Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013)

Directed by: Shion Sono
Country: Japan

Movie Review: Presented as the Japanese “Kill Bill”, “Why Don’t You Play in Hell?” is a virulent action film and slapstick comedy, written and directed by Shion Sono, which works as a sort of incendiary homage to cinema. The inventive yet sometimes exhausting plot centers on Hirata, a young filmmaker whose dream is to direct a masterpiece for the sake of art, not money. He and his crew will find the perfect character, Sasaki, a quarrelsome young man who keeps fighting in the streets. The goal is to turn him into the new Bruce Lee from Japan. In the other side, authoritarian yakuza boss, Muto, and his vengeful wife, are capable of everything to turn their daughter Mitsuko into a successful actress after her first TV ad for a toothpaste brand has became noticeable ten years ago. At the same time, Muto will fight his fierce rival, Ikegami, who also developed an uncontrollable obsession for Mitsuko. Shot in an unstoppable rhythm and creating unrestrained scenarios, this samurai-yakuza extravaganza doesn’t dispense violent blood baths and a keen humor that keeps us watching it. The issue isn’t the madness conveyed or even the electrifying hysteria of some characters; it’s more the mess, sequentially created by overdone scenes that form a mix of poetic, crazy, and grotesque parody, not always gratifying or endurable. Unlike the ambitious Hirata, I didn’t feel any blessing by the ‘Movie God’ here, but in turn, we can witness Sono’s rebel attitude and creative screenwriting.