Probably the first Japanese film to take influence from the Western post-modern crime boom, this is a wonderful blend of biting social satire, blood-soaked anger at the misogynist trauma of World War II and humanist polemic. What strikes me most about KAMIKAZE TAXI is that for a story so concerned with male bonding and revenge, the film's sympathy lies fully with its sex worker characters. Tatsuo is differentiated from not only his chauvinistic bosses and but also the corrupt politicians as a working class man who is selfless to the women in his employ, even at one point turning down his cut of his call girl's pay. Even with the Koji Yakusho character, he's shown to be treated differently for his immigrant status despite the fact that he doesn't look that much different from his fellow countrymen. I couldn't help but be swept away in this film's sprawling, unwieldy narrative, and for all of its structural problems, they seemed to matter little as the great emotional weight of the story ultimately overwhelmed everything else.
I'm fairly convinced this is a major Japanese crime work of the era, and while it's no GONIN, there is real beauty here on display and as I said, real sadness bleeding through the copious gunshot wounds.
Probably the first Japanese film to take influence from the Western post-modern crime boom, this is a wonderful blend of biting social satire, blood-soaked anger at the misogynist trauma of World War II and humanist polemic. What strikes me most about KAMIKAZE TAXI is that for a story so concerned with male bonding and revenge, the film's sympathy lies fully with its sex worker characters. Tatsuo is differentiated from not only his chauvinistic bosses and but also the corrupt politicians as a working class man who is selfless to the women in his employ, even at one point turning down his cut of his call girl's pay. Even with the Koji Yakusho character, he's shown to be treated differently for his immigrant status despite the fact that he doesn't look that much different from his fellow countrymen. I couldn't help but be swept away in this film's sprawling, unwieldy narrative, and for all of its structural problems, they seemed to matter little as the great emotional weight of the story ultimately overwhelmed everything else.
I'm fairly convinced this is a major Japanese crime work of the era, and while it's no GONIN, there is real beauty here on display and as I said, real sadness bleeding through the copious gunshot wounds.
