Let’s Dance the Bullet Ballet

“In dreams you can kill someone and not get caught. Tokyo is just one big dream.
A dream.”

And what a dream it is.

Bullet Ballet
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Written by: Shinya Tsukamoto
Running time: 87 minutes
Language: Japanese

An odyssey of indelible violence and emotion, Bullet Ballet is not only the name of John Woo’s signature firearm based action choreography, but the title of Shinya Tsukamoto’s 1998 tale of a man’s obsession. Like Woo’s own films, Bullet Ballet explores the conflict and struggles of its characters through a series of visceral and violent scenes. Here Tsukamoto moves his stories at a more considered pace; the scenes of violence lack the poetry and heroism of Woo’s films, and instead act as an immediate expression of the inner conflicts that consume the characters caught in the ensuing bullet ballet.

Big camera. Strong flash: Thoughts on “A Snake of June”

“Don’t you have to follow your passion?”
A Snake of June begs the question.

A Snake of June
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Written by: Shinya Tsukamoto
Running time: 77 minutes
Language: Japanese

Stitched together from the mind of Japanese auteur Shinya Tsukamoto, A Snake of June is a psychosexual drama that roughly shares territory with Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Tsukamoto’s pulsing, excruciating style drives the movie, taking long breaths to draw out the agonizing sequences of tension.