Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Matylda Swan
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
Kinley
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
boneugen
I feel it's sort of a shame for such a movie to have less than at least 100 reviews on its page. So here I go, helping it out with this 22nd review, if I recall it correctly...First time I read a review on Tokyo Fist on another site, I didn't quite know what to expect from this movie. I was deep down in Cronenberg horror, but this title's plot and atmosphere (as described by a rather insipid reviewer, I guess) simply eluded my intuition. Luckily, I decided to give this a try, and it was one good decision. Tokyo Fist stands at a fine border between black comedy (and also really dry), surrealism, action and plain existential malaise. Tsukamoto's cam angles and effects act perfectly coherently with his intent, from emphasizing the ridiculous monotony and isolation in Tsuda's life to highlighting the irrational ferocity of his old "friend" that almost seems to turn night into day and day into night.Now, diving a bit into the predictable Fight Club comparison, Tokyo Fist is the severe, restrained, Eastern cousin of Palahniuk's novel's adaptation. There is no noticeable trace of emotion (maybe except anger), pathetism, or nihilist verbosity in the discourse of Tokyo Fist's characters. It's as if their existence and the duty of assuming various roles (and subsequent failures) squeezed their sentimental tendencies out of them and sent them into an abyss. There is no "love trio" in this movie, no matter how tempting it would be to call it that way. Its three main characters remain as insulated as can be, until the very end - a brilliantly open and non-conclusive end to a small, powerful drama of people not able to manage their remorse or lack of meaning without showering themselves in suffering. Beyond the plot, there are some really nice hyperkinetic boxing scenes in this movie, and the generous to parodic flows of blood and bruises might seem chuckle and nausea-inducing at the same time.I am afraid, though, that what I have said doesn't give this film the aura that it deserves. If you are not necessarily an adrenaline freak yet not an instant puker either, and want to see something done artistically indeed, you ought to give this at least one punch with the eye.
mononoke1
Tsukamoto in this film strips away excess to reveal a animal emotions which are then stretched to excess. In this film anger, violence, pain and revenge drive the action.Tsuda and Kojima witness the murder of a girl they like and while both vow to find and punish the killers only Kojima holds on to the twisted dream to become a second rate boxer. Tsuda becomes a salaryman in a sexless relationship in which they spend the evenings watching old films (I spotted Metropolis and another which I can't place). A chance meeting between the two after many years awakens the anger that Kojima feels towards Tsuda, and the former begins making a play for Hizuru, Tsuda's girlfriend. This in turn leads Tsuda to become angry and he turns to boxing to get revenge on his former friend. Meanwhile Hikuru becomes a masochist, autonomous of both the males. The fairly graphic violence is mostly make up and is so over the top it is clearly to make the point mentioned in one of the other comments: violence is often the first recourse in a situation. However, as opposed to a film like Rocky where the violence leads to personal redemption, or an emotional force like Raging Bull, the violence is non-cathartic and meaningless. It is almost as if the characters are driven to behave in a certain way as a reflex reaction. Fast editing, powerful sound effects and blue colours mark the film out as Tsukamoto's style, and the transformation theme is another element that he returns to. Lots of fun for me, but the person I was with didn't have a clue what was going on. Make your own decision, but there is no relationship to Fight Club whatsoever: this is about human emotion, not social issues.
zombikev
SPOILERS ARE LOCATED BELOWMany people will disagree with my opinion on this film.First off, many comments on this board mislead me into getting hold of it. The film is quite terrible. Sure, it has some good fighting scenes in it, and some pretty entertaining training scenes. But, the film just gets to be too chaotic. The plot is simple; the two friends become enemies over a woman. When they were youths, a girl that they had loved, was killed by street punks. They vowed to take up pro- boxing and to eventually avenge their friend. One friend takes the pro-boxing path and one takes a different stride. The film does address many good issues, but it is just bathed in distracting features. The music for one thing, was a joke. Many of the camera angles were poor, and many of the effects were just moronic. How many times can you watch a guy walk down the street through a rumble cam? And many things were repeated constantly; like the meat on the camera.I found the film interesting, but not compelling.This film related in now way to Fight Club.
poe426
If there's a more dramatic context for human passion than fistfighting, I don't know what it is. From, say, GENTLEMAN JIM, THE HARDER THEY FALL, REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (both versions), THE GREAT WHITE HOPE and FAT CITY to, say, HARD TIMES, ROCKY, THE GREATEST, RAGING BULL, and ALI, The Sweet Science has been used to examine The Human Condition, up close and personal; subtext is thrust to the forefront, and boxing as drama is as clear and as pure as it comes. TOKYO FIST follows in that tradition, but in a hyperkinetic way that is so over-the-top that it would make Sam Raimi blush. That's not a bad thing: pushing the cinematic envelope is sometimes necessary (audiences become jaded, and need that wake-up call). Director Tsukamoto isn't practicing his ten-second nap by any stretch of the imagination. And stretching the imagination is exactly what he does. We see a man get struck by a blow that opens his brow- and blood comes spraying forth in a way it never could in real life. It's an image so extreme that one can't help but laugh... but, in the context of the emotional cauldron that is TOKYO FIST, it's very apropos. It's the spewing forth of pent-up emotions that perhaps only a Japanese filmmaker could have conceived (which seems a sound assumption, as no other filmmaker has ever- to my knowledge- come so close to exposing raw nerve endings in a motion picture). TOKYO FIST is an amazing achievement.
