Bullet Ballet is a strange film, full of images of gun fetishism and brutal violence. One montage cleverly shows a gun repeatedly being fired intercut with scenes of men at war. It's an interesting statement about man and his ongoing relationship with violence and destruction. All things considered, man is, after all,
the most destructive force on the planet.The journey that director Tsukamoto takes us on is very similar in tone and content to that of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, but where Taxi Driver was entirely from Bickle's perspective, Tsukamoto has chosen to examine not just the central character Goda's situation, but also the dismay of his attackers, and the lives they lead outside of this macho environment. It's this technique that makes Bullet Ballet stand out a bit more than the director's other films.
June 12, 2008
