2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
a poo-poo platter, March 24, 2010
This review is from: Japan Japan (DVD)
If this movie is shortened to 15 minutes long, it maybe more effective as a short prose, poem, testimonial about a bored gay Isralie youth.
The protagonist of this movie was a young gay guy who couldn't manage his own finance, got extremely bored by his job, his looney female roomate, his rich girl friend who flew to NYC (or wherever), the Isralie Military, his mother, and his older trick. There was only one guy that interested him. Unfortunately, he was only a one-nite stand.
Even though the protagonist dreamt of going to Japan one day in order to escape from this perpetual boredom, the message the director wanted to get across was exactly the contrary: no matter where you go, it's the same everywhere.
To be honest, this young man maybe a representative of today's bored gay youth, but he's damn self-absorbed and unredeeming, and I definitely don't want to be anywhere near him in real life!
Even though I'm a Chinese, I found this movie pretty racist, degrading and offensive to the Japanese culture by (1) the constant usage of montage with no dialogue but 70's Japanese pop music sung by extremely popular female stars, (2) the insertion of a Japanese gay orgy scene where a guy was being pissed on (with cum) by everyone, and (3) the inclusion of several Japanese restaurant scenes. C'mon! Japanese culture means more than the sum of these three visual depictions.
In one scene, the protagonist was in a house of an older trick, whom collected Arabian relics and artifacts, and they ended up calling each other "Pathetic"! Why did this young Jewish protagonist react so verbally violent to this older trick? Could this be the fact that the Arabian relics and artifacts aroused the deep-seated hatred in the protagonist for the Arabian cultures in general? or he felt extremely alienated surrouded by Arabian displays, and needed to act out his insecurity. Either way, I found this young protagonist revolting and intolerant!
I don't mind the improvisational dialogues, editings, scenes dipictions, but the director failed miserably to make one identify or be sympathetic to the protagonist of the movie. To sum up my feelings about this movie, I would like to utter the same proclaimation that the protagonist said at the beginning of the movie "CINEMA IS DEAD!"
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
no cliches, May 6, 2009
This review is from: Japan Japan (DVD)
Most films are stories; this film is an intimate poem, as gentle to watch as an amble in the park. The attitude is more French than American; no Hollywood here, just experimentation with emotion, improvisation, and film editing. Wonderful slow pace, never drags.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
japan japan, May 21, 2009
This review is from: Japan Japan (DVD)
disfunctial editing, and not sure how the thing ends. but not for the
gay japanese segments this would have been boring.
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