On returning home from work Goda learns from the police that his long-time girlfriend has just committed suicide with a gun obtained from yakuza she apparently befriended. Enraged, obsessed and increasingly desperate Goda tries to obtain a gun from black market and find the yakuza he holds responsible. Along the way he runs into a gang of middle class kids that had robbed him earlier and develops a companionship of sorts with the one female gang member Chisato who has similar selfdestructive tendencies as himself.
Sounds fairly conventional so far, doesn't it? But Bullet Ballet doesn't quite play out like a conventional revenge story. With a title like Bullet Ballet one might expect to see heroic gunplay, but there are only two guns in the movie and we learn Goda isn't terribly good at dancing the ballet. His efforts at trying to obtain a proper handgun are repeatedly rather comically frustrated and when he finally does get his hands on one, he still is no master killer. I was a bit puzzled by this aspect but then realized the director wanted him and his pursuit of revenge to look frustrating and pathetic. Goda is after all just a whitecollar worker and perhaps the director also wanted to question revenge. ***heavy spoilers*** Indeed in the end he doesn't get his revenge or even learn for certain why his girlfriend committed suicide. Goda and Chisato are forced to face their lives' emptiness and selfdestructiveness, but that also makes possible their redemption in another way. ***end heavy spoilers***
Tsukamoto's expressive and atmospheric visual style propels the kinetic movie. Frequently shaking and moving frantically his powerful black and white imagery hypnotizingly reflects Goda's despair and obsession, bleak urban Tokyo and the chaos and brutality of fights, but also a couple of rapturous moments of beauty such as Chisato playing in Goda's apartment. However some of the shots which cut briefly to the details of urban surroundings seem a bit unnecessary. The soundtrack consists mostly of industrial, metal and techno, but also two beautiful slow pieces towards the end, and it is good. The cast's performances are also good.
Sounds fairly conventional so far, doesn't it? But Bullet Ballet doesn't quite play out like a conventional revenge story. With a title like Bullet Ballet one might expect to see heroic gunplay, but there are only two guns in the movie and we learn Goda isn't terribly good at dancing the ballet. His efforts at trying to obtain a proper handgun are repeatedly rather comically frustrated and when he finally does get his hands on one, he still is no master killer. I was a bit puzzled by this aspect but then realized the director wanted him and his pursuit of revenge to look frustrating and pathetic. Goda is after all just a whitecollar worker and perhaps the director also wanted to question revenge. ***heavy spoilers*** Indeed in the end he doesn't get his revenge or even learn for certain why his girlfriend committed suicide. Goda and Chisato are forced to face their lives' emptiness and selfdestructiveness, but that also makes possible their redemption in another way. ***end heavy spoilers***
Tsukamoto's expressive and atmospheric visual style propels the kinetic movie. Frequently shaking and moving frantically his powerful black and white imagery hypnotizingly reflects Goda's despair and obsession, bleak urban Tokyo and the chaos and brutality of fights, but also a couple of rapturous moments of beauty such as Chisato playing in Goda's apartment. However some of the shots which cut briefly to the details of urban surroundings seem a bit unnecessary. The soundtrack consists mostly of industrial, metal and techno, but also two beautiful slow pieces towards the end, and it is good. The cast's performances are also good.