Customer Reviews

Unlucky Monkey

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One word: SABU

It started with Drive, then Blessing Bell, and I realized that this director is capable of making really great movies. I am fond of films that make you think on different levels long after the viewing experience. This is one of them.

With SABU collaborators Shin'ichi Tsutsumi and Susumu Terajima (who I already was a fan of and became even more so - this guy's a great performer!) in the cast, it's a great story with humor, action, and a pinch of insanity. Take from it what you like as SABU never presents something so clear cut. That'd be too easy (and less fun).

Make no mistake, this is definitely not the best movie you'll ever see, not by a long shot. It does however have a lot of elements that are so compelling that it holds one's attention throughout if for no other reason than to see what finally occurs.

One might generally say this is a comedy of errors: Bank robbers stumble upon a bank robbery in progress, bumbling yakuza mistakenly set off a gang war, a victim continually intrudes upon the guilt-ridden conscience of the perpetrator, perpetrator and yakuza become involved with each other by coincidence.

More particularly, though, this is a movie about the unintended consequences of one's actions and how simple mistakes can lead to death and ruin.

Although the director makes this point in a rather excruciatingly round about way so that the movie does begin to drag, he does eventually make his point. In the process he cast some great characters for his roles and does an excellent job of making them visually interesting in a way that causes one to really 'watch' them. His use of random coincidence put one in mind of Jim Jarmusch or Quentin Tarentino; although, the narrative in this movie is not as tight as in, say, 'Midnight Train.' Still, this is not a bad effort and the originality he uses in going about his job causes one to doff his cap to SABO, the director.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the absurdist tendencies of Japanese cinema and/or who like to look at Japanese character actors as a means of gaining insights about Japanese culture.