Imagine, if you will, if West Side Story was set in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, a grunge looking city reminiscent of The FP mixed with the fighting spirit and collective gang organizations of The Warriors. If you’re able to comprehend the first sentence of this review then you might just be ready for Sion Sono’s Tokyo Tribe.
Put frankly, Tokyo Tribe is a Japanese hip hop musical that perpetuates every hip hop and gangster stereotype and mashes them altogether to create a wild and ridiculous film that only the likes of Sion Sono could truly pull off. The film is about various gangs that make up Tokyo, called the Tokyo Tribes, but when Big Buppa (Riki Takeuchi) and Mera (Ryohei Suzuki), the leaders of the Bukuro Wu-Ronz gang, decide to try and conquer all of Tokyo, the various tribes unite to stop them and their new clan, Waru. The real conflict though comes from Mera, a war pig, who uses Nana Seino, a kick-ass chick who hates the Wu-ronz, as a way to lure his target Kim, the leader of the Musashino Saru tribe, who are all about love and peace, into battle.
Tokyo Tribe is a ferocious, imaginative and absolutely insane film that’s best enjoyed with a crowd. Sono clearly was having a ball when he made this film and while it may take some time to digest certain portions of the flick, it’ll no doubt create a lasting impression. Big Buppa, for example, is a womanizing, cannibal that has no regard for other people and jerks off when people are coming in to visit him, and that’s just one of the many crazy things he does as he yells and spits his dialogue.
The film is incredibly chaotic and certainly rough around its edges, but Sono uses an MC, played by Sono regular Shota Sometani, to keep everything together. He’s there to rap us the background info and history about all the different players in Tokyo and where everyone stands. The film also begins with him, sulking around in his hood, giving us the play by play over the course of a 5+minute long take that’s pretty impressive even if it’s all a bit shaky. In fact, Sono utilizes a lot of long shots that really help bring audience members into the scene, getting them to bob their heads as if they were actually at a hip hop show.
The above shakiness leads me to one of my concerns. It is clear Sono had a large budget for this film, something he doesn’t always have, but it would have been nice if he utilized a little of that budget into a Steadicam or some fixed shots. Most of this movie felt handheld oriented, which is fine for aggressive and fight scenes, but it felt busy and unnecessary during slower moments when odd angles weren’t really needed.
My main issue with the film as a non-Japanese speaker is that it’s weird to take the film in via subtitles. It’s hard to appreciate music in another language when you’re reading the perverse lyrics that don’t rhyme in text but do in sound. It’s a constant battle when you want to try and enjoy the hilarious and over-the-top musical numbers but also want to understand what they’re saying. When you read it you may think to yourself this is terrible and funny but when you’re listening it might just be awesome and funny.
There’s a ton of stuff I’m leaving out of this review because I’d rather everyone have the opportunity to enjoy the many surprises the film offers. If you didn’t think it was possible for Sono to top the action flair of Why Don’t you Play in Hell?, you’ll really be in for something special. Tokyo Tribe is certainly not for everyone but if you’re a fan of genre films and especially the work of Sono or Miike, then you have to see this film. I hate musicals but it’s hard to resist the insanity and complete disregard for PC culture in Sono’s latest entertaining endeavor.
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