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Jigoku De Naze Warui
Why Don't You Play in Hell
Japan 2013
produced by Takuyuki Matsuno, Tsuyoshi Suzuki, Atsushi Moriyama (executive) for King Record, KH Capital, BizAsset, T-Joy, Gansis
directed by Sion Sono
starring Jun Kunimura, Fumi Nikaido, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Hiroki Hasegawa, Gen Hoshino, Tomochika, Itsuji Itao, Hiroyuki Onoue, Tak Sakaguchi, Tetsu Watanabe, Tasuku Nagaoka, Akihiro Kitamura, Megumi Kagurazaka, Motoki Fukami, Taro Suwa, Donpei Tsuchihira, Takamitsu Nonaka, Hideo Nakaizumi, Nanoka Hara, Tatsuya Nakajima, Tsugumi, Totou Lorena, Ryo Ito, Riko Narumi, Kyoko Enami, Kenjiro Ishimaru, Denden
written by Sion Sono, music by Sion Sono
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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For ten years now, a filmmaking collective calling themselves the Fuck
Bombers tries to produce a cinematic masterpiece - but while the
enthusiasm has never left them, they hadn't gotten one step closer to that
goal, and their in-house action star Sasaki (Tak Sakaguchi) dinally quits
them, feeling at almost thirty he's a trifle too old to still be called
the "Japanese Bruce Lee" with nothing to show for it. At the
same time, Michiko (Fumi Nikaido) is on the run from her father, yakuza
boss Muto (Jun Kunimura) who wants her to become an actress to make her
mother proud - because ten years ago, Michiko's toothpaste ad was
cancelled after her mum was involved in a murder (which was at least part
self defense) and had spent the time since in prison but is now to be
released. Michiko hires a hapless young man, Koji (Gen Hoshino), to pose
as her boyfriend for a day, but then the two get captured - and to save
him from being killed, she claims he's a movie director and the only one
she feels will make a good actress out of her. Boss Muto likes the idea
and pretty much on the spot hires filmmaking equipment and makes his gang
into a film crew. Problem is, Koji hasn't got the first idea about
filmmaking - but by pure chance, he hears about the Fuck Bombers and gets
in touch with them ... and in no time at all, the Fuck Bomber's director
Hirata (Hiroki Hasegawa) is all fired up about the project, especially
when he finds out that the film is to depict an actual raid of Muto's gang
on yakuza boss Ikegami's (Shinichi Tsutsumi) headquarters ... Why
Don't You Play in Hell is tons of fun, there's hardly a minute without
something hilarious, outrageous, grotesque, ultraviolent happening, and
director Shion Sono sure knows how to keep things original, give
interesting spins to genre mainstays, keep things moving at a steady pace,
and the drawn-out fight scene/shoot-out at the ending of the film sure
packs a punch ... and yet the film's not perfect: Its story is needlessly
over-convoluted, it features a few too many characters, and the characters
themselves are often poorly written or one-dimensional or lack proper
motivation. Plus, the thing goes on for a bit too long, and whenever the
film tries to show "heart", it slides into clichées. That all
said, you'll probably still laugh your ass off watching this, it's just
nowhere near perfection.
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