BOILING POINT
Japan, 1990, 96 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Takeshi Kitano.
Boiling Point is the second feature made by actor turned director Takeshi Kitano. He also writes his own screenplays. His first, Violent Cop, was a parallel (and parody) of the Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry police films about social corruption and the right wing, fascist style police handling the situations. His other films include A Scene at the Sea, an entirely different kind of film – a moving, lyrical portrayal of a polite young Japanese girl in learning to surf.
Boiling Point begins as a story about young people playing baseball in the Tokyo suburbs but then introduces the gangsters, and the film becomes something of a parody of the violent thrillers from the U.S. The film is difficult to
follow and indulges in some eccentric violent sequences. However, the opening sequence and the final sequence with Takeshi in the toilet on the baseball field and coming out, and makes one realize that the whole enterprise might be a fantasy.
From the mid-1990s, Kitano became a worldwide respected director (Hana-bi, The Dolls, Zatoichi).
1. The work of Kitano, the American models, fast action storytelling about Japan? Non - Japanese audiences?
2. The world of Tokyo and its suburbs? The musical score?
3. The title and its focus, Japanese society?
4. The opening with the ordinary playing of baseball, the local players, the difference between the two teams, Masaki and his poor playing, the coach, the fans? The friends? The competitiveness? The reprisal of the baseball theme, his success albeit put out by the umpire for running so fast and overtaking the previous player? The return to the baseball at the end?
5. The emergence of the gangsters, the garage, the attack, his breaking the gangsters? Standover tactics, the garage? The boss of the cafe and his reaction to the teenagers, the violent reaction and threats? The background of gangster-bashing of local identities? the meetings? The obsequious response of the garage owner and his staff? The local gangster on Okinawa and his having to pay back? the errand for a finger to be presented? the portrait of American gangsters different from the expected American gangsters, their credibility?
6. Masaki, quiet, his work, practising with the baseball? Dates, his friendship with the girl in the cafe, outings? His friend from the team? The relaxation together, going fishing, the beach?
7. The possibility of buying guns in Okinawa, Masaki and his friend going, their meeting up with the local gangster and his henchmen? The cafe, the behaviour, sexual advances? The club and the dancing? The singing? The return to the apartment, the bizarre sexual behaviour? The buying of the guns - and the shooting of the American gun runner? the behaviour in the fields - picking the flowers and crowning himself? The mad gangster - and his brutal behaviour with his girlfriend? attacking his girlfriend for the sexual encounter, attacking her? Continually picking on her? The final sexual encounter before confronting the gangsters? his friend and his chopping off his finger? Buddies? The confrontation with the gangsters, the flowers, the accidental going off of the machine gun, the massacre of the people, the rape of the girl? At the airport - and the gangster and his friend being massacred?
8. Masaki and his friend returning home, confronting the gangsters? The gun not working? Their smart technique of getting the gun through customs? The awkwardness of the group and their being bashed, Masaki running away, with his girlfriend and the danger, the explosion and destruction? The death wish?
9. The range of characters, the gangsters and their types and behaviour, the baseball players, the ordinary friendliness in the neighbourhood? Shops? Okinawa and its contrast? The final focus on the fantasy - What if...?
