"City of Lost Soulds" as a whole, doesn't really work, but I'll freely admit where there are some parts of fantastic action set pieces and moments of inspiration, even if a few of those moments have no business setting foot in a movie that can't be easily compared to "Chicken Run." The film is directed by Takashi Miike, a director with his own visual style that right away in the first frame of any number of his films, you can tell that he is lumbering behind the camera somewhere. This film opens with blood dripping down the screen as a character narrates a letter they've written to their mother. Other scenes later in the film show people getting their heads blown off, causing blood and brains to fly all over the camera, making the rest of the scene a nice tint of red. Bullets fly around all over the place that we can actually hear the shells hitting the ground, and characters even take the time out to blow into their gun barrels, making that nice bottle sound. This is a Miike film to the extent that any of his films are a Miike film, but what makes it not work is that it's Miike not knowing what the hell he wants to do with himself, other than he wants to make it obvious that he is the director.
Moments in the film have a nice touch of something that may be brought to us by Robert Rodriguez, as when the film's hero is introduced by going into a bar and aimlessly shooting up the place, while for the most part remaining faceless to the audience. But then later in the movie, it's almost as if we're watching a Farrelly Brothers knock off as numerous characters feel the sudden urge to go take a dump for no reason whatsoever. I believe one scene has a point of view flushing shot from the bowl itself. Miike's critics have often accused him of being a director who is 100% style over substance, but I've always been someone who has defended his work. I feel that "Audition" is one of the most disturbing films of the past 20 years, and "Ichi The Killer" has such a kinetic and masochistic way of showing its violence, that its like a music video for the criminally insane, and that worked for that movie. This movie has a scene out of nowhere, and is never explained, where we visit a cockfighting match. The chickens are then put into the ring, but they aren't real chickens mind you. They are CG. Really bad CG. And as they fight, these CG chickens perform moves that are literally taken from "The Matrix." One hops up to kick the other, while the screen freezes and the angle shifts in bullet time. You know what I'm talking about. That is in this movie. It goes back to it more than once, and why it is even in here to begin with, I have absolutely no clue.
The movie follows around two lovers and they plow their way through the Yakuza, wanting to simply enjoy their newfound married life. The plot has often been called confusing and hard to follow, which a number of Miike's films are, but to be honest, I had no problem with this film. I know that for a fact, because partway through the movie I got an out of state phone call, and did not feel like I missed one minute of the thing. If you strip down everything that Miike oddly puts into this movie, it is less "The Getaway" or "True Romance," but is more "Cobra." I don't need to see Miike's take on "Cobra." Hell, I don't even need to see "Cobra." No one should ever have to see "Cobra." People will no doubt be fascinated by the visual energy of this movie, and indeed it is the best thing about it, but I'm going to agree with the critics this time and say that the movie is no doubt all style, but the substance that it has here has no business being in a movie like this. I mean, for god's sake, the villains in the movie actually gather in a cave.
The lead character is a Brazilian gangster named Mario (played by a guy named Teah, who looks a little like Jermaine Jackson in his prime... come on, "Bass Odyssey" anyone? Hello? Is this thing on?) Mario is in love with a Chinese hairdresser named Kei, and he does whatever he can to make sure that she is not deported. Apparently in China it is rough to sneak someone back into the country once they are deported, as the bus carrying Kei is ambushed by helicopters, and several people are murdered by a machine gun toting Mario. I guess that places Mario in the category of anti-hero, but I'm not exactly sure what to call Kei. She's not Bonnie, she's not Mallory Knox, she's not Alabama Worley, she's just a normal everyday hairdresser. How the hell she ever got mixed up with someone like Mario, I will never know, and I'll also never know why she gladly stays with him. Though later on in the film she does switch gears and lights a man on fire when he conveniently falls onto an open can of gasoline, but he would have killed her otherwise.
Their main plan is to obtain passports so they can stow away on a ship that will take them out of the country, as numerous people want Mario's head on a stick. Little do they know that Mario appears to be borderline invincible. One scene shows him leaping several hundred feet from a helicopter, and the biggest danger is a dust cloud created when he lands. After a plan to steal money from the mafia goes wrong, the two lovers get ahold of some cocaine, perfect for selling, except now they have the Yakuza not only trying to kill them, but also paying ordinary townspeople enough money so they can also do the dirty job.
I'm not exactly sure what kind of world this movie exists in, but it is a world that does not exist, nor will it ever exist unless it comes from the mind of someone who deems it perfectly normal for a character to look at the camera and tell us a great way to enjoy some vodka. The movie is an odd kind of whimsy, in that it has no idea that it is even being whimsy. All of this is completely played seriously, even when it has those moments that seem like they would be more proper in a comedy. One fight scene shows two characters that are more or less breakdance fighting, and near the end of the film, when two opposing characters meet up face to face, one of them gives out the suggestion: "Lets play ping pong," while the other quips "This is ridiculous." I couldn't agree more.
Yet the movie is also complete and utter eye candy, and if you love all of that style while having absolutely nothing to show for it, then "City of Lost Souls" might be a movie for you. Miike has done such better work than this, that it almost looks like a movie that has him wallowing in what he feels are his greatest qualities. Yes, a movie like "Ichi" has visual camera tricks extremely similar to this movie, but "Ichi" also had a multi-layered story with plausible characters that actually would exist in that world, and it didn't have to create CG chickens and have them fight for no reason.
Mario and Kei are kind of nothing characters as well, both of them making up probably only about 1/3 of the movie's dialogue. A lot of time is given to the film's lead Yakuza named Mr. Fushimi, who is a lot more sadistic than most film Yakuzas are usually ever portrayed. After screwing up a deal, he is ordered to remove his finger, but never mind that. He kills everyone in the room, and with his sidekick, he goes on a lone crusade to kill...just about anyone. This character works for me. This is the kind of character who you would expect to be played by Chow Yun Fat in a John Woo film, except in that movie, the character would have been the lead and the anti-hero. It's predictable all throughout the movie what Mario will do and even what he will or will not say, but the same cannot be said for Mr. Fushimi. He is a .45 master, and when warned that killing a certain victim won't do him good in the long run, he lets the victim live, but kicks the living hell out of the man who told it to him. This is a badass character, partly in such because he actually is a character. I absolutely love the quiet moments between him and the little girl he has kidnapped to get close to Mario. I realize that the villain in the movie is supposed to ham it up a lot more than the hero, but when you have a hero that is as big of a nothing as Mario, and a villain as entertaining as Mr. Fushimi, you not only love watching him on screen...you want him to win. Maybe that's why he graces the covers of the Region 1 DVD's.
I can't recommend the movie due to the various problems that I have with it, and to top it all off, the movie comes equipped with a needlessly lousy ending. It's not the kind of lousy ending that seems to be poetic justice. It's more so a lousy ending that is put there only for the sake of having a lousy ending. I find it hard to believe that in whatever universe this is in, that that would be the logical conclusion for the characters involved. Though the film has action sequences left and right and numerous fatal bullet wounds for even the most minor character, "City of Lost Souls" is a near miss.
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