i stumbled across this movie while researching ryuhei matsuda, who played ren (meaning lotus) in the first nana movie.
ryuhei-sama plays one of the leads in this takashi miike film. for those who are unfamiliar, takashi-sama is responsible for many japanese cult films like ishi the killer and audition.i read a lot of reviews about the movie before i saw it, and most reviews (from westerners) said it was confusing and left a lot to imagination. it was a pretty short film, and after seeing it, it felt a lot shorter as the story became clear to me. it was as tragic as it was normal as it was surreal.a lot of the central ideas were dealt with indirectly but they werent difficult to identify. i can say that this was a very emotional story, with surreal treatment from a male point of view.
in japanese, the movie is entitled 46億年の恋 (46 okunen no koi), or 4.6 billion year love.
Some interesting scenes from the movie (image from tumblr).
-a hole in the wall becomes a beam of light that pierces ariyoshi jun throught the heart
-he is taken aback and finds his hand on top of kazuki's
-a mayan temple in the fields of the penitentiary
-ariyoshi's hand wipes away kazuki's tears
-kazuki however strikes ariyoshi down
-a rocket ship just beyond the penitentiary fence
-horizontal spiral steps that inmates take to get to the fields
-ariyoshi comforting kazuki
***SPOILER ALERT***
There were a lot of memorable scenes in the movie, including the opening dance of an almost completely tattooed guy; next is the recurring butterfly that at one point alighted on ariyoshi's head; then you have the ever slanted warden's room - either the wall or the desk or the floor is at an angle to the other - a contrast to the wardens pale face; there is the laundry area where ariyoshi is assigned to and gets a lot of talk time with other inmates; the mayan temple represented heaven where there is peace but other people, and the rocket ship brings you to space where there are no other people.
what i think happened is that, since it was a question if kazuki was having sexual escapades with anyone, and the almost killer was in jail for killing his unfaithful wife - and he was told by another inmate that he and kazuki had done it - is that he treated kazuki the way he treated his wife, and tried to kill him. that is aside from the statement he gave that he tried to kill kazuki - which he thought he could never achieve - so as to do a kind of suicide by provoking someone who can kill you, and gaining atonement for killing his wife. kazuki may have had sexual acts with this guy.
ariyoshi definitely liked kazuki as he saw in him the dancing guy at the start of the film, thats why he sees kazuki having the same tattoos, though there are none. they probably didnt have sex, based on what ariyoshi said that even the act of killing him, kazuki wouldn't give him the chance to.
when the beam of light seeped through the wall, and pierced ariyoshi, and made blood stream down his clothes, it made me see how much emotional burden ariyoshi had. he didnt seem to be the outgoing type of gay man. and the image of the butterfly being electrocuted at the end i see as ariyoshi killing himself after it was proven that he did not kill kazuki, mimicking the act of another inmate who got toasted trying to escape.
i'm really glad i got to see this film, as i can relate to it a lot, i guess i could write a more in depth review, but here's what i have for now. i'll probably watch it a couple more times.
kazuki has been in jail many times, ariyoshi jailed for the first time
ariyoshi assumed the killer's position and continued to choke kazuki even if he was already dead. kazuki actually was the one who killed himself by making the killer strangle him.
kazuki showed the same traits - seen by tattoos showing on him - like the man ariyoshi wanted to be like
--- all pictures from the net ---
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