who consider it another creative work. What’s for sure is that this film isn’t directed for everyone.
This is basically a school film; one of those J-films where there are lots of delinquents and a badass male lead and of course, there’s a little romantic interest as a spice. But then things get ultimately awkward and irritating when they add singing and dancing to those elements. I don’t know what this film’s makers were thinking about when they did that. I thought that they were trying to imitate a Disney musical or something but if that was the case, then this was a drastic failure. I believe that the film would’ve been more enjoyable if they excluded the meaningless singing and dancing, I had to skip those parts to be able to follow the story and that was somehow successful. But then again, you can’t consider this as a pure delinquent film since it was interrupted with pointless romance without any chemistry that grabs your intention.
The acting was pretty alright. I mean there’s Satoshi as the male lead and let’s not forget other good actors such as Sakura and Ihara who were quite good as actors but I can’t say the same about any character in this film, most of them were all over the place especially the female lead who was utterly annoying and badly written. So you can guess that this is a film where you have to set a thin barrier between acting and characters; even though the former was quite good, the latter was a hot mess.
The music department was extremely bad, I do believe that it ruined the whole film no matter how much you try to ignore it; it will pop out in front of you out of nowhere to destroy any sort of entertainment you expect from this film. I think this is the worst musical film (if that what the makers were trying to accomplish) ever made.
Taken as a whole, I wouldn’t dare to recommend this to anyone because I am sure that most people would hate the frustrating singing and dancing but if you can disregard those elements and watch this as another weird school/delinquent J-film mixed up with some romance then this could be to your liking. However, remember not to have any expectations for this one or else, you will end up awfully disappointed.
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