Boiling Point ()

Takeshi Kitano, Japan 1990, 96 minutes

It's very difficult to categorise the work of Takeshi "Beat" Kitano. Ostensibly ploughing the same furrow with all his films. Boiling Point comes between the starkness of Violent Cop and the bittersweet humour of Sonatine, both chronologically and thematically. Each reveals more than we, the viewer, expect and confounds us once more.

Unlike the more single-minded tendencies of other directors, Takeshi reveals his background as a stand-up comedian in never being one to play safe. His first major performance involved him cracking a joke about shit on a restrained daytime show. It was a while before he was allowed on air again.

From his first film as a director (Violent Cop) Takeshi has repeatedly returned to the world of the Japanese underground, the world of the yakuza. Strangely enough this has not got him into trouble with the gangsters, instead he has become something of a cult hero for them.

Two members of a junior baseball team get mixed up with the local yakuza. However, when their coach is brutally injured by the hoods, they set off to the city to purchase a gun with which to achieve the revenge they seek. While in the city they get in even deeper after meeting psychotic yakusa outcast, Uehara (played by the film's writer/director) who is plotting something of his own.

Takeshi continues to take risks in his filmaking, though recently sidelined by a near-fatal crash on his new motorcycle. He has only just returned to directing with the eclectic Kids Return. Let us hope that it also marks the return of Takeshi, a truly outstanding director.

Review by Neil Chue Hong
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98