Review for Bullet Ballet

Introduction

It’s Christmas, I have a daunting Mount Turkey to climb ahead of me, and I feel like cheating, which is why I’m going to rework my DVD review of Bullet Ballet for this Blu-ray review. But my opinion of the film hasn’t changed, and after watching it last night, I realise that if I wrote the review now, the words might be in a different order, but the gist will be the same. Of course as it’s a new Blu-ray release, I’ll be taking a closer look at the technical aspects of the disc. Bullet Ballet was a film that really appealed to me back when I first saw it in 2005, courtesy of the Artsmagic DVD release. Thanks to Third Window Films revisiting Shinya Tsukamato’s back catalogue over the past year with the Tetsuo films and most recently Tokyo Fist, as well as releasing his more recent Kotoko in the UK, I’ve come to realise that Bullet Ballet is my favourite of his films. It’s the most accessible of his works, the most human, and the most emotionally relevant, and ever since Third Window Films announced that it would be getting a Blu-ray release, complete with a restoration overseen by Shinya Tsukamoto, I’ve been looking forward to it with unseemly eagerness.

Goda has a successful career directing commercials, but his life is torn apart when his girlfriend commits suicide with a gun she has been holding for a friend. Goda becomes obsessed with the gun, a Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special, and tries desperately to get hold of one. This sends him headlong into Tokyo’s underworld, where he tries and initially fails to obtain the restricted weapon. He encounters a gang of disaffected youths led by Goto, comprised of members who lead hardworking respectable lives by day, and seek thrills and violence by night. Among them is the elfin Chisato, a girl whose fascination with violence verges on the morbid, and who seeks increasingly lethal thrills. The gang just see Goda as easy pickings, but Goda’s search for his weapon will intertwine his fate with that of the gang, as he struggles to understand what it is that drives him to seek out violence.

Picture

Bullet Ballet is presented on this single layer Blu-ray at 1.78:1 widescreen at 1080p resolution. If you’ve never seen the film before, you might be forgiven for being a tad disappointed at the results on Blu-ray. Certainly I was hoping for a little more in the way of clarity. It certainly doesn’t challenge the limits of the format, with a film that looks low of resolution, soft and with heavy grain. It’s a little low on detail as well, particularly in darker scenes. But, the image is free of significant print damage and free of dirt, contrast levels are good, and the image is stable throughout. To my eyes the grain seemed digitally processed especially when the film is paused, but the film was fine to watch during playback. Oddly enough, it doesn’t look as good as the original Tetsuo film (also monochrome) did on Blu-ray.

I then put that Artsmagic DVD disc in the player, and what a difference a disc swap makes! It may be encoded progressively, but that Artsmagic print is a whole lot darker, with blacks crushed, and whites affected by significant bloom, the whole print lacking in contrast, with even less detail and a lot more in the way of posterisation, and even the odd interlacing artefact. At times it even looks as of the film was shot on digital video.


The Third Window Films Blu-ray release is a breathtaking improvement over that DVD, and it’s well worth the double dip, as long as you don’t expect the world from the Blu-ray transfer. Incidentally, the images in this review are kindly supplied by Third Window Films, and may not be representative of the final retail release.

Sound

There’s a bit of confusion with the audio on this disc. My player reports the audio track as DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, but rather than displaying a variable bit rate as you would expect, the bit-rate meter is stuck at a constant 1.5Mb per second, indicative of a PCM 2.0 Stereo track. Lossless or uncompressed, the audio is most definitely of high definition, and it’s certainly well suited to this Blu-ray release. The dialogue is clear throughout, and the film’s effective music soundtrack works well with the stereo set-up. That Artsmagic disc may have sported 5.1 audio but it was very stereoscopic 5.1 audio. The Third Windows release has also had a new subtitle track created for it, one which seems to be a closer translation, and one that flows more naturally, and that too is a step up from the previous release.

Extras

It’s here that I do feel a little disappointed by this disc. Bullet Ballet presents its content with an animated menu screen.

In the extras menu you’ll get the original Japanese trailer in 480i resolution.

You’ll also get a 3 minute music video with the Bullet Ballet theme set to scenes from the film, presented in 1080i with the same schizophrenic audio track as the film, but looking of VHS quality throughout.

The Bullet Ballet UK trailer lasts just over 2 minutes and is presented in 1080p.

You also get the Director Shinya Tsukamoto Interview split into three parts and presented in 1080i resolution.


About Bullet Ballet lasts almost 15 minutes, and the director talks about what he was aiming to convey with the film, his influences and he analyses certain scenes and moments from the film.

About Tokyo Fist and Bullet Ballet lasts 3:23 and is repeated from the Tokyo Fist disc, as is the 4:18 General Thoughts segment.

Licensing material from previous releases is a tricky prospect, especially from other companies, and even more so from companies that are no longer extant, but that Artsmagic release had a contemporary interview with Shinya Tsukamoto that was even more in depth than the one here, as it ran to well over half an hour, and it also had a very useful Tom Mes audio commentary, both of which would have been great additions to this release.

Conclusion

Bullet Ballet is certainly unique. It’s brutal, violent and uncompromising, yet paints its characters with sensitivity and honesty. Like all thought provoking cinema, it works on many levels, and repeat viewing certainly rewards. It’s a film about violence, and in the interview on the disc, you can understand why Shinya Tsukamoto took humanity’s predilection for war as a significant theme in the movie. Indeed Bullet Ballet’s examination of the gang culture is indicative of this aspect. However the storyline that resonated with me most was Goda’s personal journey. After the suicide of his girlfriend he becomes obsessed with possessing the weapon that she used. His search for that weapon pulls him deeper into the heart of the Tokyo underworld, embroils him in violence, and sets him on a self-destructive path. It’s an examination of the grieving process that fascinates, as he tries to understand what happened to his girlfriend. In that respect, it’s his ambiguous relationship with Chisato that provides some sort of focus to his actions. Initially seeking vengeance against the gang that has attacked him on more than one occasion, (Chisato has literally left an impression on him), when Goda learns of Chisato’s self destructive nature, he sees a chance to understand why his girlfriend killed herself, and gradually becomes something of a protector.


As the film progresses and Goda becomes more involved in the gang culture, events spiral out of control becoming more brutal and nihilistic. Bullet Ballet sets out to shock, to disturb, and the climax of the film is violent and bloody. Yet the final scene is optimistic and uplifting. Shinya Tsukamoto takes us through a journey into grief and mourning, of despair, apathy and loss, yet proffers us the chance of redemption, of transcendence. It’s ultimately a story of death and rebirth, one told in uncompromising terms.

The performances are excellent. Shinya Tsukamoto also stars as Goda, a man bewildered by his loss, then obsessed with trying to understand it. Kirina Mano is mesmerising as the ephemeral Chisato, always pushing the limit, as if it’s through violence that is the only way that she can experience life. The supporting cast also excel. The photography is astounding, monochrome is the perfect medium for this film and Tsukamoto wields shade and light to brilliant effect. The alleyways and back streets the gang inhabit are claustrophobic and suffocating, the realistic style of filming makes the violence seem ever more brutal, yet it is accomplished more through implication, reaction and the audience imagination, and it is all the more effective for it.


Bullet Ballet is a film that grabs you from the first scene and doesn’t let go. It’s rare for a film to elicit such a variety of reactions, but Bullet Ballet manages to both attract and repel, and it’s a disturbing and moving experience. The characters elicit both sympathy and revulsion; none of them is truly irredeemable, and the world they inhabit has no simple right or wrong, no moral code to adhere to. Yet the stunning final scene left me feeling uplifted and optimistic. The journey that these characters go on is ultimately a worthwhile and meaningful one. Bullet Ballet is amazing, visceral cinema, well worth your time.

It’s probably a consequence of the source material, but Bullet Ballet never looks fantastic on Blu-ray. It is watchable enough though, and a more than worthy upgrade over the old Artsmagic DVD when it comes to the AV quality. However when I double dip on a Blu-ray, I always look to see if I can retire the old DVDs, and in this case that isn’t possible. But if you haven’t discovered this exceptional film from Shinya Tsukamoto, now’s the time!