SABUTube Part IV - Drive

'Drive' (not the Ryan Gosling one)is SABU's fifth film, coming two years after his most accomplished film up to that point, 'Monday'. With his first two films, 'Dangan Ranna' and 'Postman Blues', being full of ideas, yet inconsistent in execution, does 'Drive' show a director more in control of his films' final delivery?

A salaryman, parked in his car, minding his own business - apart from eyeing-up the piece of totty with the umbrella - suddenly has three bank robbers jump into his car and demand that he follow a fourth robber in another car. What follows is a comedy moment with the criminals demanding their driver speeds up to catch the car in front, though they picked the wrong car.

Asakura is a man that sticks to the rules, having never stepped out of line in his life. Shots of traffic lights turning red and road signs for speed limits flash on screen to show the cause of passengers' anger, as Asakura follows them by the book. Having now lost the car they were pursuing, the three insist Asakura keeps driving as they have now taken him hostage.

Following an amusing moment culminating in a biro to the neck, the four flee the scene, and it's from this point onwards that things get a little bizarre. Arai, Susumu Terajima's Buddhist monk, winds up on stage with a punk band, spouting scriptures to the band's music to a young crowd. This is a very odd scene, feeling very clunky, with Terajima's words just not feeling natural as they come out.

Arai now a filly-fledged member of the band, the remaining trio get back in the car, stopping for food at Asakura's aunt's, before Masanobu Ando's young Makato has car sex with his girlfriend before getting talent spotted with some baseball batting, in what can only be described as an Aston Villa-esque rash decision from the scout.

And then there were two, but not for long: Ren Osugi's Nishi taking his sick daughter home from hospital. Asakura then finds the fourth bank robber they had previously chased, lying on the floor after having got his arm stuck in the ground, having hallucinations throughout the film as he tries to break free. A bizarre fight scene with a samurai ghost, Asakura then returns the money to the bank from which it was originally stolen, minus his expenses for its return, of course.

As you can tell, there are lots of unusual scenes in this film, throwing in strange and rushed conclusions for each character along the way. Again, there are some good ideas on display here, but again they maybe don't completely cohesively work together when trying to make a coherent film. The use of cutaways and flashbacks works well here in building the characters' stories, but things just don't feel as well thought out. 'Drive' is another interesting film from SABU, though a slightly bumpy journey.

So, courtesy of Rare Movies on YouTube, I have now seen four of SABU's first five films - his third film, 'Unlucky Monkey', of course getting a Region 2, English subtitled DVD release, and thus cannot be considered rare. So, I am now fully educated as to his earlier works, almost. So what of them?

Well, there is no doubt that SABU is a writer and director of interesting ideas, looking at the struggle of the everyday man. I would almost say there is some Kafkaesque satire of modern society, if I really felt I had the authority to describe something as 'Kafkaesque'. Man's motivations are explored, with Shinichi Tsutsumi often cast as the everyman  fighting against forces beyond his control. Though in each film, all the characters have the opportunities to make better of their lives or avoid the situations that befall them before tragedy sets in: perhaps SABU's biggest satire of all.

Though these strong ideas are not always fully polished and well-formed in their execution. 'Monday', probably the strongest of his early films is the best made, though there is a feeling that any of these films could go in any direction at any moment.

It would be fair to say that this is quite a 'raw' period in SABU's filmmaking career, therefore. Having not seen any of his subsequent films, I cannot confirm if this trend continues. But as Trevor Nelson said of Dr Dre's production - or well to paraphrase something I've made up he said - when it becomes too polished, it loses some of its fun.

SABU's early films are quite wild and all over the place; often clunky, sometimes almost cringe-worthy in the direction they take. But, they are no doubt interesting, thought-provoking and always with a nice sense of humour. We are none of us perfect. 

SABUTube Part III - Postman Blues

SABU's second film perhaps doesn't learn from some of the naivety of his debut. 'Dangan Ranna' starts off with an interesting premise, though as the film gets towards its conclusion, it starts to fall off. Like 'Monday' coming after it, the idea is a satire of modern life, though by 'Monday', SABU had matured into a more rounded filmmaker, whereas with this 1997 effort, there were still some areas that required some work.

Sawaki is a postman, hence the title, bored of his life and his role as society's servant. Working late, he unwittingly stumbles across his former classmate, now yakuza, Noguchi as he performs that age-old yakuza ritual to atone for his errors. Noguchi tells Sawaki of how his yakuza lifestyle gives him daily excitement, which Sawaki has long since lost. Taking heed of Noguchi's words, Sawaki then drinks himself into a drunken stupor, tearing up undelivered letters, stealing any money he finds and reading people's most personal letters. Though unbeknownst to him, Noguchi snuck a brick of naughty powder into his postman bag, causing the police to follow him, believing him to be a drug runner. It's from this point that Sawaki's life gets a little daily excitement back in it.

The first half an hour is relatively dark with brief moments of laughter, creating the negative portrait of Sawaki's life and the role of the postman in society. It's all very bleak. Though when the police become involved, with their over-the-top and unfounded suspicions regarding his dull life, the film has a more mainstream feel, part-love story, part foolish comedy. It's here, much like 'Dangan Ranna', with the introduction of further characters that the film starts to become a little confused and, at times, a little silly.

I always find that the funniest films are those that are largely serious, though throw in light moments here and there to show that they're not taking themselves too seriously. 'Dangan Ranna' and 'Monday' are successful in being humorous in this way. Though in 'Postman Blues' there are more deliberate attempts to be funny, and as a result, the film is less funny overall, in the way that Kitano's 'Hana-bi' is more humorous than his comedy 'Getting Any?'

'Postman Blues', therefore, isn't quite as charming as SABU's other early efforts, though it clearly tries to be. His love interest in cancer patient, Sayoko, has moments, but also feels a bit clichéd with musical montages. The bumbling police and their over-imagination as to Sawaki's life, are a satire of modern society's jumping to conclusions without any evidence, though perhaps become a little too much, as criminologists are brought in to suggest sexual perversions and a possible history of murder. Their actions then start to become inexplicable towards the end.

Perhaps I'm being a little down on 'Postman Blues' though. Again, this is a film based on good ideas to explore, with moments of sadness about how the modern world works, as well as the odd funny moment and references to 'Leon' and 'Chungking Express'. 'Postman Blues' shows a filmmaker with ideas galore, though maybe needing a little more tightening in certain areas. From what I've seen of his subsequent works, lucky SABU is a director that can deliver.

SABUTube Part I - Monday

I hate streaming. 'Netflix n bollocks,' as far as I'm concerned. I want to watch things on a proper screen, without any buffering, loading or nonsense; tilting your bloody laptop screen to get an angle that makes darker scenes momentarily visible. But without distributers releasing films that I actually want to see, either at cinemas or on DVD/Blu Ray, I do have to seek things out online.

Typically, my YouTube feed is bad Japanese hip hop, bad Japanese football and worryingly bad 'vlogs' of Japanese men putting Coca-Cola (actual Coca-Cola) up their nose in their bedroom. But every now and then I'll get a suggestion - that isn't 'just kill yourself now!' - a suggestion to watch slightly grainy versions of full length Japanese films from yesteryear, with English subtitles.

Typically, it goes against my principles - I'm Jeremy Corbyn, me - to watch things for free online, knowing that these are made by lowly directors working with small budgets, putting a lot in for little reward. But sometimes there just isn't any other way of seeing them: These are films that are close to two decades old, would have received little attention on original release, and now serve only for film nerds like me to hark on about when filmmaking was more raw.

Recently, the 'Rare Movies' YouTube page has been offered to me in the form 'recommendations' of 'Monday (2000) full movie english subtitles', 'Postman Blues (1997) Eng Subtitles' and 'Drive (2002) eng subtitles'. All of these 'rare movies' have the pleasure of having been written and directed by none-other-than Tanaka Hiroyuki: the man known as SABU. You remember SABU, he was the ex-cop-turned-yakuza-bodyguard in 'Ichi the Killer'. He also directs his own movies, rare movies apparently.

So, given that I was being offered the opportunity to see his hard-to-come-by films for free (excluding monthly broadband costs, electricity bills and buying a laptop), I decided to make my way through his early offerings offered in slightly dodgy form.

Being that it was the first day of the working week, I started with...

Monday (2000)

Takagi is your everyday (especially on Mondays) Japanese salaryman. Yet on this particular Monday, instead of heading to the start of the working week, he finds himself waking in a strange hotel room at the conclusion of a manic weekend. But there's one problem: he has no idea how he got there. Going through his personal artefacts, he gradually starts to piece together the story of what happened.

Starting off at a funeral where he inadvertently causes the corpse to explode, he then alienates himself from his girlfriend with some strange behaviour, before ending up at the wrong bar. Alcohol soon proves to be his downfall with each additional drink seeing his situation grow worse and worse. Turning on the television, he sees the reality of what happened to him, finding himself the centre of attention with no way out.

'Monday' is a stylish film, with good camerawork for some tasty angles, but is laced with humour throughout, particularly Tsutsumi Shinichi's dance scene as the drunken Takagi descends into drunken madness. Jaunty editing blurs the line between sophistication and stupidity nicely. This is a satire towards the film's conclusion, questioning the right to murder, hold a gun, but most importantly, the right to use being drunk as an excuse - one I am particularly fond of.

There are some clunky moments throughout the film. The speed of the descent, the slow-acting police at the film's conclusion; though these do add to the sense of surreal humour in the film, in a slow-paced, distinctly Japanese brand of cinema, where unbelievable scenarios are met with a very everyday sense of disbelief.

Tsutsumi Shinichi - often the lead in early SABU films - gives a charming performance as Takagi, who goes through every emotion going on his weekend rollercoaster, with cameos from everybody's favourite supporting actors in Japanese cinema, Susumu Terajima, Ren Osugi and the beautifully named Tomorowo Taguchi.

Drinking like there's no tomorrow will only lead you to not like what the morning will bring, and this is what SABU explores in 'Monday'. Stylish and satirical, this is one Monday you won't not like.

IKIRU: The highs and lows of life in Japanese cinema

London, late-January/early February sort of time, and e Japan Foundation presents its annual Touring Film Programme, starting off at the ICA and moving to the more artistic cinemas in various cities up and down the UK. And every year there must be a theme.

This year's theme is quite a good one: Ikiru, the Japanese verb 'to live', and the name of a famous Akira Kurosawa film (no, not 'Throne of Blood' fans of Stewart Lee's Comedy vehicle Series 3'). In Japanese cinema, this is a genre - if you'd call it that - of cinema typically associated with Yasujiro Ozu and his portraits of change in ordinary, everyday Japanese life; a theme carried on into the new millennium by Kore-eda Hirokazu.

Far from grand samurai classics and out-of-this-world anime, these are slower films, films to provoke more introspection, films to make you laugh and cry, and then vomit while reading this. This, the thirteenth JFTFP (JFTFP!), saw me see fewer films than I typically would, driven largely by busy-ness, seeing Tony Law and not wanting to watch four straight films on a Saturday, especially as Villa had won for once, so I had to watch Match of the Day.

In the words of Scha Dara Parr, let it flow, again...

Cheers from Heaven (Tengoku kara no eru; 天国からのエール)

'Cheers from Heaven' is probably a bit mainstream for me; it's a fair example of low-level mainstream cinema that's decent, not amazing, forcing emotions on its viewers with a tad too much sentimentality. Saying that though, I had to see this one of all the films shown as part of this year's programme.

In a small Okinawan town, a group of not-particularly-musically talented school children struggle to find anywhere to practice their not-particularly-impressive talents. Annoying adults, local bento supplier, Hikaru, disillusioned by a lack of community spirit, takes the group of children in, allowing them to play in a spare area behind his kitchen. But being essentially open-air, this doesn't really solve the problem. But, never one to give up easily, he takes it upon himself to start building a studio for the children to use freely (in each sense), but as long as a community of sharing is followed.

The kids delight in this, and suddenly every child in the town has a guitar and comes knocking on the door. But Hikaru's focus stays on the original group he took in, becoming a manager of sorts in helping them pursue their dream, for reasons that become quite sentimentally apparent. In true light movie fashion, they succeed.

The content meant little to me, however. 'Cheers from Heaven' is set and filmed in the northern Okinawan town of Motobu, where my wife and I stayed as part of our honeymoon. The real life Ajisai studio, opened by once real life man Hikaru Nakasone, was on the winding hill path that we walked passed each day en route to our guesthouse. For the majority of the film, therefore, I was sat looking at the scenery and remembering what I did there, such as the public lavatory I once stood outside, where the headline act's drummer and guitarist have a fight.

Famous Motobu toilet

The 'living' element of this film is a tale of a man perhaps a little fed-up with how things have become, in his own life and society in general, feeling the need to make some sort of change and realise a dream, before it's all tragically too late, if a little forced by the conclusion.

This is a nice film, a steady film, a decent film that perhaps needs to stop trying so hard by then end to get its message across. But for me, it probably serves more as a holiday memory.

I'll Give it My All, Tomorrow (Ore wa mada honki dashitenai dake; 俺はまだ本気出してないだけ)

'I'll Give it My All, Tomorrow' is a title I liked the moment I read it, particularly as it came accompanied by a photo of a man in boxer shorts. It's fair to say, this is my kind of comedy.

In his forties, Shizuo gives up his salaryman job to work part-time in a fast food bar and sitting about playing an 'important match' of his Playstation. Living with his father and seventeen year-old daughter, his slack attitude soon frustrates his family and Bob, the foreign employee in the fast food bar. See as a superior by those younger than him, but a waste by those by those who depend on him, he soon makes it his life ambition to become a manga artist...at some point, some time.

This is a film about the life that happens when you're making plans, too busy sitting about and thinking about what you should do rather than getting anything done. While the earnest desire is there, the proactive motivation is somewhat lacking, resulting in a limbo. A mid-life crisis finds your average salaryman working alongside and socialising with young adults still trying to find their place in the world, naturally to the amusement of the likes of me.

'I'll Give it My All...' captures well that somewhat naive compulsion that men have to pack it all in, fight the system and sit in their pants playing Playstation while the rest of society moves on; the freedom we all want, but is probably quite dangerous in misguided and confused hands.

Shinich Tsutsumi is well cast as the anti-hero, seemingly confident to those his junior, but unable to achieve and get his life moving, and Yuichi Fukuda's direction works well in magnifying his shortcomings, as a forty-two year old man asks his seventeen year-old daughter to lend him twenty thousand Yen.

If you too would like to learn about how mundane your life is, the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme travels to the likes of Leicester, Bristol, Birmingham, Derby, Sheffield, Aberystwyth, Dundee, Edinburgh, Kendal, Exeter, Nottingham and Manchester...though you're probably already aware of said fact.