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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A lot of fun.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Blood and Bones is a violent epic story whose hero is a Zainichi Korean which is the name of the ethnic Koreans settled in Japan, many of them during the first half of the 20th century when Korea was under Japanese rule. Director Yoichi Sai's father was a Zainichi Korean, so the social medium must be well known to him. His ambitious project describes the tough life of the community through the story of the life of Joon-pyong Kim who comes as a young and hopeful immigrant before WWII to get enrolled in the Japanese army, and at the return to embark in a life of crime, violence and family abuse which sees his ascension to and decay, while confining most of the action in the space of the same street in the Korean immigrants district.The ambition of the project and the breath of the epic brought me to mind the parallel to 'The Godfather'. The combination between a family saga and the crime environment may be the same, but there is one crucial difference between Sai's and Coppola's films - while both characters are similarly despicable in crime, the attitudes to their families are radically different. For Coppola's characters family values are at the highest possible level, while Sai's character (magistrally acted by Takeshi Kitano) is a violent tyrant, causing suffering to everybody he gets in touch with, harming them physically and psychically and destroying their lives. It is almost the most perfect study in evil I have seen since Hannibal Lecter, just missing his wit and sophistication.There is a lot to appreciate in this film, starting with Kitano's performance and that of the rest of the team, passing through the fluent story telling, and ending with the refined cinematography which uses basically the same set for the duration of the action (which spreads on many decades) marking the passing of time with small changes in colors or accessories. It is not easy to follow if you do not absorb easily violence on screen, but otherwise it is a good story and a credible piece of history of Japan and its reflection in cinema whose details I at least have become aware about only now.

I'd watch Blood and Bones for one reason, and that's for 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano. Local audiences will probably remember him in recent roles from Battle Royale, Brother, and Zatoichi. Here, he plays Jyombion Kim, one of the early pioneer Koreans who emigrated to Japan.From the start, the narration tells us the story of this one man and his life, from a teenager, until his deathbed. And he's a violent man at that, always with a drink in hand, which brings out the worst in him. If he wants to copulate, he makes sure he does. If he wants to whack the living daylights out of a person, or family member, he does too. He's Mr Domestic Violence personified, with cruel beatings to get his way. From opening a fishcake business, to loan-sharking, his aloof, and philandering ways created his extended dysfunctional family, their trials and tribulations. He is an independent, wandering soul, and will probably provide for an interesting character study.Besides the nice cinematography, the beautiful soundtrack is probably what made it easy to go through this excruciating slow paced movie. If you're not careful, you might nod off at time. The material might be uncomfortable for some; though there was violence, there isn't much gore.Weaved throughout the show at various points, is the look into the treatment of these Korean immigrants in Japan, the discrimination and difficulties faced in living in another's homogeneous society. There are many characters in the movie - sons, daughters, in-laws, half-siblings, wives, mistresses, that you'll probably be able to create a neat family tree if you link all of them on paper. But don't expect too much story on the ensemble of characters, most of them get their focus at various points, then are quietly dispatched to the background.It's an awfully sad tale, nothing in it that will make you cheer. But there is something to cheer about the movie though, and that it is shown here uncut and unedited. Meaning you get to see it as it was intended, including male genitalia.

I was really keen on seeing this film and now that i have i'm totally disappointed. The director of this movie is so ambitious to give the viewer a movie of epic proportions that he has just forgotten to put a story into it. Kitano does his best to give his two-dimensional role of the rapist/husband some depths, the other actors are all very good and the cinematography has the charm of photographs of the past but there is no possibility to actually care for any of the characters. The movie is such a bric-a-braque that you won't even learn anything at all about it's narrator, Kitanos son Masao. I have no problem with movies this violent but when you don't suppose to feel anything for the victims it is a waste of time, and for 144 Min. a very long one. In my eyes Yoichi Sai is a bad director because he hasn't put his heart into something that could have been a fascinating movie.

Apparently this movie set out to make its viewers feel bad, and it certainly worked for me. This is one of the dullest scripts I have seen turned into movie lately. Having read sk4ek's comment on this, maybe it would be fair to add that it was made from a novel, and I watched the subtitled version (and I don't understand Japanese), so it seems I probably didn't get a lot of what made the novel good. Anyway, the script is all about what a gargantuan a**hole Kitano's character is, but whatever else happens just doesn't add much to the story. Just imagine the worst things a father could possibly do to his family, sequence them on a timeline, and you have the plot of this movie. But there simply is no character evolvement, no turning point, nothing that gives an interesting twist to things, they only keep getting worse.***mild spoiler below***Once I thought the story was going to take off, when another illegitimate son of A**hole Father moved in with the family, finally someone who had the potential to give a swerve to the plot line. After being defeated in a fistfight, he tells the boy who narrates the whole story to study hard, walks away and gets shot ten days later off screen. Segue boring story continued. The cinematography is alright, but not outstanding, and not enough to save this movie.