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From childhood onwards, Machisu (Reo Yoshioka) was fascinated by
painting, and he was set to become a painter ... of course helped by his
rich dad, who would finance the boys hobby and support his ego. But then,
dad's companies all go bankrupt and dad sees no other way out than to kill
himself - and Machisu and his mother are left with nothing - so little in
fact that mum leaves him with his uncle, then kills herself as well.
Machisu's uncle is poor and wabnts the boy to help in the house instead of
painting - but Machisu just can't get over his true love, and eventually
drives his uncle to despair - so much so that uncle sends him to an
orphanage. As a young man, Machisu (now played by Yurei Yanagi) still
can't help but paint, even if this seriously gets in the way of whatever
job he has. His art dealer though is less than impressed by his realistic
landscapes and suggests to study art and artists - which leads Machisu to
do a series of embarrassing paintings in the style of contemporary
European artists with not a clue of personal inspiration. But in art
school, Machisu also makes the acquaintance of several other painters, and
as a group, they start doing painting performances - which culminate in
one of the group dieing in a carcrash while doing an especially crazy
picture, and another one killing himself as he sees no chance for himself
as a painter. But Machisu also finds love in Sachiko, a colleague at the
printing plant he works at who supports his dreams of becoming a noted
artist, and before you know it they are married and have a child, As a
middle-aged man, Machisu (now played by director Takeshi Kitano himself)
still hasn't found fame, but still tries to sell his paintings to the same
art dealer, who still gives Machisu suggestions - but the problem is that
Machisu, aided by Sachiku, follows each of these suggestions to the letter
... much to the dismay of their daughter Mari, who gets more and more
embarrassed by their parents shenanigans while having herself become a
prostitute in order to support herself. Eventually, after her parents have
painted whole housewalls to become the next Basquiat and have been found
at a carcrash site sketching a dying man instead of helping him, this
proves too much for Mari and she moves out ... and Sachiko is soon to
follow, as only now she realizes what her husband's lifestyle has done to
her own life. Machisu is so down on his luck that he even tries to get
money out of his daughter to buy paint, but he has become such a loser
that he loses the money right away. Eventually, Machisu and Sachiko meet
in the morgue to identify the body of their daughter - but when Machisu
even tries to turn her dead face into an artwork, this proves too much for
Sachiko. Machisu is so down on his luck that he tries to commit suicide,
but while in the film he has seen numerous persons kill themselves, he
just can't do so himself, and his last attempt leaves him seriously burnt
and bandaged to an extent where only one eye is left uncovered ... but it
is then that his wife takes him back, and maybe now he's able to find
happiness after all. This synopsis, I know, sounds like big and
cheesy drama, but it goes to director Takeshi Kitano's (who has also
provided all of the paintings himself) credit that the film has actually
turned out to be a light-footed comedy, a very macabre comedy, that's for
sure, with a bodycount rivaling your typical slasher movie, but a comedy
nevertheless. And somehow, Kitano even finds something ironic in the many
many deaths that occur in the film, without ever becoming vulgar or
shallow - which makes him nothing less than a great storyteller. Add to
this his underplayed yet self-ironic performance and his subtle yet poetic
directorial effort and you have a great film. Recommended.
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