Product Details

• Actors: Kengakusha Akiyama, Makoto Ashikawa, Dankan, Eri Fuse, Rakkyo Ide
• Format: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• DVD Release Date: December 7, 1999
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000JS6J
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,573 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #38 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > Asian Cinema > Japan > Comedy
  #78 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Sports

• For more information about "Boiling Point" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Japanese TV star, comedian, and sophomore director "Beat" Takeshi Kitano added screenwriter to his résumé for his second feature, the offbeat story of meek, passive gas station attendant and benchwarming minor-league baseball player Masaki (Masahiko Ono), who finally rebels against the insults and abuse. His timing couldn't be worse, however, for he lashes out against an ill-mannered yakuza soldier. When the local crime boss embarks on a campaign of harassment and beatings aimed at Masaki's coworkers and baseball teammates, Masaki flies off to Yokohama to buy a gun, and falls in with a charismatic but brutal gangster (Takeshi) who has his own score to settle with the yakuza. Perhaps Kitano's most oblique film, Boiling Point is made up primarily of digressions, notably the rambling middle, where Takeshi's disgraced mobster takes Masaki and his pal on a tour of local nightlife, a sequence of pokerfaced gags and dry, ironic humor twisted around Takeshi's brutal, misogynist antics. The film lacks the drive and compelling narrative of Takeshi's other gangster pictures (notably his masterpiece, Sonatine, which revives many of the cinematic ideas first explored in this film), but rises to life in some astounding sequences: a flashforward delivered as an adrenaline rush of images, the chilling yet comic eruption of a bouquet of flowers, and an underplayed apocalyptic climax, followed by a tender coda. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beat's Whimsy Needs A Sophisticated Viewer, September 1, 2000

By	William L Cassidy (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ..., September 23, 2003

By	"fat_runner" (North but South) - See all my reviews

Boiling Point is less of a plot driven movie than the summaries indicate... the best way to describe it would be the thick gauze wrap around a severed finger of a plot. A sort of pseudo-revenge epic that contains less gun-fu than the cover would seem to indicate, and about the equivalent of fifteen minutes of plot from a typical action flick. It composes itself with oddball jokes and deadpans, and the moments loosely organized around the plot and their cast of characters, most of whom fall into descriptions ranging from "eccentricly normal", "psychopathically eccentric", and "stereotyped".

If you're familiar with Kitano's penchant oddball gags and Jarmusch-like deadpans, airiness, and genre inversions, you know what to expect here, if you're just looking for a fast paced gangster or action movie, look elsewhere (and please stop writing 1 star reviews). I loved it.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Off-Beat-Street: Kitano Hits a Homer, September 19, 1999

By A Customer

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).