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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Absolutely Fantastic

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is my third film from this director, following the two TETSUO efforts; he seems to have quite a following, but I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen so far – on the contrary, the combination of flashy style and intense approach resulted not only in being off-putting but, for this viewer, it provoked boredom more than anything else! Anyway, while in those two earlier films, the visceral tone and unrelenting bleakness could perhaps be excused given their sci-fi/body-horror plot lines, these come off as mere hollow gestures in the juvenile delinquent milieu depicted here! The plot, if so it can be called, concerns a middle-aged man (played by the director himself!) who, in trying to come to terms with his fiancée’s baffling suicide, frantically tries to obtain a similar weapon (presumably in order to join her in the afterlife). However, during his nightly rounds of the city’s back streets, he runs into a gang of small-time (read: low-life) thugs who rough him up – so, he then finds a new purpose for his gun! Still, through his ambivalent relationship with a sluttish and tomboyish girl in the group, he’s drawn into open warfare between clans – and even intercedes for them when a hit-man turns up to exterminate them at their hide-out! While such a narrative could have spelt considerable visual excitement and even thematic depth, the grungy feel of it all (the ugly black-and-white cinematography of an industrial wasteland setting – which can now be seen as typical Tsukamoto - rapid cutting, noisy soundtrack) plus the obnoxious characters prevents audience engagement for practically the entire duration (not that the ostensible bond between the hero and the girl is handled satisfactorily, or in any way comprehensively): mercifully, the thing lasts for just a little over 80 minutes! Finally, I have to say that, while I’m generally a devoted fan of Japanese cinema, there are certain elements inherent in the Oriental outlook (usually having to do with nihilistic violence and/or mundane melodrama), which I haven’t been able to get into, no matter how hard I try…

Tsukamoto's "experimental entertainment" vacillates wildly between kinetic, pulse-pounding powerhouses (TETSUO, TETSUO II: THE BODY HAMMER, TOKYO FIST) and sometimes plodding- if not downright sleep-inducing- cinema (GEMINI, A SNAKE OF JUNE, VITAL). BULLET BALLET falls somewhere between these two extremes. There are too few of the patented strobing, kaleidoscopic sequences that have made Tsukamoto such a dynamic director for this to be considered one of his best; still, the scene where he brands himself with a hot iron before pistol-whipping himself into a killing frenzy is the kind of semi-sensual cinematic savagery that he does best and it singlehandedly saves this one.

Hi everyone. I am huge fan of Japanese cinema. I have already watched movies form Takeshi Kitano, Shinya Tsukamoto, Toshiaki Toyoda and Yôji Yamada. Also I very like Roman Polanski works (Rosemary's baby, Tenant), Chan-Wook Park (Mr. vengeance, Oldboy...), Kim Ki-Duk (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring ...) Can somebody recommend me more movies like Bullet Ballet, movies than contain exploration of human nature, especially their dark side. It isn't necessary that it is Japanese movie, or what is the movies age. All it matters is, that is contains such themes.Thanks for help.

There's a feeling you get after watching "Bullet Ballet", and it's like the story is kind of incomplete. There's a lack of something, maybe a little information about the characters and their lives. That's a big burden and it doesn't matter how attractive is the look of the film with all those nebulous textures, it does not matter if Tsukamoto probes that he knows how to use the camera (although sometimes everything looks a little bit dizzy), 'cause if you don't have a story or a script, you got nothing.It's a short movie and still you feel like it will never end. That's what it happens when you don't have a clue about what's going on in the screen (shoots, gangs, suicide... ???).*My rate: 4/10