Movies
A high-energy comedy with strong musical and theatrical influences. It's very different from the other Okamoto films I've seen so far, it also made me realize I haven't seen too many overt classic Japanese comedies yet. Clearly I've been missing out, as this is way better than his more serious efforts. The plot isn't too exciting, Okamoto's directorial interventions are. The way he plays with different styles and influences, alternates between different forms of comedy and keeps on reinventing his own film is simply wonderful. I didn't really care for the bland black and white cinematography, Yûnosuke Itô is a bit much and not everything works equally well, but Oh Bomb is definitely worth seeking out if you love a director who dares to take a risk.Read all
I'm not a big fan of chanbara (samurai films), which is somewhat required to get the most out of Kill!. It isn't entirely straight-faced and toys with genre conventions, but that's difficult to appreciate when you don't care much for the genre. Okamoto based Kill! on the same material as Kurosawa's Sanjuro, a film I've seen but hardly remember anything about. Kill! is just a smidgen over-the-top, which doesn't read as very funny when you're not too versed in rules of the genre. I mostly saw a very familiar setup with the usual elements I dislike about chanbara cinema. Crude characters, uninteresting drama and poor action scenes. Maybe I'll revisit it once I've seen more core genre efforts, but for now this was a big disappointment.Read all