BOILING POINT (3-4X JUGATSU)(director/writer:Takeshi Kitano; cinematographer: Katsumi Yanagishima; cast: Koichi Akiyama (Petrol Pump Attendant), Takeshi Kitano (Uehara), Masahiko Ono (Masaki), Yuriko Ishida (Sayaka), Takahito Iguchi (Takashi Iguchi), Johnny Okura (Minamizaka), Hisashi Igawa (Otomo, the gang boss), Takahiko Aoki (Saburo), Makoto Ashikawa (Akira), Jennifer Baer (Woman on beach), Bengal (Muto), 1990-Jap.)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Takeshi "Beat" Kitano is certainly a unique director, whose absurdist style of filmmaking is readily recognizable, achieving auteur status. He has a fascination with gangsters, violence, and in presenting his quirky black humor in a most compelling way. His films are always visually startling, with a bevy of bizarre shots, and, so far, all his films have gotten away with a mindless but intriguing storyline. In this, his second feature, he doesn't live up to the high standards of his other films shown in America (Violent Cop/Sonatine/Fireworks), but this is only because he has a small part in this film, as Uehara, a mesmerizing psychotic yakuza killer, who is even too crazy and violent for the organized crime gang he once was a part of. He is so fascinating to watch, that it is shame we couldn't see more of his lunacy; instead, the supporting cast, funny as they are with their deadpan humor, nevertheless, they cannot carry the film, and Kitano has chosen to center the film around them. Fortunately, there are plenty of his usual visual treats in this film, that make the film seem special anyhow.
Kitano, also, relishes giving women roles that could be considered demeaning. Though it is sickeningly amusing to see how rough-shod he treats them in so callous and an ungentlemanly manner, that one might be caught ruefully laughing at them getting dumped on and treated as garbage, and supposedly liking it and coming back for more, it still shows that he doesn't really know how to portray women on screen. Who knows! Maybe he knows something I don't know. But there is never any romance in his films that amount to anything, and this film is no exception.
Boiling Point begins and ends on a sandlot baseball field, where only the amateur players attend, except for the coach's girlfriend and later on for the sweet girlfriend, Sayaka (Yuriko Ishida), of the deadpan star of the film, Masaka (Ono). He picks her up in a restaurant because that's what his friend tells him to do. Masaka is a loser, who has no problem being who he is. He is inarticulate, moronic, and the worst one on a losing baseball team, who doesn't even get into the game except as a pinch-hitter, someone who will strike out without swinging at a ball. He is also inept in the gas station where he works, and when he fails to properly service a local yakuza's car, he gets punched out and threatened. But when he punches back, the yakuza claims his arm is broken and he wants compensation. This mindless act escalates on both sides, and, of course, it makes no sense. But it is made a big deal when the local yakuza head, Otomo (Igawa), comes to see the gas station owner and demands revenge.
When the baseball coach (Takahito Iguchi), an ex-yakuza himself, tries to come to the rescue of Masaka and is disrespected by the gang, who pummel him. He is now drawn heavily into the conflict and wants to go to Okinawa to see the vicious ex-yakuza, Uehara, who will get him a gun. Since he is too beaten up to get out of bed, Masaka, bent on getting back at the gangsters, volunteers to go there with one of his baseball friends.
He meets the maniacal Uehara in a disco bar, and in the gangster's presence a series of violent acts take place, which include male rape, the baseball players being constantly intimidated and abused, the mobster's girl getting slapped around for sleeping with someone Uehara ordered her to sleep with, the whimsical tossing out of the car of another mobster's girl, the cutting off of Uehara's associate's finger by him to give to the yakuza organization as repayment for his embezzlement of them, and the killing of the messenger bringing him the guns he requested. This is all casually done, as if this kind of mayhem was as natural as eating rice cakes.
By some strange luck, the two baseball players return alive with their needed gun to seek revenge. Meantime, Uehara walks into the yakuza chief's headquarters armed with his associate's finger and a AK-47 hidden in a bouquet of wildflowers, as he settles up with the yakuza who want his finger and their money back that he embezzled.
Masaka is unable to go through with killing the local yakuza chief with the gun he brought back, but a gas truck barrels into their headquarters killing all of the gangsters that are present.
If there is any point to this story, and I am not sure there is, but the message here might be, that friends are needed to help you out, no one is immune from the insanity that is in the air, because according to Kitano, insanity is catching. And, if taking a stand alone against many, you are in deep trouble. Even in a structured country like Japan, enamored by a structured game like baseball, it must point to the belief that the madness of the world cannot be kept out for those who think by them playing by the rules they can make the world orderly.
Somehow this visual feast of a film was strangely appealing and original in all aspects of filmmaking. So let me say bravo to the one time stand-up comedian who doesn't know how to make a safe film, and tip my Eagle baseball hat to him, not only for hitting a home run, but showing that one can hit a home run but not score the needed winning run by running past the man who was on base. This is Buster Keaton burlesque with Martin Scorsese and Dirty Harry flavor thrown in for bad luck... A cult film delight as a cruel form of entertainment, that is not for all tastes, naturally.
Incidently, the American title to the film, Boiling Point, is misleading: in Japanese the title refers in slang to a baseball score.
REVIEWED ON 11/5/99 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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