Tokyo Fist

Here Tsukamoto comes of cinematic age. Like his other films, the characters are naturally unattuned with their bodies, and through their insecurities become overwhelmed with their and each other's flesh (the end is the equivalent of a sadomasochistic circle-jerk). But this film has deeper subtext: the love triangle element allows for an exploration into the possessive nature of sex in/and relationships, what it takes to liberate the body, and thus a bit of underlying feminism.

Typical Tsukamoto themes of transformation/body horror and the sensation of being trapped by the city and corporate world. Visually inspired and very bloody.

Fetishistic equation of violence with sex, awakening, liberation. As Tsukamoto does: highly stylized, highly gruesome, very unorthodox, very cool. In the beginning it feigns a male power fantasy. The Hizuru character quickly dispels that notion, being the biggest and freakiest badass in the whole film, and having these men eating from the palm of her mutilated flesh.

Tokyo Fist seems to lack the homoerotic steaminess that was found in Body Hammer. It's a shame, because it would have "fleshed" out the relationship between the two men in a way that seems hinted at but never quite takes shape. The intensity and visceral effect of exploding streams of blood and spit does make quite an effect, though.

Extremely appreciative of its distinctly Japanese body horror and themes of social alienation. Not so much appreciating the later bits that try to develop some kind of coherent narrative around this madness.

Tsukamoto continues to explore themes of violent struggle against one's own body, but for as comically graphic as this is, it's a damn sight more restrained than the somewhat empty and dissatisfying "Tetsuo". While not terribly compelling, there are actual attempts at characterization and narrative here as well.

That this is one of the most brutal boxing movies in existence shouldn't come as a surprise considering Japanese cinema's penchant for comic-book violence (and its real-life boxing world's fatality rate). Nor should one training montage, being the genre's mandatory cliche. What's special here is that the whole fucking film is a montage. The confusing plot isn't even an issue - Tsukamoto is all about crazy creative style: Batshit camera placement, fidgety non-linear editing, and so on.

Weird for the sake of weird. I only tried this because I loved Tetsuo