By Nicholas O’Malley
‘Pistol Opera’
Directed by … Seijun Suzuki
112 mins.
Most people don’t like films that alienate, jar, and toy with them. But I guess I won’t lie. I loved this movie. I like weird films so maybe I’m biased. But as that may be, Pistol Opera’s style can’t be denied. It grabs you by the back of your neck like a lion holding her cub. It’s not MTV, it isn’t Hollywood and it doesn’t even feel all that Asian. What is it? Imagination at its best. This is a ride through the characters minds, feelings, and actions. Some are imaginary, most are real but almost all are represented in minimalist moves like in a Noh play, except that almost every scene contains a burst of color sound and energy.
Number 3 Killer, Stray Cat, is a cocky up-start assassin for the Guild which is (As I can only imagine.) a conglomerate of hit men that keeps the world under control. She dreams of being the big shot, Number 1 Killer but is constantly seduced and belittled by her operator, a mysterious woman who wears a purple veil around her face. Stray Cat is sent on the assignment to kill Hundred Eyes, the Number 1 Killer, who went rouge and has been killing other assassins in the Guild. But no one is really sure who Hundred Eyes is as the higher up killers are more elusive.
What makes this movie interesting is the fact that it is a sequel to ‘Branded to Kill’, the cult film that was so bizarre, it got director Suzuki fired from Nikkatsu Studios. Goro Handa, the original Number 3 Killer (Originally played by Jo Shishido. Now played by Mikijiro Hira) reappears as Number 0 and is off and on a mentor and romantic interest of Stray Cat.
Surprisingly, Pistol Opera contains a variety of strong performances mostly given in soliloquies. My favorite is the one spoken by the servant of Stray Cat. She talks about a dream where a goldfish as big as a whale rotted to death and how the town people had to live so close to it. The servant in her dream though, didn’t mind living by death. It’s a perfect motto for an assassin and a very involving scene, one that makes me want to make sure I read the writing credits correctly when it said Kazunori Ito (Writer of the Gamera trilogy, Ghost in the Shell, and Avalon.).
This also goes back to my theory of Noh plays. A lot of this film relies on restrained movement and action. In a Noh play a few steps could equal as much as a hundred miles. You have to use your imagination to travel with those scenes. Of course the movie is wild, inventive and frenetic when it has to be. Especially for it’s bizarre shoot-outs and the big finale in the horror museum that looks like an Edogawa Rampo nightmare. Also I found like in Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter that most of the representational action is often similar to something I have seen in anime. It is very unique to find the influences of anime through Japanese live action cinema. Hopefully the boom of new exploitive films aren't the end all reason to become interested in them.
People may not find this film wholly weird but kind of funny. The audience I saw it with definitely got a kick out of it (Even I didn’t take it all that seriously.) But I do highly recommend Pistol Opera for being a lush and radiant example of pure cinema.
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