Product Details

• Actors: Ryuhei Matsuda, Masanobu Ando
• Directors: Tetsuo Shinohara
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Synapse Films
• DVD Release Date: April 29, 2008
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0012Z367Q
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,246 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Music Video & Concerts > Other Music > Karaoke

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From the mind of writer Ryu Murakami (AUDITION) comes the satirical tale of two groups of outsiders who make war on each other, set to a soundtrack of retro karaoke hits. A gang of young slacker guys (the Gakis) idle away their time just hanging out, their sole passion in life being elaborate karaoke recreations of their favorite Showa-era songs (oldies from the 40s to the 80s). Across town, a group of thirty-something divorced women calling themselves the Midoris do much the same thing, until one of the Gakis kills a Midori after he's rejected trying to pick her up. The Midoris retaliate, and the absurdist battle of revenge is on, with weapons escalating from knives to guns and eventually to rocket launchers and beyond. A pitch-black comedy of violence filled with rage at the status quo and a seething impatience for the ordinary, KARAOKE TERROR captures the angst and spiritual restlessness of two very different generations, both abandoned by society and seeking payback with apocalyptic results.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sadness in the form of a happy song, March 16, 2009

By	C. Christopher Blackshere "Mackshere" (stalking you from the shadows) - See all my reviews

Written by Ryu Murakami(AUDITION), I knew I was in for a dark excursion into counter-culture madness. KARAOKE TERROR is the satirical tale of two groups of societal misfits waging war against each other. These battles are all set to a soundtrack of retro karaoke hits.

It's the group of young slackers, content on doing nothing but play video games and writing Amazon reviews. Oops, I mean play video games and scoping out the ladies. After one kid gets insulted by a middle-age divorcee, he retaliates by slitting her throat. Her lady friends unite and devise their plans for revenge.

This movie starts off excellent, with some startling and stylistic murders that I totally loved. It delves into the idiosyncratic tendencies of the two different generations, with a spiritual unrest and mounting feelings of insecurity. The Showa-era songs and the violence seem to unite them within their own groups.

Unfortunately the battles escalate into some comical buffonery that I didn't really care for. It felt like a Miike rip-off. It isn't believable in the least, with bazookas and homemade atomic bombs. Some might enjoy it, I just lost interest after the first half of bloody, realistic murders. Still not bad.

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost good enough to recommend!, May 19, 2009

By	Mendicant Pigeon "Mendicant Pigeon" (pdx, or United States) - See all my reviews

If this movie had been made in USA or the UK as an indie product, one suspects it would have been a big hit, ala 'Trainspotting' or 'Donnie Darko.' Of course it would have been an entirely different movie but I put it out there that the script writer shares a similar dark fame due to his novel 'Coinlocker Babies', among other things.
This movie has a wonderfully absurd premise: Revenge warfare between two karaoke societies one composed of young adult males and the other of 'middle-aged' (mid to late thirties) women, both of whom sing songs from the Showa period. Quick history note, the Showa period ended in 1989 but the songs referred to in this movie are from the '60's and '70's a time when Japanese popular music was defined by sugary and almost stomach-turningly maudlin tunes (I believe schmaltzy is what the Jewish people call such things).
Although based on a very strong premise--a series of increasingly macabre and violent assassinations between the two gangs--the story line is weakly developed. Partly because the director put a whole lot more effort into the costumery, sight gags and visually interesting bit players, than he did in making sure that the story worked as a contiguous whole.
For instance one important character in the film, with the most compellingly odd face you will ever see, plays a part that really has no connection to the movie other than to propel the story along by identifying an otherwise unidentifiable murderer. Yet she continues to make appearances throughout in a way that disturbs the flow without it ever being clear just what her part is to mean.

Perhaps the original author intentionally created her as one of a series of surreal non-sequiters to build a story around. Either way, the story does flail a bit when it might have been a truly wonderful confection of preposterous violence decorated with absurd cultural referents (think Austin Powers meets a slasher movie), and it is because either director or the writer failed to meld the disparate parts into a coherent whole:
It was a great idea that didn't come off well.