Ben P
An abominable film. A nonsensical psychedelic fever dream. Our competent female detective is taken down buy a brainwashing phycologist.
In the end, the bad guy wins, the hero loses and one of the victims is blamed for the crimes.
The only good thing I can say is the editing was competently done.
This film might be suitable for degenerates that want to start on the very near side of legal.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
05/01/24
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Audience Member
Though the final act was a big let down for me, i would say that this is a visually-stunning and thought-provoking film. There was surely something there, but sadly i'm not capable of comprehending all the philosophical aspects of this film. I'm just a camel anyway.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
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Audience Member
Great visuals and an interesting premise, but I had a hard time following the story. It was was too bizarre and incoherent, and getting to the end wasn't an easy feat as I found myself not really caring for the main character. English subtitles were poorly edited and sometimes not really making sense, so more than likely, something was lost in translation.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/09/23
Full Review
Audience Member
<strong>Angel Dust</strong> (Sogo Ishii, 1994)
If you're aware of Sogo Ishii in America-and it is every easy not to be-it's probably because his name pops up in the thanks-to section of <em>Kill Bill</em>. I've no idea what Tarantino was thanking him for. Given what we know of Tarantino's taste for B-flicks, the most likely candidate is <em>Electric Dragon 80,000V</em>, released in 2001, so it would've been fresh in Tarantino's mind. Or there's the film Ishii is best known for in Europe, <em>Yume no Ginga</em>, which won awards at Sitges and Oslo in 1997 and stars Tadanobu Asano. Or it could be the film Ishii is best known for in his own country, the mystery/thriller <em>Enjeru Dasuto</em>, which since its 1994 release has been an influence, direct or indirect, on an entire generation of mystery, thriller, and gore films from southeast Asia; you can see bits of this film in movies as disparate as <em>Suicide Club</em> and <em>Cure</em>. For all that, it's pretty quiet, an unassuming little thriller that doesn't demand much of the viewer. When it's heard of outside Japan at all these days, that's because it contains some rather eerie parallels to a terrorist incident which followed soon after the film was released. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Setsuko Suma (<em>The Great Yokai War</em>'s Kaho Minami) is a psychiatrist with a thriving practice. She's asked to assist the police in a series of unsolved, related murders: every week, at 6PM on Monday, a woman is murdered in the Tokyo subway. Something about the case clicks with her, and once she realizes what the pattern is, it becomes obvious to her that there's one person who can provide the pieces she needs to crack the case: Rei Aku (<em>Ring 0: Birthday</em>'s Takeshi Wakamatsu), a fellow psychiatrist (and Setsuko's ex-boyfriend) who has turned his talents to a more specialized profession: cult deprogramming. But the more Setsuko works with Rei, the more she wonders if his interest in the case is far more personal than she at first believed.
It's impossible to mention the film's infamy without a major plot spoiler. Thus, NOTE: the following paragraph contains a major spoiler about the first part of the mystery.
Nine months after the release of <em>Angel Dust</em>, on March 20, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult released sarin, a nerve gas, into the Tokyo subways, killing thirteen people and injuring dozens more. Wikipedia notes that the "Subway Sarin Incident", as it is known by Japanese authorities, is "the most serious attack [on Japanese soil] since the end of World War II." You know I wouldn't be saying all this without it having some connection to the movie, so yes, want to take a guess at the connection between the victims, and the cult Rei Aku specializes in deprogramming alumni of? Got it in one. (For the record, they still exist; they changed their name to Aleph.) I've heard it postulated at least once that the Sarin attacks were a response to the movie, but with no backing. Still, it's a little too distressing to be a complete coincidence, no?
I've read a few reviews of the film that focus on Setsuko's character and its flaws vis-a-vis the film's plot. I don't buy them, really. Dennis Littrell, especially, mentions one particular scene that strikes me as, actually, entirely realistic, as well as being a backhanded <em>homage</em> to David Cronenberg's <em>Videodrome</em>, in which we only see Brian O'Blivion on a television screen. To me, what that scene is doing is showing us a duality in Rei Aku's character that is absolutely necessary for Setsuko's suspicions: the idea that in order to be good at deprogramming cult members, one must be able to project that same cult-leader charisma and mentality. (Again, we hark straight back to Brian O'Blivion.) She's reduced to a quivering mass of goo because, well, he's good at what he does. And let's not forget she's his ex-girlfriend; there are a lot of layers of emotional baggage running through that scene. How does it work if Setsuko is <em>not</em> suddenly out of character? That's the only way it makes sense, really...
I've also seen a few pokes at the continuity. I'm not entirely sure why; I had no problems following along at all, especially in relation to something like <em>White Material</em> (elsewhere this ish), where Denis consciously set out to make a piece of her film disjointed. This is a ruler, in comparison. Ishii sometimes hides crucial pieces of information from the viewer, but isn't that the definition of a mystery film?
In other words, if you've heard criticism about this flick and it's kept you from hitting the "rent" button at the redbox, shuffle it to the back of your head long enough to check this movie out for yourself. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised. *** 1/2
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
Full Review
Audience Member
<strong>Angel Dust</strong> (Sogo Ishii, 1994)
If you're aware of Sogo Ishii in America-and it is every easy not to be-it's probably because his name pops up in the thanks-to section of <em>Kill Bill</em>. I've no idea what Tarantino was thanking him for. Given what we know of Tarantino's taste for B-flicks, the most likely candidate is <em>Electric Dragon 80,000V</em>, released in 2001, so it would've been fresh in Tarantino's mind. Or there's the film Ishii is best known for in Europe, <em>Yume no Ginga</em>, which won awards at Sitges and Oslo in 1997 and stars Tadanobu Asano. Or it could be the film Ishii is best known for in his own country, the mystery/thriller <em>Enjeru Dasuto</em>, which since its 1994 release has been an influence, direct or indirect, on an entire generation of mystery, thriller, and gore films from southeast Asia; you can see bits of this film in movies as disparate as <em>Suicide Club</em> and <em>Cure</em>. For all that, it's pretty quiet, an unassuming little thriller that doesn't demand much of the viewer. When it's heard of outside Japan at all these days, that's because it contains some rather eerie parallels to a terrorist incident which followed soon after the film was released. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Setsuko Suma (<em>The Great Yokai War</em>'s Kaho Minami) is a psychiatrist with a thriving practice. She's asked to assist the police in a series of unsolved, related murders: every week, at 6PM on Monday, a woman is murdered in the Tokyo subway. Something about the case clicks with her, and once she realizes what the pattern is, it becomes obvious to her that there's one person who can provide the pieces she needs to crack the case: Rei Aku (<em>Ring 0: Birthday</em>'s Takeshi Wakamatsu), a fellow psychiatrist (and Setsuko's ex-boyfriend) who has turned his talents to a more specialized profession: cult deprogramming. But the more Setsuko works with Rei, the more she wonders if his interest in the case is far more personal than she at first believed.
It's impossible to mention the film's infamy without a major plot spoiler. Thus, NOTE: the following paragraph contains a major spoiler about the first part of the mystery.
Nine months after the release of <em>Angel Dust</em>, on March 20, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult released sarin, a nerve gas, into the Tokyo subways, killing thirteen people and injuring dozens more. Wikipedia notes that the "Subway Sarin Incident", as it is known by Japanese authorities, is "the most serious attack [on Japanese soil] since the end of World War II." You know I wouldn't be saying all this without it having some connection to the movie, so yes, want to take a guess at the connection between the victims, and the cult Rei Aku specializes in deprogramming alumni of? Got it in one. (For the record, they still exist; they changed their name to Aleph.) I've heard it postulated at least once that the Sarin attacks were a response to the movie, but with no backing. Still, it's a little too distressing to be a complete coincidence, no?
I've read a few reviews of the film that focus on Setsuko's character and its flaws vis-a-vis the film's plot. I don't buy them, really. Dennis Littrell, especially, mentions one particular scene that strikes me as, actually, entirely realistic, as well as being a backhanded <em>homage</em> to David Cronenberg's <em>Videodrome</em>, in which we only see Brian O'Blivion on a television screen. To me, what that scene is doing is showing us a duality in Rei Aku's character that is absolutely necessary for Setsuko's suspicions: the idea that in order to be good at deprogramming cult members, one must be able to project that same cult-leader charisma and mentality. (Again, we hark straight back to Brian O'Blivion.) She's reduced to a quivering mass of goo because, well, he's good at what he does. And let's not forget she's his ex-girlfriend; there are a lot of layers of emotional baggage running through that scene. How does it work if Setsuko is <em>not</em> suddenly out of character? That's the only way it makes sense, really...
I've also seen a few pokes at the continuity. I'm not entirely sure why; I had no problems following along at all, especially in relation to something like <em>White Material</em> (elsewhere this ish), where Denis consciously set out to make a piece of her film disjointed. This is a ruler, in comparison. Ishii sometimes hides crucial pieces of information from the viewer, but isn't that the definition of a mystery film?
In other words, if you've heard criticism about this flick and it's kept you from hitting the "rent" button at the redbox, shuffle it to the back of your head long enough to check this movie out for yourself. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised. *** 1/2
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Innovative, tense and unnerving tale that is also very stylish, with inspired visuals, imaginative use of sound and spectacular editing. It is also a little confusing upon first viewing but it is clear by the end that everything did make sense. An intelligent work that deals with gender/work issues, psychological make up and it's consequences plus the question of dealing with cult 'victims'. In short a lot of ground is covered and it should not be forgotten that this is still a rattling good yarn involving a serial killer who acts each Monday on a Tokyo underground line at 6.00 pm. Setsuko is called in to help police with the case, she having had experience in the field and,, it turns out, worked rather closely with another certain gentleman who we meet a little later. The b/w security camera sequences shot in his clinic are possibly a little long but it is fearsome stuff
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
Full Review
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