City of lost Souls (2000)

Production: Daiei
Color / Length: Color, 103 minutes
Director: Takashi Miike
Actors: Teah, Michelle Reis, Patricia Manterola, Ren Osugi

This one is among Miike’s more accessible films, though not exactly his best. Anyway, it is a rather enjoyable trip to the land of crime melodrama in its extreme.

Miike starts with a slow, Western-like prologue, which explodes into a gunfight and thus introduces the main character, a tough Brazilian named Mario (Teah). A man, who is good with weapons and shows no mercy with his enemies.

Then we are introduced to the main story in breathtaking speed as Mario practically jumps from a toilet seat (which has a sub machine gun concealed it) to a helicopter, then attacks a prisoner bus with people to be deported from Japan; his beloved Chinese beauty Kei (Michelle Reis) among them. Soon after the reunited lovers soar to the clouds using the helicopter again and the whole episode ends with them literally falling from the skies and landing (of course) unharmed.

But there’s no slowing down as Mario and Kei start to deal with many problems represented by the shadiest types, Tokyo, according to the film, is full of. Deportation is just one of the difficulties the lovers have to face. More dangerous to their health are: Fushimi (Koji Kikkawa), a young Yakuza struggling for power, Ko (Mitsuhiro Oikawa), a Triad leader hungry for control and enlarging his territories, last but not least is Lucia (Patricia Manterola), Mario’s ex who hasn’t forgotten that he dumped her for Kei. In addition to the main characters, there are some interesting side-characters like the sneaky Russian Kholodoski (Anatoli Krasnov) or the wise cracking Tokyo cops, who prefer to watch the going-ons instead of participating or even stopping them. In a chain reaction of relentless bloodshed most of the stories characters are killed within a short time. Ko is killed by Fushimi, Fushimi in turn dies in a gunfight with Mario. But there’s no happy end waiting at the end of the day for Mario and Kei, if there is something even more dangerous than the Yakuza or the Triads, than it is a jealous woman.

“The city of lost souls” is easy to watch. It moves in a fast pace, the action sequences are quite professionally staged (the gunfights have many references to classic Westerns, especially the one between Mario and Fushimi) and even Miike’s trademark eccentrities don’t seem irrelevant to the story.

The already famous cockfights filmed in Matrix-like manner spring to mind or the announcer from the Brazilian radio network in Tokyo who comments the confrontation like a football match (that’s soccer for non-euopeans).

But they’re only superficial highlights that are quickly forgotten. It seems Miike wanted to play with all kinds of stereotypes and clichés – genre, nationality, you name it. But because of stereotypes being what they are everything seems predictable and not very original, no matter how hard Miike tries. Mostly he succeeds in creating an atmosphere of Tokyo as a melting pot of more mixed races and more craziness than every city you’ve heard of, but he fails in creating anything more than a mood.

The characters are too familiar: greedy and ruthless young gangsters, passionate lovers ready to die for their love, jealous and crazy ex-girlfriends and shrewd cops. Maybe some irony would’ve helped (for once) but the actors play it straight through out the movie. Patricia Manterola does try to create something different with her role, but ultimately she fails as well. The overall result is a superficial load of stereotypes played expertly, while it could’ve been an ironic masterpiece.

“City” is a movie with national stereotypes galore. I wont comment on those connected with Chinese (like, of course, Ko meets Fushimi for the showdown behind a ping pong table), more on those familiar to westerners (nurtured on popular American films or Brazilian soap operas). We have once again a vodka guzzling, sneaky Russian with a surname no Slavic person would be able to pronounce (even for an unpatriotic Russian like yours truly it’s not funny anymore). But things are even worth with the Brazilians. What we all know about Brazilians is: Men play football and do “capoeira” stuff, women are always stunning beauties and dead jealous. Whatever Miike wanted to do with those stereotypes, it didn’t work and they are just repetitions of characters we’ve already seen a thousand times.

I guess Brazil would have to be beaten by some European squad in the world cup finals several times, before Brazilians will be associated with something else. But I guess it will stick to them forever, like Vodka drinking will always be a cliché stamped on every Russian male.

Secondly… According to many films and series the plight of Brazilian women is really hard. In so many films they spend most of the time doing life important activities like looking great and wearing as less clothes as possible only to find out, that their men are either hitting the ball (instead of working) or hitting on foreign girls (instead of “eating” at home). Seems they have the moral rights to show those guys what the wrong side of a gun is made for. The stereotyped that’s put on brazilian women is the hardest one to believe. Seriously, if I were in a company of a lady with the looks of Patricia Manterola, I’d be too busy to think of somebody else. But I’m not Brazilian, and we are talking about films, not real life. So, I have to stick to vodka and before downing my first glass I won’t forget to give this movie 3 Kitanos.

Guest Reviewer: Ivan Denisov

3 Kitanos