Tokyo Psycho — dvd movie review
I first noticed Tokyo Psycho at Asia Star in San Francisco. The cover immediately caught my eye (see left), and seemed to promise something far more disturbing than anything I’d seen in quite some time Shortly thereafter I saw the Panik House release at Amoeba, complete with amazing jigsaw puzzle of the cover graphic, and a back cover description praising the film as “a haunting, visceral take on the stalker film that matches the exquisite minimalism of Stanley Kubrik.” Well, this week I finally picked it up.
First and foremost, I must say, minimalist is not the same as cheap. Minimalism involves a concerted effort toward creating a visually striking composition using the bare minimum elements. That means purposefully sparse and beautiful. The only thing minimalist about Tokyo Psycho, however, is the time, effort, and money spent on the production. Now I know New Wave Cinema is about a bare bones, almost chaotic approach to filmmaking, but Tokyo Psycho is the kind of film that you and some of your buds could make on two thousand dollars and a handful of favors, shooting with a consumer grade DV camera in a couple of friends’ apartments, off 2/3 of a script recovered from a film school dumpster. And, after all was said and done, you’d still have money left over to buy a dozen better films on DVD.
Based on the exploits of two famous Japanese killers, Tokyo Psycho concerns Yumiko Oosawa, a young woman plagued by a secret admirer, one who sends threatening letters, complete with scary pictures and message stating “I know you were born to marry me”. Slowly Yumiko learns that these letters may be coming from a creepy boy from her past — a boy who was thrown into a mental facility for committing patricide. Yumiko decides to fight fire with fire, and find out exactly where the letters are coming from. But, as she grows closer to the source the killer closes in, and her friends start disappearing.
At first glance it sounds great. In fact, it sounds like something that would be a surefire suspense hit. But the reality is the plot meanders so much throughout its amazingly short 79 minute runtime that it quickly becomes tiresome. So many plot elements are introduced, only to be immediately forgotten. Take the psycho’s appearance at the start of the film, clad in drag, running down the hall while laughing manically, sporting a medical bandage over his eye, a bad lipstick job, and a red umbrella. Is it merely a disguise, or a lifestyle choice? The audience never knows as it never factors into the story again. It’s just there to look “crazy.” Or take the scene with the young child and the abusive mother shortly thereafter. It too has no effect on the story, though the two do make another short appearance toward the end of the film. Rather, it’s there as a momentary lapse into uncomfortable territory that somehow the rest of the film couldn’t attain. Given the film’s serial killer storyline, this is pretty sad. The script does work with a minimal number of characters (4 to 5 core players, tops), and I did enjoy the scenes with Yumiko’s somewhat lecherous boss.
Lead actress Sachiko Kokubu is a rather popular pop idol in Japan, though not that great an actress. Her performance in Tokyo Psycho is decidedly underwhelming, her ability to emote limited to various pouts and assorted looks of concern and surprise. This lack of skill allowed my mind to wander, thinking about things I probably wouldn’t have time to, were the performance better. For example, I found myself pondering the complexities of her face. She has quite the interesting face I might add. It’s not beautiful, but it’s certainly not ugly either. Rather it’s a face that seems to have been stretched widthwise at the temples, in an effort to make her large eyes all the larger, though this attempt seems to have been made with gross disregard to any sort of alien-bubblehead effect it may have on the shape of her cranium. I found myself staring at the dots on her nose and wondering why she doesn’t powder it a bit. Later I became disgusted with the overall ineptitude of her character and ceased caring even about her face.
Similarly, Masashi Taniguchi’s performance as Osamu Tomiya, the Tokyo Psycho of the title, is limited to a cadre of wild looks and loud screams to show exactly how crazy he is. In fact, in the second half of his performance is all screams. And worms – very unusual looking worms at that. This approach toward terror was previously employed by Kim Henkel to ill effect in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, with Matthew McConaughey yelling until hoarse, and it doesn’t work here either. If anything, it is commendable director Ataru Oikawa chose a rather normal looking guy as the serial killer (Kris is still waiting to see a genuinely handsome serial killer in the movies), but Taniguchi’s execution is far more annoying than scary.
The overall cheapness mentioned above also extends to the overall look and feel of the film, from production and effects design to its DV cinematography. The threatening letters are made of crumpled, brown and red construction paper threaded with piano wire. The skinned face effect in the later part of the film is pulled off with one of those 50 cent white masks from the local Halloween store covered in red jelly and macramé. DV camerawork is typical of V Cinema, however that of this film seems a cut below the norm. One should keep in mind that V Cinema for the most part is of a far higher quality than our American direct to video releases, but Tokyo Psycho proves there are exceptions to that rule. Director Ataru Oikawa, of Tomie “fame”, seems to have pinched pennies even when it came to filmmaking staples such as tripods. The shaky motion and lapses into lazy framing lead me to believe Oikawa hired a tall intern to hold the camera for all high angle, tracking, pov and motion shots. Sure, handheld camera work is a staple of many international New Wave movements, but the DV format lends itself to more Dogme 95 fare than pure new wave. It can certainly be none well, (See Von Trier’s The Idiots) but for this film it doesn’t quite work. The trailer for the film does speak of a theatrical release, although in light of the above criticisms I can’t see it having been that long of a run.
There are some things to say in the film’s defense. There are a few sequences here and there where the genuinely does work, albeit momentarily. I did enjoy the scenes at the high school reunion (whose pov shots reminded me of Tenebre) and the detective agency. The macabre piano wire-sculpture décor of the killer’s apartment, combined with the assortment of strange audio queues did give off a convincingly creepy vibe. Heck, the film’s far better than quite a bit of the films I’ve forced myself to watch this year (see: When a Stranger Calls (2006)). It’s just that there are a million other, better films on the subject of serial killers with which to spend an hour and a half.
The Disc
Believe it or not, Panik House’s release of Tokyo Psycho is actually one of those rare cases of the DVD offering being better than the actual film. The thing you’ll notice first and foremost is that they’ve actually included a jigsaw puzzle of the film’s amazing poster. I’ll admit the artwork and the puzzle, combined with the Panik House name were the reasons I picked up the film in the first place. And, when you open the disc you’ll find the usual Panik House sticker. Again, this one is of the film’s awesome poster, and were the film better, I might slap it up in my cube at work.
As the film was shot on mid range DV the video on the disc is nothing particularly worth writing home about, but the inclusion of bilingual menus (English and Spanish) and subtitles was a nice addition for a Japanese film release. The director and star bios are on par with those of the Pinky Violence releases, though I must note that this time PH has also included quite a few swimsuit photos from Sachiko Kokubu’s modeling days following her bio. I hope other mainstream companies take notice, as this would be a nice addition for the inevitable Into the Blue Extended Uncut Super Edition.
The making of featurette is fairly short, and consists of star interviews post filming, documenting of special effects work (so you know they actually did try on some of the effects), and basic fly on the wall set stuff. The second set of interviews does lapse into MTV bob and weave territory ,but it’s decent enough. Lead actress Sachiko Kokubu comes across as personable, and quite the trooper when it came to her ocean water and piano wire scenes.
The Film Premiere footage is quite lengthy, and consists of the stars and directors politely telling the audience of the hard work that went into the film, and how they hope that their effort will be recognized.
The commentary by Panik House president, Matt Kenedy, and Japanese licensor, Ko Mori, is actually more interesting than the film. The two discuss everything from the film’s use of Italian Giallo techniques to famous “obsession murders” in Japan. The two are rather laid back, but their dialogue is fairly constant. Both are very knowledgeable when it comes to horror, and surprisingly considerate, as they make sure to explain certain genre terms for any horror newbies watching the film. Their conversation is fairly consistent, without any real dead air time, and definitely kept my interest.
The two essays by Selwin Harris cover the exploits of two famous Japanese killers, one a child serial killer dubbed The Otaku Murderer, and the other a boy who killed his family with a baseball bat. Both killers were drawn upon to create the killer in Tokyo Psycho, though the latter also inspired the f’d-up boy in Takashi Miike’s Visitor Q. The essays are faily short, but well written. For anyone interested in reading more information about serial killers that have influenced horror cinema I would recommend picking up the book Meat Is Murderer, from the Creation Cinema Collection.
Lastly you have a collection of Panik House trailers for upcoming releases Blind Beast vs. Killer Dwarf, Screwed, and the original Tokyo Psycho trailer.
Given the number of extras, the sticker, and the puzzle, I’m quite surprised panik house kept the price for the DVD as low as they did. This is quite a nice offering for the film, and evidences exacltly why Panik House is becoming a key distributor in the Cult Film arena. If the film were better, I’d definitely recommend a purchase.
