A loser Japanese salaryman becomes obsessed with firearms after his girlfriend shoots herself, and he ends up involved in a gang of speed freak street punks. This is a pretty challenging movie; it's black & white and shot on handheld cameras making the violence extremely chaotic, the story is very unconventional and the meaning of what happens is somewhat elusive. Shinya Tsukamoto's films are never boring though, if you can stomach the frantic video collages it's pretty enthralling stuff.

Not one of his best, but this character piece, despite the huge issues with its length, is still a good example of how underrated Shinya Tsukamoto is as a director, able to meld extreme violence and his trademark abrasive editing style with a sympathetic interest in issues about death and obsession. Tokyo Fist was the film where these two sides first met but this, with its vivid black and white cinematography, links it with his later work.

There was a frustrating amount of emphasis on how much of a loser the main character was, but I guess that in a way was a good way to give the film meaning. I wasn't too happy about propagating a message of irreparable failure but it was something different at least. Definitely something for people who hate always seeing the main character triumph over adversity in typical epic and glorious fashion.