(Photo Courtesy of Drafthouse Films)Japanese director Sion Sono’s latest film, “Why Don’t You Play In Hell?” could quite possibly be the most difficult to describe film I have ever seen. Not because it’s bad — in fact, it’s far from it — but because it’s just so bizarre and absurd, I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.
The film begins with a young girl singing a toothpaste jingle that ultimately gets pulled when her mother slaughters a group of mobsters sent to their house to kill the girl’s father, who happens to be a Yakuza boss, and gets sent to prison for it. Meanwhile, the young version of would-be director Hirata (Tatsuya Nakajima), leader of a film collective that calls itself “The F--- Bombers,” sees fellow youngster Sasaki (Tak Sakaguchi) beating up another child, dubs him the next Bruce Lee and starts dreaming of the hit films they will one day make together.
Flash forward 10 years, and Michiko’s (Fumi Nikaidô) mother is getting ready to be released from prison. However, her father Taizo wants to ensure that her mother thinks his career is still fruitful, so in one night he attempts to make a film. Enter the Bombers, who are still hanging out at the same rec center they were a decade earlier, finally getting the chance to make the film they've always dreamed about. Taizo decides to make the most of the situation and chooses to make the film during a raging gang war against a rival clan, whose leader just so happens to be obsessed with Michiko.
Sound dense? Well, it is — the film runs more than two hours. Yet, Sono always manages to keep the audience's interest, making the film feel far shorter than it actually is. Whether it be via humor or blood splatter (of which there’s plenty), there’s always something happening to keep the audience engaged.
As far as violence goes, Japanese filmmakers are notorious for taking things to the next level, and Sono ramps things up even further than expected here. The film lets audiences know exactly what they’re getting themselves into from the get-go, featuring a bizarre shot of young Michiko sliding around her living room in a small pond of blood. Things escalate as the film goes on, eventually reaching an absolutely bizarre Yakuza fight that will surely conjure memories of the fight against the Crazy 88’s from Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill.”
The film’s humor is quite similar, getting a bit more absurd as the film goes on. Much of the humor is meta, bringing to light what working on a film set is like, and will surely play well with those who have spent time on one. Sono balances this well, making sure the humor never gets too absurd for its situation, which says a lot considering just how absurd the film is as a whole.
What makes the film work best is how dedicated it is to its absurdism. So many films shoot to be bizarre but fall short because they take themselves too seriously. “Why Don’t You Play In Hell?” never does so, fully committing to its bizarre sense of humor and crazy violence. In knowing exactly what kind of film it is and what it wants to be, “Why Don’t You Play In Hell?” provides plenty of laughs and blood, allowing both to play off each other to make the movie better as a whole.
At the end of the whole bloody affair, “Why Don’t You Play In Hell?” is one of the most bizarre yet entertaining film’s I’ve seen yet this year. While certainly not for everyone, something tells me that this is a film that is bound to become a cult classic among those who enjoy it.
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