“Tennen Shojo Man” was a strangely successful TV product of 1999 that served as the inspiration for a TV movie follow-up “Tennen shojo Man next: Yokohama hyaku-ya hen“, released in the same year. The latter differs strongly from the original story as a completely fresh chapter of Man’s fight against a different type of evil. Both the series and the film are adaptations of a popular manga by Tetsuya Koshiba.
The very format of the TV series is unusual – it’s not episodic and it works as a three-and-a-half-hour long film intersected by short comedy sequences played by the show’s “moderator” Mijayi. Surrounded by plush toys and with neon letters pulsating across the screen, she’s either acting as “the cheerleader” motivating the main protagonists to some mean a**-kicking or demonstrating trivial knowledge related to the story itself. At one point, she’ll give a tutorial on how...
The very format of the TV series is unusual – it’s not episodic and it works as a three-and-a-half-hour long film intersected by short comedy sequences played by the show’s “moderator” Mijayi. Surrounded by plush toys and with neon letters pulsating across the screen, she’s either acting as “the cheerleader” motivating the main protagonists to some mean a**-kicking or demonstrating trivial knowledge related to the story itself. At one point, she’ll give a tutorial on how...
- 10/19/2020
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
HONG KONG -- For well over 50 films, Miike Takashi has straddled that fine line between inflammatory shock cinema and art. Big Bang Love isn't a huge departure from his past work. Aside from the modern dance opening and a lengthy monologue on manhood, Miike uses the old-fashioned whodunit format to explore his ideas on what's wrong with Japan and what's wrong with Japanese men. This won't move Miike into a market outside the big festivals, but it will add to his ever-burgeoning cache of films.
An unidentified prison is the location for a murder mystery that unfolds in flashback. At the very start of the story, the delicate, passive Jun Matsuda Ryuhei) is found sitting across the chest of the aggressive, violent Shiro (Ando Masanobu). Shiro is dead, and Jun is obviously the prime suspect. Jun confesses, and two investigators set about trying to unravel the story and find out what the truth is.
As the story unfolds, we're drawn into the most romantic relationship since Brokeback Mountain. Jun and Shiro meet when they're processed the first time; both are in jail for vicious homicides. This is a prison movie, and the 'feminine' Jun being taken under wing and protected by the 'masculine' Shiro isn't a surprising turn of events. What is surprising is the way Miike juggles the roles and positions of the two young men.
Who's vulnerable and who's the protector are fluid notions. Jun and Shiro each fulfil those duties on different occasions. Finding out who the two men really were is more important for Miike than finding out who killed Shiro. A host of other inmates seemingly had motives, as did the warden. Theories are repeated, again and again, until one starts to coalesce as a comfortable truth.
Miike draws the audience into the mystery by having the investigators' questions written on the screen as if we were asking them ourselves. The repetitive structure -- of the questions, the crime and Jun and Shiro's first meeting -- underscore the cycle that Jun and Shiro are stuck in. In the end, Miike challenges our notions by throwing the easy answers in our faces, declaring (through the investigators) that it is easy answers we're more likely to believe anyway.
The symbolic, metaphoric elements in Big Bang Love -- a rocket ship that's parked just outside the prison, the Mayan pyramid right beside it (and the associative masculine/feminine imagery), the Dogville-esque sets -- get in the way only so much as newcomers to the director's work allow them to. Miike directs with as sure a hand as ever, but has reduced the number of freak show add-ons in keeping with the minimalist nature of the film. He's not known for being terribly sentimental or emotional, but the heart of Big Bang Love is in the bond forged between Jun and Shiro, a bond painted in surprisingly warm, deep tones by the Miike, yet another demonstration of his command of the craft.
BIG BANG LOVE, JUVENILE A
Eisei Gekijo, Excellent Film Co., Maki Production Co. Ltd., Shochiku Films Ltd.
Credits:
Director: Miike Takashi
Writer: Nakamura Masa
Based on a novel by: Masaki Ato
Producer: Sasaki Shiro, Watanabe Takeshi
Director of photography: Kaneko Masato
Production designer: Sasaki Nao
Costumes: Kitamura Michiko
Editor: Shimamura Yasushi.
Cast: Ariyoshi Jun: Matsuda Ryuhei
Kazuki Shiro: Ando Masanobu
Investigator: Ishibashi Renji
The Warden: Ishibashi Ryo
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 82 minutes...
An unidentified prison is the location for a murder mystery that unfolds in flashback. At the very start of the story, the delicate, passive Jun Matsuda Ryuhei) is found sitting across the chest of the aggressive, violent Shiro (Ando Masanobu). Shiro is dead, and Jun is obviously the prime suspect. Jun confesses, and two investigators set about trying to unravel the story and find out what the truth is.
As the story unfolds, we're drawn into the most romantic relationship since Brokeback Mountain. Jun and Shiro meet when they're processed the first time; both are in jail for vicious homicides. This is a prison movie, and the 'feminine' Jun being taken under wing and protected by the 'masculine' Shiro isn't a surprising turn of events. What is surprising is the way Miike juggles the roles and positions of the two young men.
Who's vulnerable and who's the protector are fluid notions. Jun and Shiro each fulfil those duties on different occasions. Finding out who the two men really were is more important for Miike than finding out who killed Shiro. A host of other inmates seemingly had motives, as did the warden. Theories are repeated, again and again, until one starts to coalesce as a comfortable truth.
Miike draws the audience into the mystery by having the investigators' questions written on the screen as if we were asking them ourselves. The repetitive structure -- of the questions, the crime and Jun and Shiro's first meeting -- underscore the cycle that Jun and Shiro are stuck in. In the end, Miike challenges our notions by throwing the easy answers in our faces, declaring (through the investigators) that it is easy answers we're more likely to believe anyway.
The symbolic, metaphoric elements in Big Bang Love -- a rocket ship that's parked just outside the prison, the Mayan pyramid right beside it (and the associative masculine/feminine imagery), the Dogville-esque sets -- get in the way only so much as newcomers to the director's work allow them to. Miike directs with as sure a hand as ever, but has reduced the number of freak show add-ons in keeping with the minimalist nature of the film. He's not known for being terribly sentimental or emotional, but the heart of Big Bang Love is in the bond forged between Jun and Shiro, a bond painted in surprisingly warm, deep tones by the Miike, yet another demonstration of his command of the craft.
BIG BANG LOVE, JUVENILE A
Eisei Gekijo, Excellent Film Co., Maki Production Co. Ltd., Shochiku Films Ltd.
Credits:
Director: Miike Takashi
Writer: Nakamura Masa
Based on a novel by: Masaki Ato
Producer: Sasaki Shiro, Watanabe Takeshi
Director of photography: Kaneko Masato
Production designer: Sasaki Nao
Costumes: Kitamura Michiko
Editor: Shimamura Yasushi.
Cast: Ariyoshi Jun: Matsuda Ryuhei
Kazuki Shiro: Ando Masanobu
Investigator: Ishibashi Renji
The Warden: Ishibashi Ryo
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 82 minutes...
- 6/22/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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