BULLET BALLET

Goda (writer-director Shinya Tsukamoto) works in advertising, but is not so consumed by the Tokyo rat-race that he can't find time to call his girlfriend Kiriko (Kyoka Suzuki) on the way home from work.

On the afternoon in question, she sounds happy enough, singing down the telephone to her man. However, by the time he arrives home, he finds the place crawling with police. It's then that he - and we - discover Kiriko has committed suicide.

Goda impresses his colleagues by returning to work the following day. But inside he's confused and lost, fixating on the question that burns in his mind: how did Kiriko get access to the gun she used to blow her brains out?

It's a point that Goda begins to obsess over. When it's suggested to him that Kiriko, his girlfriend of ten years, had connections with local gangsters, his mind descends further into turmoil.

So much so that he starts a rivalry with a gang of young thugs in his neighbourhood, determined to make someone pay for his loss. But Goda is an everyman and not prone to fighting. Consequently, he takes a good hiding at the hands of ringleader Goto (Takahiro Murase) and his girl Chisato (Kirina Mano).

Goda manages to acquire a gun of his own from a shady underworld figure. When that doesn't go to plan, he joins an online forum and tutorials in how to build his own firearm.

Returning for a further showdown with the gang, his homemade gun doesn't exactly do what he hoped it would - but at least the hoodlums' mafia associate, Idei (Tatsuya Nakamura), takes pity on the city worker and sends him packing with his limbs still intact.

Even still, there is a burning need in Goda now to confront Goto and Chisato once again. Naturally, then, when someone starts gunning members of their gang down, they suspect Goda ...

Following on from his opening salvo of kinetic, fever-dream surrealist pieces TETSUO: THE IRON MAN, TETSUO 2: BODY HAMMER and TOKYO FIST, Shinya Tsukamoto surprised many fans - and detractors - with 1998's thought-provoking, frequently sombre BULLET BALLET.

Shot in start monochrome to accentuate its mood, Tsukamoto's film slows down the hyper-violence of his preceding films in a bid to resonate deeper with its audience.

Thanks to the more considered pace, editing and camerawork that are no longer so restless (although the traditional high-speed montage sequences, raw handheld shooting style, machine fetishism that borders on cyberpunk sci-fi frills etc are still evident on occasion) and some superbly understated performances, BULLET BALLET successfully conveys its themes of loss, despair and regret.

Though still very much a Tsukamoto film - bold, beautiful, at times bone-crunching - this uses its industrial-tinged soundtrack much more sparingly than previous efforts, and it's these quieter moments that really showcase the director's growth the most.

Hardcore fans will still find enough fist-fights, manic facial expressions and gun pornography to satisfy their needs.

Third Window Films continue their impressive appraisal of Tsukamoto's early films with this region 2 DVD, presenting the film fully uncut in a new transfer which has been approved of by the director himself.

Although clearly shot on a meagre budget, the film is often visually striking thanks to Tsukamoto's keen post-punk aesthetics and his great, carefully thought-out spacious cinematography. Blacks are solid and deep, contrast is well represented and detail is fine without ever suffering from undue enhancement.

The film's original 1.66:1 aspect ratio has been adhered to, and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. All in all, Third Window's transfer is clean, naturally filmic and about as good as you could ever expect this low budget 35mm movie to look.

Japanese audio gets treated to a clean and consistent 2.0 mix, while optional English subtitles are well-written and easy to read against the black-and-white backgrounds.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page, which runs with the type of pulsating techno score and quick-edited action scenes we know the director best for.

An animated scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 16 chapters.

Bonus features with a 14-minute video interview with Tsukamoto, in which he describes BULLET BALLET as a reaction to both the coming of middle-age and the late '90s emergence in Japan of "teamers" - young men who were respectable by day but went looking for violence at night. As ever, the director is erudite, sincere and warm as he speaks in a graciously candid manner about the making of the film, its endurance and its place within his cinematic canon.

Tsukamoto returns for a 3-minute self-examination of the thematic similarities between TOKYO FIST and BULLET BALLET - a peaceful man who turns to violence when a figure from his past returns - insisting he'd never really seen the connection before. He also discusses his role as protagonist in both films.

Two trailers are present: the original Japanese one, and the UK one.

A 3-minute music video plays a rapid-fire succession of moments from the film to the sounds of its instrumental theme tune. The track itself is a mix of rock and techno, typical of its time.

Tsukamoto returns for a 4-minute chat on the differences between shooting on film and on digital, as well as revealing a little of how he started out making shorts at school on 8mm. The benefits of shooting on digital, the perils of relying too much on CGI, the restoration of his old films from their original negatives and the details that has revealed: he covers a fair amount in a relatively short space of time.

Finally we get trailers for several other Third Window titles: TOKYO FIST, LAND OF HOPE, FOR LOVE'S SAKE, HIMIZU, HOW TO USE GUYS WITH SECRET TIPS, LOVE EXPOSURE, KOTOKO, TESTUO 1 & 2, COLD FISH, CONFESSIONS, THE WOODSMAN AND THE RAIN, VULGARIA, THE FOREIGN DUCK THE NATIVE DUCK AND GOD IN A CORN LOCKER, ISN'T ANYONE ALIVE, VILLAIN, CONFESSIONS OF A DOG, MITSUKO DELIVERS and ADRIFT IN TOKYO. All come with English subtitles, although the picture quality is inconsistent throughout (check out the terrible motion-blurring on the LOVE EXPOSURE trailer, for example ...).

One of Shinya Tsukamoto's most personal, and satisfying, films get a very nice treatment from the fine folk at Third Window Films.

Also available on blu-ray.

By Stuart Willis