NOBODY (director/writer: Shundo Ohkawa; cinematographer: Hiroshi Ogata; editor: Yoshio Kitazawa; cast: Masaya Kato (Taki), Jimpachi Nezu (Detective Karaki), Riki Takeuchi (Nanbu), Hideo Nakano (Konishi), Hiromi Nakajima (Rika), Yumi Nishiyama (Reiko); Runtime: 100; Phaedra Cinema; 1999-Japan)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A bloodthirsty revenge film based on a childish incident in a nightclub, where three yuppie office workers make fun of the way three men at the next table are dressed. The director has gone after style and has thrown substance out the window, as the film follows this war of words as it escalates into an ugly scene of macho posturing and then into gore. The three stylishly-dressed ad executives are: Taki (Kato), who is prone to wearing Hermes ties and acting cool; Nambu (Takeuchi), who is the most bellicose; and, Konishi (Nakano), who is bespectacled, fearful and pudgy. They leave the bar after the other table answers their taunts back, and when Konishi returns to get his umbrella, he is set upon and has a broken bottle smashed over his face, causing him to be hospitalized.
The film takes this childish revenge-fantasy film into an unbelievably crude depiction of gun fights, arrow attacks, knife and fist fights, and a scissor attack. All the fight scenes were choreographed and looked as phony as Confederate money. The film was a clear imitation of a Hong Kong action film. The protagonists were three unlikable snobs, concerned with their image, talking about name-brand products as if someone was an idiot who didn't adhere to their tastes, and getting into the tussle because they were loudly attacking the other table for being tacky.
This unoriginal film has nothing to say about these faceless executives or their counterpoints, who up the dissing into physical violence. The mystery is supposed to be sparked by guessing if the antagonists are office workers, yakuza, or police. The paranoid thriller is callibrated to show how the men feel when their masculinity is being questioned.
Not able to forget the attack on Konishi, even after he is released from the hospital and is walking with his pals down an alleyway, the men recognize the Rolex watch guy and pounce on him, supposedly beating him to death. Things take a harrowing turn for the men, as they each receive phone calls threatening revenge for the death of their friend. But to their surprise, no body is ever reported found, and the police are not looking for them. The menacing caller tells them, he is not concerned about telling the police, he'll take care of the problem.
Poor Konishi is severely worked over and sent to the hospital again, this time with scissor wounds to the stomach, when he agrees to meet the threatening caller. Nambu is attacked with arrows and slain, while Taki picks up a girl on the rainy road, Rika (Hiromi), with whom he has a quickie. He is supposedly serious about his workplace girlfriend Reiko (Yumi), but finds time to play, probably to take his mind off those coming after him.
With the death of Nambu, Taki becomes frightened and goes to the police, telling them the truth. But they can't help. The main villain, the guy with the Zippo lighter, meets up with Taki and they have one of those ridiculous Hong Kong gunfights. Zippo is one of those villains who just can't seem to die (I suppose he's supernatural!). The awkward story moves on its pointless and bloody way, clearing nothing up by the end, though it tried when it had Detective Karaki (Nezu) say that the attackers are part of a new Japan, where punks who used to become part of a yakuza crime family now become businessmen.
Shundo Ohkawa's direction is meant to be glossy, high-tech, but suffers from being amateurish and outdated, overrun with trick camera shots to capture the violence. The director's color scheme was nightmarish and depressing, some scenes were smothered in metallic blue shadings.
The film was about as uninspiring as reading GQ. The only fun in the film, was in the opening scene, watching the two tables trade smart-alecky digs at each other, other than that this film was as much fun as watching someone get hit over the head with a bottle.
REVIEWED ON 10/8/2000 GRADE: D
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews