Customer Reviews

Boiling Point [VHS]

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

 

 

If you follow Takeshi Kitano closely, you shouldn't be confused by his sorties into whimsy. Instead, you should watch closely for his thematic, keenly felt, celebration of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and madness in the human void. I strongly disagree with other reviewers and find "Boiling Point" to be an intellectually strong work that seeks to wreak change from the viewer. Many criticize the film's "slow beginning." On the contrary, I think the opening sequence produces an emotional tone, allowing the viewer to harmonize with the film's principal character, Masaki. All that follows happens to the viewer as it happens to him, bringing one to an understanding of Masaki's final actions. Good film involves the viewer, and you will find yourself thoroughly involved in Kitano's "Boiling Point." It is a must have.

If Godard had been Japanese... The first part of this film takes a comedic look at an amateur baseball team; the middle deals with local Yakuza gansters; and the final section goes into deep left field, a journey to Okinawa in search of a hand-gun with the help of a psychopath played by director "Beat"Takeshi Kitano. As irrevent as it sounds, everything ties together by the film's end. A great film to look at if you dug "Sonatine"('93) or any of the early Godard films. Also peep Kitano's "Violent Cop"('90) and his latest "Kikijuro"(sic)('99).

Unfortunately "Boiling Point" seems to have been cast aside not only by the Asian Action fans to whom it has been incorrectly marketed, but also by some fans of Kitano's other films. The first of these is sad but expected, but as a huge fan of Kitano's work I fail to understand the disinterest in this film by people who already like Kitano.

The reason being; "Boiling Point" is really fantastic. Some have criticized its slow pace, but to me that is one of Kitano's strengths. It could be said to be a matter of taste, but I love the meditative quality of most of Kitano's films, and this one has a certain serenity that really hits home. It has a lonely feel, a feeling that mimics the main and reinforces the perspective of the main character. The pace of the film overall is that of a slow start building momentum to a sudden climax. It is almost a Heart of Darkness kind of story, a journey to the dark side, from apathy and social weakness to senseless violence.

To me this film also showcases Kitano's signature bizarre comedic moments, mainly manifested in his character. The comedy mingles very closely with moments of drama and violence. Ultimately the film is a satire, a critical look at characters who see violence and aggression as a means of control and self-empowerment, and the bitter and ironic results.

Anyway, please see this film! It is amongst Kitano's very best.

Seemingly lost in his own world, Masaki lives his life in a constant haze. Completely unmotivated, Masaki's friends and colleagues almost have to force him to participate in local sandlot baseball games and his work as a gas station attendant. After one game in which Masaki struck out without even trying to swing the bat, Masaki gets into a scuffle with a yakuza who is a member of the Otomo group. Stating that his man's arm has been broken, the branch boss of the Otomo group pays the owner of the gas station a visit and informs him that he had better make amends with the "injured" yakuza. Learning about the scuffle, the coach of Masaki's baseball team Ishida, a former high ranking yakuza, promises to straighten things out for the younger man. Ishida does in fact beat up the branch boss, but the man's underlings soon beat him up. In order to make amends with his coach, Masaki and a friend make their way down to Okinawa to purchase a pistol. However, they find a bit more than what they bargained for.

After being told to return some money the next day and to cut off his finger, Uehara, Beat Takeshi, takes his frustrations out on a car by repeatedly kicking the door of a car. It is at this time that Masaki and his friend come upon the scene. Uehara, his right hand man Tamagi, and his girlfriend Fumiyo take the two men from Tokyo to a bar where amongst the smoke and karaoke Uehara and Tamagi beat up two men brutally. This is just the beginning of a couple of days of violence.

Considered one of Kitano's lesser films by many, Boiling Point is a slow paced movie that has some explosive bursts of violence. Also this film displays the image of the sea that is a trademark of Kitano's films and like Sonatine, Hana-bi, and much later parodied in Takeshis', the sea is the locale of both play and violence. Also, unlike many of Kitano's other violent characters, Uehara seems to lack the tender core that made characters such as Hana-bi's Nishi likeable in his stony way. However, in this film, Uehara is the type who forces his friend to have sex with his lover and thereafter beats his lover Fumiyo on the head because she should not have slept with Tamagi even though she was told to. Add to this a couple of instances of rape, one male and one female; the total package is a completely unwholesome character. Looking back, Boiling Point is indeed a flawed film, but one can see the elements that would one day make Kitano an internationally acclaimed director. Recommended for fans of Japanese film, highly recommended for fans of Kitano Takeshi.

A twisting story line and beautiful cinematography. Confused and confusing characters.

Last shot will have you re-think the whole movie and explains the choppy, sometimes inconsistent, narrative and players.

Something different. Loved it. Give it a shot.

A lustful mean yakuza boss is obsessed with a boy/girl sex variety rather than doing business and pays price for it as bench-warming minor-league baseball player Masaki got much more than he bargained for.

I watched this movie first time a couple of years ago on TV and still wonder is it a comedy or farce on opportunities Japan might offer local subjects.

Takeshi Kitano before his epic Sonatine was a very mixed bag of tricks with his filmography. Violent Cop used most of his trademarks lightly, the only one focused on in Violent Cop was the violence and slience. Even though this is a weaker film, it is a step foward for Kitano with his trademark style of violence, humor, silence and subtlety.

But I have some major issues with this film. First off, it's extremely slow. I mean SLOW. It's the slowest film I've ever seen. The first 40 minutes has maybe one or two things that have to do with the plot, it's like Kitano left the film on the cutting floor and took it as it is. Another issue is how shallow the film is, everyone is a negative, unhappy person. Kitano is known for having many different characters in his films that potray all the emotions he should be. But here everyone is gloomy and sad, including the main character.

But those issues are the main problems with the film. One thing I found interesting more rather then entertaining was the use of no music. I mean no music at all, no Joe Hisaishi tunes or simple beats. Nothing, it makes the film feel way more real life and it's interesting to see. Another is the weird editing and camerawork. In one scene a guy in a baseball field runs back and forth trapped in between bases, the camera is on the second base in a first person type image. It's actually funny. I won't go too much into the story, try to read the story rundown elsewhere. But the last thing that interested me was the randomness. Humor and violence come out of nowhere in small doses, and have less to do with the film itself. Fights on the sidewalk, car and motorcycle crashes, shootings, beatings and rape seem to come and go, that also makes the film feel more real life.

But as a Kitano film, it's a huge letdown if you're expecting something like Hana Bi (Fireworks), Sonatine or Violent Cop. It's a simple story told in the Kitano narrative.

Hardly recommended for Kitano fans.

BOILING POINT is the second movie shot in 1990 of the japanese writer-director Takeshi -Beat- Kitano. This DVD, apart of the widescreeen version of the movie, offers english subtitles, a trailer which is absolutely stunning, the filmography of Kitano and...nothing else. Meager.

BOILING POINT defies our usual analytic technique because the director simply doesn't play by the rules. The movie is satyric in its description of the world of the japanese yakuzas and their archaeological codes, funny with its visual gags and the well-known elliptic Kitano style, arty, in the positive meaning of the word, when Takeshi -Uehara- Kitano experiments an incredible flash-forward in his car, disturbing as Uehara's girl is slapped numerous times without any obvious reasons by the angry mobster.

The plot of BOILING POINT develops these structural options in a metaphorical way. The young secretive hero is fond of the baseball game and, one day, he does have the opportunity to give to his team a superb victory. But, seconds before the end of his run, he passes in front of one of his teammates and is disqualified : he too doesn't play by the rules.

I liked a lot this movie even if, in my opinion, the screenplay is far more interesting than the images themselves. But this weakness is often common in the first movies of writers/directors. So let's be patient.

A DVD zone No Respect.

THIS IS THE ULTIMATE 'SNAIL'S PACE' MOVIE. IT IS VERRRRRRRRRRRRY SLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! YEP, I DID GROW IMPATIENT AFTER ALMOST AN HOUR UNTIL KITANO FINALLY SHOWS UP. THERE ARE MOMENTS OF HUMOR WHEN HE DOES ARRIVE BUT THE FIRST HOUR WAS UGH! THERE'S NOT EVEN A MUSIC SCORE HERE. NOT EVEN THE CLOSING CREDITS HAS ONE! IT'S A SEAT SQUIRMER.

After having seen Sonatine and Violent Cop, "Beat" Takeshi's painfully slow but sensually addictive works, I went after Boiling Point with much anticipation. The results were disappointment and impatience.

The pacing's not much different from that of the two aforementioned works, except that this time Boiling Point doesn't sufficiently pay off the pain of sitting through a whole hour of plotlessness. Though the comic sequences of Boiling Point are as weird and delightful as the other two films, Boiling Point suffers from the absence of Kitano himself from about 2/3 of the film. Casting himself as a supporting character was a poor choice, the two baseball players about as colourless as protagonists can get. Also, Boiling Point expands on the misogyny (present in Sonatine and Violent Cop, but less overt and thus more bearable). For about 20 minutes Kitano's character is slapping a woman around, or screwing them in uncomfortable places, while they whimper and play the victim role to the max. Unpleasant. But the finger sequence is a hoot, beating any such trick in Pulp Fiction (and certainly in Quentin Tarantino's section of Four Rooms, a similar setup as here, executed with less than a per centage of the elegant two shots in the sequence here in Boiling Point). It is in moments like this that you understand the influence Kitano has had on Tarantino's tone.

Boiling Point, however, is still weak by Kitano's standards, bogged down by irritating characters and sexism.