As we continue to storm on and transition from the NYAFF to Japan Cuts, there are still a few titles which are co-presented by both festivals, one of which is Sion Sono’s crazy love letter to filmmaking and the movies titled Why Don’t You Play in Hell?
Trying to coherently explain Why don’t You Play in Hell? is rather futile but the basic plot points are this, a group of four passionate and wild filmmakers dubbed the Fuck Bombers are trying to direct a masterpiece while two feuding Yakuza gangs, the Kitagawa and Muto clans, are bracing for all-out war. The thing is, one of the gang leaders is obsessed with the other leader’s daughter, Mitsuko, the star of a toothpaste ad 10 years prior. He is on a mission to find and keep her while her father tries to groom her into an actress so that he can show his wife a movie starring their daughter when she’s released from prison. Things get a little hectic and soon the clans decide to shoot the epic final showdown on film, cue the eager Fuck Bombers and a climax that you’ll never forget.
Though simplified I still find the above synopsis a shotgun blast of an explanation. Sion Sono’s latest films isn’t something to be taken seriously, it’s an over-the-top, outrageous and absolutely hilarious film that’s mashes up a variety of genres, like martial arts and the yakuza genres, and then adds in gallons of blood on top of excellent running jokes and slapstick humor.
What’s awesome about the movie is that it stars some very familiar faces in comedic versions of past serious roles that they’ve had. Guys like Tak Sakaguchi, Kunimura Jun, and Tsutsumi Shinichi are having so much fun on screen that it becomes so obvious as to why they decided to say yes to this film in the first place. I mean, Tak’s character is the action star of the Fuck Bombers and his main job is to play the Japanese Bruce Lee, yellow jumpsuit and all. He does a kick-ass job and embraces the absurdity to no end.
Sono’s film isn’t exactly the most coherent piece of cinema but thankfully this isn’t a film you need to try and understand, instead this is a film that you take as is, no substitutions, no wishing for things to change, it’s an all-or-nothing flick that delivers everything you’ve both never and always hoped for in a movie about loving 35mm movies.
While R100 may be one of the most ridiculous films I’ve seen this year, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? may be one of the funniest that I’ve seen, and I’ve seen it twice and laughed just as hard both times. The film is chock full of surprises and lunacy that makes it a pure joy to watch. Lastly, it has one of the most epic climactic battles I have ever seen on a big screen, a grandiose fight filled with buckets of blood splatter and a ton of insane humor that makes you glad to be alive in an age where there are still rebellious filmmakers willing to do whatever the hell they want.
Rating: An outlandish and hilarious ode to filmmaking and a giant middle finger to the conformists in the film industry (9/10)
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