TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN

I used to be a massive fan of Japanese filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto.  Whenever he released a new film, it was always an event but sadly in recent times my enthusiasm for his work has wavered a little.  While I still enjoy his films, I am no longer maniacally on edge waiting for his new films anymore.  It has been since his amazing film from 2004, “Vital”, that my enthusiasm has dropped.  Since that film, Tsukamoto has made the digital experiment “Haze”, which was great but still a minor effort, he did a segment in the omnibus film “Female”, made two “Nightmare Detective” films and most recently, he finally returned to where it all began with his third installment of the “Tetsuo” franchise, “The Bullet Man”.  Until recently, with the exception of “Haze” and the first “Nightmare Detective” film, I hadn’t got around to watching any of these films even though I own copies of them all.

When Tsukamoto originally announced his intentions to return to his roots with “Tetsuo: The Bullet Man”, I must admit that it didn’t thrill me as much as it did other fans.  As crazy and amazing as the “Tetsuo” films are, it was a style of filmmaking that Tsukamoto had left behind as he matured and began to make more serious and beautiful (yet still weird) dramas like “A Snake Of June” and the aforementioned “Vital”.  To me, it almost felt like a step back and to be truthful I wasn’t sure if he would be able to go back to that hyper-kinetic style of filmmaking that is readily identified with the “Tetsuo” films, a style which feels more suited to a young filmmaker.  It had been seventeen years since the previous “Tetsuo” film, “Body Hammer”, so I was not sure if Tsukamoto would still be able to pull this kind of film off.  Eventually the reviews started to trickle in and unfortunately they were not very positive.  Some claimed the film was a disappointment while others where scathing in their remarks stating the film was terrible.  Even though my expectations were not as high as normal, my heart sunk a little, and there is no doubt that the critical reception to the film put me off watching it for so long.  However out of the blue, the other night I felt a strong urge to finally check it out, so I popped the disc in and re-entered the world of “Tetsuo”.  So were the critics justified in their opinions?

“The Bullet Man” is about an American expatriate named Anthony, living in Japan with his wife Yuriko and their young son Tom.  One day while on a quiet walk with Tom, Anthony is horrified to witness his son being deliberately run over and killed by a man in his car (the man is played by none other than Shinya Tsukamoto himself).  There is no question that Tom’s death was a deliberate act, as the driver actually had to reverse his car to hit the boy.  The motive for the murder however is much less clear because this man is unknown to Anthony and his family.  After Tom’s death, Anthony tries to go on living a normal life, by bottling up how he is really feeling, pretending to be calm, while Yuriko is furious and is determined to find the man responsible for her son’s murder.  She flees the house, and when Anthony goes after her, he is attacked by a number of gun-wielding bandits who attempt to assassinate him.  During the attack, Anthony can no longer hold his emotional pain in anymore and he begins to let out his rage, which forces his body to transform.  Parts of his body start becoming metallic as he begins to transform into some form of android.  This, it turns out, was always the motive of the mysterious man, who wanted to confirm his suspicions that Anthony’s dad was part of an aborted Tetsuo project between the Americans and the Japanese.  He wanted Anthony to transform and now with his suspicions confirmed, he wants this power for himself, but Anthony soon realizes that he now has the power to finally get revenge for his son’s murder.  After a confession by his father, Anthony soon discovers that he was experimented on to become the ultimate weapon.  From here, a battle to the death between Anthony and the man becomes inevitable.

Right off the top I have got to say that I loved “The Bullet Man”.  I had actually forgotten just how amazing these “Tetsuo” films are and how imaginative a filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto is.  He was easily able to revert back to his old manic style, while at the same time retaining the beauty that is readily on show in his more recent films (the scenes with Anthony’s mother are a great example).  It is a well known fact that I have an incredible hate for shaky handheld camerawork, but when it comes to the “Tetsuo” universe I have to push my hate aside, because Tsukamoto pushes the camerawork up to an eleven when it comes to the shaking, however it just seems to fit in this cyberpunk world.  In fact the film would just not work without them.  What I loved about the film was the soundscape of it all.   All of the industrial and metallic sounds pounding out of the speakers were amazing and set up an amazing atmosphere.  Luckily when I watched the film, my family was out of the house, so I was able to play the film very loud which I feel just added to the whole thing.  The music and sound effects were pounding and it just sort of enveloped me within this insane reality I was experiencing.  While there are times when you find it difficult to work out exactly what is going on, especially towards the end, overall the basic story is easy to follow.  This is a revenge story that only Shinya Tsukamoto could have told.

As much as I loved the film, it is not perfect.  Unfortunately there a two quite major flaws to the film that stop it from being a masterpiece.  The first was the choice to shoot the film in English.  This really did not work as the broken English spoken by the Japanese actors all sounded terrible, with Tsukamoto himself almost impossible to understand at times due to his thick Japanese accent.  While the American actors are not as bad as what we are used to in Asian films (which I discussed briefly in my “Merantau” review), their performances are still not great.  I’m sure this is because Tsukamoto does not have an ear for English (understandably) and thus cannot determine just how good a performance his actors are giving.  The couple of scenes when Tsukamoto actually speaks Japanese is like watching a different actor because he looks much more confident speaking his natural tongue.  The other flaw is the make-up effects.  This could be a by-product of filming in high-definition digital, but it was very obvious that the make-up on the face of Eric Bossick (who plays Anthony), when he begins to transform into the android, was really rubber or plastic and not the metal it was meant to be.  In the previous “Tetsuo” films this was never a problem, but here it actually gave the film a bit of a cheap quality to it.  It just didn’t look right.  As you can see these are two quite major problems, and yet I still loved “Tetsuo: The Bullet Man”, which goes to show you just how great a film this is.

Overall, I loved my journey back into the universe of “Tetsuo” and it is safe to say that my love of Tsukamoto is back.  In the next couple of days I hope to catch up with the “Nightmare Detective” sequel and I am now massively excited for his new film, “Kotoko”, which is to be released this year.  “Kotoko” has an amazing trailer, so search it out on the web.  My recommendation for “Tetsuo: The Bullet Man” is to ignore the critics and give the film a chance.  Hell, the film only goes for 71 minutes, so even if you don’t like it, you haven’t wasted much of your life doing so.  I’m certainly glad that I gave it a chance and I wouldn’t mind returning to the world of “Tetsuo” again sometime in the future.

4 Stars.

MERANTAU

In anticipation of seeing “The Raid” (opening on Australian screens next week), which has been touted as the action film of the decade, I thought I had better catch up with the initial collaboration between director Gareth Evans and star Iko Uwais, “Merantau”.

“Merantau” is your typical martial arts flick meaning that the emphasis is mainly on the action, so to be going into this film expecting strong dramatic arcs would be doing yourself and the film a disservice.  The plot is relatively simple with a young tomato farmer named Yuda heading off to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta where he is to perform his merantau.  In Yuda’s culture, every young man must leave his family to learn the skills that will help him for the rest of his life, and such a journey is called “merantau”.  On his arrival in Jakarta, his accommodation and contact number he has been given turn out to be useless with the address being for a vacant block of land, and the number for a discontinued line.  He is alone in an unfamiliar place, with no place to live, and no one to help him out.  It is an early lesson that life can be tough.  One night while calling his mother, Yuda is witness to an assault on a young female named Astri.  Although he had no intention of being involved, he just cannot sit idly by while a girl is being beaten by a man.  He steps in and saves the girl, but during the long drawn out fight, he ends up badly scarring (via broken glass) a major ganglord, who for the rest of the film attempts to find Yuda to enact his revenge.  The gangster realizes the only way to Yuda is through Astri, and he sends out his henchmen to find and capture the girl.  That way Yuda will come to him.  That is basically the plot which like I said is typical of a martial arts flick, but what makes “Merantau” something that is a little different is the fact that the martial art that is demonstrated in the film is the Indonesian art of Silat.  

Much has been said about star Iko Uwais’s fighting ability in “Merantau” with most people agreeing that he has the potential to be the next big action star, comparing him to Thailand’s Tony Jaa.  The comparison is an obvious one, but only time will tell if it is an accurate one.  As we know today, Tony Jaa has disappeared almost as quick as he appeared on our screens, but it is fair to say that Uwais’s debut is almost as impressive as Jaa’s.  I must say that I had seen some clips from “Merantau” of the fight scenes on the internet, and I’ll be honest, they didn’t really impress me.  However, I still bought the blu-ray and after watching the movie through proper, I must say that my opinion has changed and I am suitably impressed.  The initial fight in the alley where he saves Astri, I still thought was a little slow, but seeing as how the fights increase in speed and in intensity as the film goes along, I think this actually may be deliberate.  It is actually in this initial fight that Yuda suffers his worst beating in the film, and I think this is due to the fact that he underestimates his opponents or he is just not used to the speed of city life.  Whichever it may be, after that initial fight, Yuda moves at a different speed and attacks with much more ferocity than he did previous.  

Unfortunately another thing that Iko Uwais shares with Tony Jaa is a lack of screen presence during the dramatic moments of the film.  In fact there is not a lot that can be said about the acting (in a positive sense) with no one really giving a great performance.  From an acting standpoint, I think Sisca Jessica as Astri is the only person who can probably hold her head up high.  She has a number of dramatic moments throughout the film and she handles them all admirably.  She is also incredibly cute too.  “Merantau” also has another thing that drives me insane in a martial arts flick and that is English speaking characters who speak the language terribly or at least act in it badly.  The two main bad guys speak English and are just woeful, but this isn’t only a problem in this film, it happens in a lot of martial arts films.  I just do not understand why they cannot hire an actor who can deliver lines in English properly.

Enough about the acting, this is a martial arts film, and that is all we care about, so I am sure you are wondering how the film stacks up in that department.  I am very happy to report that it stacks up very well.  There are a huge number of intricately choreographed fights throughout the film that is sure to make any martial arts fan happy.  However what made me most happy was the fact that Gareth Evans understands how to shoot fight scenes properly so they have the full effect.  This seems to be a lost art in today’s cinema where rapid-fire editing and shaky camerawork is often the norm usually used to hide the deficiencies of the actor performing the techniques.  Evans uses his camera beautifully and fluidly which help give the fights their power, but from an audience point of view, he makes everything very easy to see so you know exactly what is going on at any given time.  The way this was achieved was for two months prior to shooting, all of the fight scenes were choreographed which Evans then crudely filmed on a camcorder.  From these recordings he was then able to work out what shots he needed to have the greatest impact, which he then filmed again with the camcorder to see if they worked.  By the time shooting came around, everyone knew what they were doing and what angles would be shot.  This is brilliant stuff and I wish that it happened more often.  It also appears that Evans is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the fight scenes and if something wasn’t exactly right, he would reshoot it, including one scene which they shot an incredible 56 times.  The amount of time and effort put into these fight scenes are definitely worth it though because it shows up on the screen with each fight getting more and more intense.  The majority of the fights are one-on-many, and include very intricate choreography, but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the one-on-one fight scene in the elevator, especially because this fight had an actual dramatic edge to it.

Overall, I really enjoyed “Merantau”.  Although the first half of the film may be a little slow for some, the second half of the film is almost all pure action, and as I have said, the fights continue to build in intensity and speed until the great finale.  After watching this film, I now feel primed and ready for the next Evans / Uwais collaboration, “The Raid”.  Bring it on!

3.5 Stars.

* I should mention that the version of the film that I saw was the “international version” which is actually around half an hour shorter than the Indonesian version of “Merantau”.  Unfortunately I cannot comment on the scenes missing from that version, but I will state again that it is a shame that distributors do not leave their product alone for international viewers.  Just let us see the original version.

SLEEP TIGHT

Jaume Balaguero is best known as one of the co-directors of the fantastic and very successful “[REC]” films.  For those unaware of the “[REC]” films (first of all, shame on you), they are a couple of brilliant P.O.V horror films, set in an enclosed apartment block, that initially started in the form of a zombie film but evolved into something else entirely by the end of the second film.  Balaguero’s co-director for these films was fellow Spaniard Paco Plaza, and when the two of them decided to continue their popular horror franchise, they decided to tackle it differently this time with them directing one film each.  Plaza’s film is a prequel entitled “[REC] 3: Genesis” while Balaguero’s entry is a sequel entitled “[REC] 4: Apocalypse”.  At the time of this writing, Plaza’s film is set to hit Spanish theaters in the coming weeks, while Balaguero is currently prepping to begin shooting his film very soon.  However, in between all of this, Balaguero has found the time to direct another feature film, the horror / thriller “Sleep Tight”.

Although I consider myself a big fan of Jaume Balaguero, the man has obvious talent, when looking through his filmography, it comes as a shock to realize that he has yet to create a film that really works perfectly.  Again, I like all of his films (I suppose “Darkness” was a little lame), but there is something in each of them that holds them back from greatness.  Probably his most successful is the super gory film he made for television titled “To Let”, and it is this film that “Sleep Tight” resembles the most however somewhat ironically, the gore is substituted for suspense here.

 The film begins with Cesar waking up in bed after the alarm he had set on his watch has gone off.  He carefully gets out of bed so as to not wake his sleeping partner.  He showers, gets dressed, cleans his teeth and leaves his apartment, ready to go to work.  It is a normal day, except there is nothing normal about this scenario at all.  You see, this is not Cesar’s apartment and the girl in the bed is not his girlfriend.  Worse, she has no idea that she has spent the night with this man in her bed.  The girl is Clara and she actually lives in the hotel where Cesar works as concierge.  Here he presents himself as a quiet man, a helpful and generous man who all the residents trust and adore.  None of them are aware of the darkness that truly exists within Cesar and what exactly he is thinking and doing when they are all sleeping.  Perhaps most frightening of all is the fact that Cesar has access to the keys for all the rooms in the hotel.

Compared to Cesar, Clara is his complete opposite.  She has one of those bubbly personalities and always appears to be happy, and no matter what happens to her, she always seems to rise above it and find the good in it all.  She is one of those “glass half full” kind-of girls.  Right from the outset, we know that Cesar has something against Clara, but we are unsure exactly what it is.  During the daytime when he is at work, he is very pleasant to her to the point that you would be excused for thinking they were friends, but when nighttime falls we find him under her bed, patiently waiting for her to fall asleep before he administers some chloroform to her nose ensuring she stays asleep and allowing him time to do whatever he wants to both her and her belongings.  At first he appears quite placid doing little but sleep in the same bed as Clara, but Cesar’s plans are much darker than that and he really begins messing with Clara in earnest when he injects all of her cosmetics with an unknown substance, causing her skin to react quite badly to it.  From here on in, Cesar’s antagonizing gets bolder and more sinister, not to mention more sadistic, but he always does it from the shadows.  Clara never suspects him for a moment.  However the arrival of Clara’s boyfriend soon throws a spanner into the works for Cesar because as the boyfriend does not know Cesar, he does not have the same level of trust towards him like the rest of the residents do.  In fact it doesn’t take long for the opposite to happen, and Clara’s boyfriend is soon very suspicious of him.  Suddenly it has got a lot more dangerous for all involved in this unspoken game.

“Sleep Tight” is another good film from Juame Balaguero but it suffers from quite a big flaw which is the immense unlikability of the story’s antagonist.  I’m not sure if you are ever meant to really like this villain, but when the motive for Cesar’s crimes are finally revealed, you have an instant dislike towards him because he simply comes across as pathetic.  [I’m now going to talk about Cesar’s motive, so if you don’t want this spoiled, please skip ahead to the next paragraph].  It turns out the sole reason Cesar does what he does is because he, himself, is unable to feel happiness and the only way he can find a certain “happiness” is if he makes the people around him miserable, thus they experience the same as what he is going through.  Because Clara is almost a beacon of positive energy, she becomes the target for his torture.  It is strange, but this comes across as incredibly mean-spirited.  In horror films we are so used to seeing the villain stalking and killing their victims, and in reality murder is considered the most heinous of all crimes, yet in “Sleep Tight” our villain is not about killing (although he is not above that) rather he prefers to make his victim’s lives as unbearable as possible.  Somehow this just feels much more chilling and disturbing, not to mention sadistic, than simple murder.  What is interesting about the film is the fact that Cesar appears to have two victims, as he constantly visits his bed-ridden and paralyzed mother in her hospital bed and tortures her by recounting the stories of exactly what he has done to Clara.  Looking at the poor woman’s face it is obvious to see that she is devastated by the cruelty of her son’s actions towards another human being.

We all feel safe in our own homes and “Sleep Tight” exploits a phobia that I am sure most of us can appreciate.  The thought of anyone entering our place and going through our belongings is considered an extreme violation that would make most of us sick just thinking about it, but being violated ourselves at the same time would almost be unbearable.  That is what makes the film so creepy because the whole time that Clara is being victimized she is none the wiser about it, until it is far too late.  It is because of this that the film feels fresh and different from the horror norm, and why I believe the film is as successful as it is.  As I mentioned earlier, “Sleep Tight” relies more on suspense rather than the inclusion of blood and guts (although there is one rather bloody scene towards the end) and the suspense scenes are handled brilliantly by Balaguero.  The childhood fear of someone waiting for you under your bed is another phobia that is exploited to perfection.  In regards to performances, both of our main actors are strong with Luis Tosar especially chilling as Cesar, but I must say that I really enjoyed his performance when he was doing his duties as concierge, because he was really charming and it was easy to see how the residents could trust this man so readily.  Marta Etura as Clara is beautiful to look at (love her smile) and she has a lovely presence on screen making it very easy to care about her character.

Overall, Jaume Balaguero has crafted a strong feature with “Sleep Tight” and it ranks as one of his best.  While it is very mean-spirited, and this may turn a lot of people off, at least it is a somewhat fresh take on a genre that too often accepts mediocrity.  All I have left to say now is…………..Bring on “[REC] 4”.

3.5 Stars.