A man called Hanada who has a fetish about sniffing boiled rice is the no.3 hitman in all of Japan (though he wants to become no.1). He botches up his latest job when a butterfly lands on the end of his gun. Now everybody is after him from his wife, the woman who hired him to the no.1 killer in Japan.
Chipmunk faced Jô Shisido plays the hitman Hanada and whilst I enjoyed his performance in My Colt Is My Passport, I certainly can’t say the same about this movie as it’s one big mess. It’s not his fault though, it’s just the movie is too weird and incomprehensible to make any kind of sense. Perhaps that’s what the director Seijun Suzuki wanted – I don’t know? I like to watch a movie that I can understand but this one is too confusing by far. Some parts of the movie are very stylish and look good. I can’t fault the action scenes especially the final shootout either but the rest is nothing to write home about. A lot of people seem to praise this movie quite a bit but I’m afraid I’m not one of them. In fact I wouldn’t watch this again. Give it a go if you want and if you understand what all the symbolism in the movie is all about give me a shout but otherwise don’t bother.
Sadako’s Rating: 2 stars out of 5
I don’t like incomprehensible movies either (for me, it was Brazil). However, this did remind me of a movie I liked with Ben Kingsley, You Kill Me. It was a slightly dark comedy. Not Japanese, but if you haven’t seen it, consider it. His acting is very good, as usual.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796375/