Customer Reviews

Angel Dust [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's some interesting use of sound in "Angel Dust" and some splendid cinematography by Norimicho Kasamatu, especially of interiors and the memorable scene with many umbrellas. Kaho Minami, who plays the female lead, Setsuk Suma, a Tokyo "police psychologist," is beautiful, and her co-star Takeshi Wakamatsu, as psychologist Rei Aku, has an appealing rakishness about him. Unfortunately the plodding direction by Sogo Ishi lacks tension and rambles more than a bit. Add to that a convoluted mishmash of pop psychology, stilted dialogue, posed theatrics, and we have one long disappointment.

The dialogue is probably not as bad as it appears in the English subtitles, which were very poorly edited with bad verb numbers, wrong tenses and some strange word translations, e.g., "re-brain-washing" for reprogramming. Or, "You're a pleasure homicidal mania" the killer is told, meaning the killer enjoys his work, I imagine. Annoying, unconvincing and too long were the "re-brain-washing" sequences presented in grainy, flickering black and white (we were supposed to be seeing them as on video tape). The idea of a religious cult member committing murders on the Tokyo subway is as real as newspaper headlines, of course, but the psychology behind the killings here didn't wash. The "religion" was so generic as to be anonymous. We felt nothing for the victims because they were not made real, nor were any of the characters except the leads really animated.

More than anything though this movie suffered from the miscasting of Kaho Minami as the police shrink. She was somewhat believable in her "disintegrating" phase (although the scene at Aku's sanatorium with him on the TV screen was unintentionally silly), but entirely too wimpy and dreamy to be convincing as any kind of cop. The scenes with her and Aku were interesting as far as they went; unfortunately, the sharp chemical contrast between his macho nature and her alluring femininity was not ignited. One had the sense they were saving that for after the film was over. Too bad. The androgynous nature of her husband and the killer seemed pointless, but again possibly something was lost in the translation.

I think what happened here is Sogo Ishi got caught between a theatrical tradition and some notions of Western style realism, and ended up with succotash.

Sogo Ishii is certainly a genius - but that is an old and tired story. Angel Dust is a mind trip - pun intended. The story is labyrinthine in the sense that it gives nothing away until the last minute. A killer is murdering young women in a Tokyo subway. Setsuko is assigned to the case because of her past experience with issues of this nature. Trying to get into the mind of the killer, the lines between the personal and the professional begin to blur. The road leads to her "ex" Aku - which complicates the story even further. Foreign films, are to say the least, already somewhat inaccessible because of the language and cultural framework within which the story takes place. My sense is that despite this probably being unintended, Sogo Ishii uses that sense of isolation to his advantage. Granted that this film was perhaps designed for a Japanese audience it is nonetheless compelling for non-Japanese. Angel Dust is a multi-layered film with many twists and turns. The more cerebral and less blood and guts approach I have to admit I really appreciated. I found myself almost drawn in to the movie like I was to Andrei Tarkovsky's original version of Solaris (also available on Amazon.com). A little bit of Sake helps take the edge off - it is intense, it is fun and it is thought provoking.

Miguel Llora

The first time I saw Angel Dust, it left me a nervous wreck, paranoid, afraid to move off the edge of my seat. I marked it up as one of the absolute best technical uses of suspense I'd ever seen, and looked forward to viewing it again. I've seen it several more times since then; and each time, my respect and admiration for the sheer genius of the film have grown. Indeed, I find new details each time, moments and expressions that change the meaning of large sections. Angel Dust is one of the few films I've ever seen that can get non-film majors talking about framing and shot choice, and do this without letting go of its hold on their attention and emotions.

A very creepy atmosphere makes up for a convoluted storyline that is often difficult to follow. Although I was frequently confused, I was impressed by the cold mood of the film and its depiction of a kind of psychological vampire who is attracted by the despair of others. I'm sure that much was lost in the translation. This film warrants another look someday. Some genuinely scary scenes.

Very strange psychological crime thriller, with some memorable visuals and serpentine storytelling. I saw this movie in the theatre so the visuals were great. No doubt they will be diminished on the small screen, but thats the way it goes. As far as the story goes, well, the movies tag line of "Silence of the Lamb on acid" is a fitting discription. Worth a viewing

<strong>Angel Dust</strong> (Sogo Ishii, 1994)

If you're aware of Sogo Ishii in America--and it is every easy not to be--it's probably because his name pops up in the thanks-to section of <em>Kill Bill</em>. I've no idea what Tarantino was thanking him for. Given what we know of Tarantino's taste for B-flicks, the most likely candidate is <em>Electric Dragon 80,000V</em>, released in 2001, so it would've been fresh in Tarantino's mind. Or there's the film Ishii is best known for in Europe, <em>Yume no Ginga</em>, which won awards at Sitges and Oslo in 1997 and stars Tadanobu Asano. Or it could be the film Ishii is best known for in his own country, the mystery/thriller <em>Enjeru Dasuto</em>, which since its 1994 release has been an influence, direct or indirect, on an entire generation of mystery, thriller, and gore films from southeast Asia; you can see bits of this film in movies as disparate as <em>Suicide Club</em> and <em>Cure</em>. For all that, it's pretty quiet, an unassuming little thriller that doesn't demand much of the viewer. When it's heard of outside Japan at all these days, that's because it contains some rather eerie parallels to a terrorist incident which followed soon after the film was released. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Setsuko Suma (<em>The Great Yokai War</em>'s Kaho Minami) is a psychiatrist with a thriving practice. She's asked to assist the police in a series of unsolved, related murders: every week, at 6PM on Monday, a woman is murdered in the Tokyo subway. Something about the case clicks with her, and once she realizes what the pattern is, it becomes obvious to her that there's one person who can provide the pieces she needs to crack the case: Rei Aku (<em>Ring 0: Birthday</em>'s Takeshi Wakamatsu), a fellow psychiatrist (and Setsuko's ex-boyfriend) who has turned his talents to a more specialized profession: cult deprogramming. But the more Setsuko works with Rei, the more she wonders if his interest in the case is far more personal than she at first believed.

It's impossible to mention the film's infamy without a major plot spoiler. Thus, NOTE: the following paragraph contains a major spoiler about the first part of the mystery.

Nine months after the release of <em>Angel Dust</em>, on March 20, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult released sarin, a nerve gas, into the Tokyo subways, killing thirteen people and injuring dozens more. Wikipedia notes that the "Subway Sarin Incident", as it is known by Japanese authorities, is "the most serious attack [on Japanese soil] since the end of World War II." You know I wouldn't be saying all this without it having some connection to the movie, so yes, want to take a guess at the connection between the victims, and the cult Rei Aku specializes in deprogramming alumni of? Got it in one. (For the record, they still exist; they changed their name to Aleph.) I've heard it postulated at least once that the Sarin attacks were a response to the movie, but with no backing. Still, it's a little too distressing to be a complete coincidence, no?

I've read a few reviews of the film that focus on Setsuko's character and its flaws vis-a-vis the film's plot. I don't buy them, really. Dennis Littrell, especially, mentions one particular scene that strikes me as, actually, entirely realistic, as well as being a backhanded <em>homage</em> to David Cronenberg's <em>Videodrome</em>, in which we only see Brian O'Blivion on a television screen. To me, what that scene is doing is showing us a duality in Rei Aku's character that is absolutely necessary for Setsuko's suspicions: the idea that in order to be good at deprogramming cult members, one must be able to project that same cult-leader charisma and mentality. (Again, we hark straight back to Brian O'Blivion.) She's reduced to a quivering mass of goo because, well, he's good at what he does. And let's not forget she's his ex-girlfriend; there are a lot of layers of emotional baggage running through that scene. How does it work if Setsuko is <em>not</em> suddenly out of character? That's the only way it makes sense, really...

I've also seen a few pokes at the continuity. I'm not entirely sure why; I had no problems following along at all, especially in relation to something like <em>White Material</em> (elsewhere this ish), where Denis consciously set out to make a piece of her film disjointed. This is a ruler, in comparison. Ishii sometimes hides crucial pieces of information from the viewer, but isn't that the definition of a mystery film?

In other words, if you've heard criticism about this flick and it's kept you from hitting the "rent" button at the redbox, shuffle it to the back of your head long enough to check this movie out for yourself. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised. *** ½

Remember the Aum Shinryko cult sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway? This movie is a weird Japanese X-file with hip chick and cool dark-techno feel. If you are a wannabe psychic cop, this will rock your world!

Shocking images, a striking plot, and beautiful direction make "Angel Dust" a movie that you don't want to miss!

this is not a movie; this is a piece of art.