Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Bullet Ballet Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 16, 2014

Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s "Bullet Ballet" (1998) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers for the film; new video interview with the Japanese director; and a music clip. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Bite hard!

The dull but secure world of a middle-aged man named Goda (played by director Shinya Tsukamoto) collapses with a bang when he discovers that his girlfriend has committed suicide. Completely overwhelmed by the tragedy, the man nearly loses his mind.

Eventually, Goda recovers and begins looking for the man that supplied the gun that killed his girlfriend. After a few casual encounters with scammers, drug dealers and pimps, Goda lands right in the middle of a gang war where kids and men die like flies. He frequently asks the wrong questions with the wrong attitude, but somehow manages to stay alive.

A beautiful but unpredictable girl named Chisato (former model Kirina Mano, Peter Greenaway's 8½ Women, Kazuo Kuroki's Pickpocket) warms up to Goda when he accidentally saves her life. After spending some time together without talking much, the two sense that they are equally fascinated with death. The 'connection' then evolves into a bizarre friendship. Meanwhile, as the gang war intensifies a deadly assassin emerges from the shadows.

Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s Bullet Ballet is a wild, fast and at times quite perplexing film that has to be seen multiple times to be fully appreciated. Indeed, more often than not it feels like it is heading in different directions at the same time.

A portion of Bullet Ballet could have been extracted from a stylish neo-noir picture about crazy gangsters going after each other on the dangerous streets of an unnamed Asian metropolis. But the rest of the film moves so fast that the moody atmosphere such a picture would require never becomes a reality. Indeed, the more often than not the camera is so nervous that by the time the end credits roll one begins to wonder whether the man holding it might have taken some very strong drugs.

There is also a whiff of that metal fetish that is so prominent in Tetsuo: The Iron Man, but the focus of attention is undoubtedly on Goda’s bizarre journey rather than on his secret obsessions. There are only a couple of sequences where he plays with a small gun and imagines things that reveal Shinya Tsukamoto’s love for cold metal.

The final act brings order out of the chaos in a rather surprising fashion. There is a political message there that targets apathy and the apparently massive gap between the passive/the conformists and the aggressive/the problematic youth in Japan. It all makes sense, but Shinya Tsukamoto’s films are most effective when they leave all the brain work to the viewer.

Bullet Ballet has a very unique look. Throughout the film light is frequently either overexposed or underexposed. Contrast also fluctuates as the action moves from one location to another. Because the film was shot on 16mm, definition also varies. Some additional work also appears to have been done to further enhance the prominent silver look.

Composer and solo artist Chu Ishikawa created the film’s powerful industrial soundtrack. He also scored Shinya Tsukamoto classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, Tokyo Fist, and the beautiful A Snake of June.

Bullet Ballet Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Shinya Tsukamoto's Bullet Ballet arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Third Window Films.

Using a brand new high-definition transfer supervised by the Japanese director, Bullet Ballet looks very good on Blu-ray. The film, which was shot on 16mm, has a unique stylized look that could be somewhat misleading at times because definition and contrast levels fluctuate, but the basics we typically address in our reviews are solid. Indeed, during extreme close-ups and during the darker footage where contrast frequently fluctuates there are no traces of problematic digital corrections. There are select parts of the film that look softer than other parts, but the integrity of the film is not compromised. In other words, these fluctuations are clearly part of the film's visual design. Additionally, there are no compression and encoding anomalies to report in this review. When blown through a digital projector, the image remains tight around the edges and where intended looks pleasingly vibrant. Also, there are no large debris, cuts, warps, or stains. All in all, this is a competent presentation of Bullet Ballet that is guaranteed to please its fans. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked' Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Bullet Ballet Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Third Window Films have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The lossless track opens up the film very well in all the right places. Chu Ishikawa's industrial soundtrack benefits the most from the lossless treatment, but the shootouts also sound great. Elsewhere dynamic intensity is rather limited, but such is the film's sound design (random sounds and street noises are quite prominent). The dialog is stable, clean, and easy to follow. Also, there are no pops, distortions, or audio dropouts to report in this review. The English translation is excellent.

Bullet Ballet Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original Japanese trailer for Bullet Ballet. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (1 min).

• Music Video - Bullet Ballet music clip with the main theme from Chu Ishikawa's industrial soundtrack. (4 min).

• UK Trailer - original UK trailer for Bullet Ballet. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles. (3 min).

• Interview - in this long and excellent video interview, Shinya Tsukamoto discusses the unique qualities of Tokyo Fist and Bullet Ballet as well as some of the unique themes in the two films. In the last portion of the interview, the Japanese director also talks about his passion for 35mm film and explains why some of his films were shot on 16mm, and discusses the recent restorations of his early films. Please be aware that there are some general observations about Bullet Ballet that contain spoilers. The interview is broken into three sections:
  
  1. About Bullet Ballet (15 min).
  2. About Bullet Ballet & Tokyo Fist (4 min).
  3. General Thoughts (5 min).

Bullet Ballet Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I hope that the recent Blu-ray releases of Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man / Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, Tokyo Fist and now Bullet Ballet will also inspire a new restoration of the Japanese director's beautiful A Snake of June. Third Window Films' presentations of the above mentioned films have been fantastic and I am confident that if it transitions to Blu-ray A Snake of June would look just as impressive. Hopefully this transition will happen sooner rather than later. In the meantime, if you are a fan of Shinya Tsukamoto's work do not miss Third Window Films' releases. They are terrific. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.