Audience Member
A heavy, rough and sad story, all that packed in a really good, dark movie.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Interesting to see depiction of Koreans in Japan as a way to establish a context and setting. Kitano's shocking brutality is shown in the first scene and builds from there. Takeshi Kitano is one of the most interesting actors to watch. He's so quirky and eccentric that he brings a great deal of excitement on screen. He plays Kim Shunpei, a vicious man in his business and his personal life. He treats his wife, like she herself describes, as a "slave". He is quite simply heartless, showing no affection to anyone, his works or even his head. At first he starts a fishcake business, then it's success allows him to become a money lender. He soon suffers some personal setbacks, and gives his fishcake business up committing himself to his moneylending business in the same ruthlessness... The film gets very appalling and disturbing but never cliched. After the half way mark, the film loses some focus but remains interesting to watch. Near the end, it gets a little carried away with details of Kim's life and drags a little. Nonetheless, this is a powerful and unique film which is sure to have some effect on any person that watches it.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
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Audience Member
Kitano plays a strange, angry, horny man. Keeping his crippled mistress around for so long doesn't fit in to his pattern of selfish, miserly behavior. Especially since he was so intent on her becoming pregnant and she wasn't able. There must be some sort of twisted compassion in the brute. That was it though, a total asshole in every way he could be the rest of the time. A well directed, tragic drama, with amazing acting, costumes and sets. The funeral fight is worth watching.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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Audience Member
Grandissimo, film di valore assoluto e migliore visione dell'ultimo periodo. Bravissimo Kitano e gli attori tutti, mai noioso, sempre intenso: da vedere.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Made in 2004, Blood and Bones has recently been released on DVD. It stars Japanese movie legend Takeshi Kitano.
The story begins in the 1920's with Shunpei (Kitano) arriving in Japan by boat with the first generation of Korean immigrants.
The story quickly moves forward to when Shunpei is middle aged and has a family. Shunpei is a violent man who comes and goes as he pleases. He also dishes out a great deal of punishment on his family and numerous mistresses. In fact Shunpei makes Jake La Motta look like a metro sexual.
We get an indication early on that Shunpei is a piece of work, when he takes a sledge hammer to his rented house (without the landlord's permission) and converts it into a fish cake factory. The business is quite lucrative for awhile, but eventually closes when Shunpei has trouble finding people willing to work for him because of his abusive management style. So Shunpei turns his hand to loan sharking and does very well at that. At times there are signs of redemption for him, but they're all too fleeting and before long he finds himself back on his path of self destruction, which we the audience get to follow until the bitter end.
Whilst Shunpei, may not be a very likeable character, he is fascinating and if nothing else I couldn't help but admire his tenacity.
Some people may find this movie harrowing, disturbing and perhaps even depressing, but I like movies with a bit of grunt, so I was totally enthralled by this epic tale about a classic anti-hero.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
'Beat' Takeshi plays a character you want to BEAT the shit out of every time he's on screen. In other words; he's terrific! And so is the movie. Very down-beat, but highly recommended.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/09/23
Full Review
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