Existentialist Japanese angst in reaction to 9/11
Edward J. Vytlacil | Manhattan | 12/20/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The movie explores the effect of 9/11 on two young Japanese: Hasegawa, who runs a voyeuristic website, and Moe, who is a Gothic Lolita. They are fascinated and repelled by 9/11, and are drawn to study every detail of the terrorists. They seem unable to make sense of the modern world after 9/11. They feel completely alienated, and react by descending deeper and deeper into nihilism, voyeurism, and exhibitionism.
The director is primarily a documentary film maker, and the movie has a documentary feel to it. The cinematography include footage from surveillance cameras and from hand held (and often pin-hole) cameras, with interspersed news clips, giving the movie a quasi-documentary feel. According to the written material included with the DVD, many of the actors are not professional actors and essentially play themselves while being encouraged to ad-lib the dialogue. The movie has a raw, edgy feel to it.
It is an interesting, compelling, and unusual movie."
Another Irritating, Pointless Youth Angst Film from Japan
Anticlimacus | 02/05/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Japanese cinema is currently the best in the world, IMO. However, I despise many of their films concerning youth angst. "Blue Spring" (2001) and "Madness In Bloom" (2002) were mediocre, forgettable projects that hovered in superficial acts of violence with little in terms of interesting content. "All About Lily Chou Chou" (2001) operated on a whole other level in its proactive effort to create heaping quantities of faux intelligence - which resulted in one of the most pretentious, irritating, pointless films in cinematic history. However, that was nothing compared to the mountainous amount of psychobabble presented in the anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion" (1995), which could hold the record for the single worst television series of all time. In a nutshell, Japanese youth angst cinema is a pathetic form of film-making that deserves more time in a trash bin than in a DVD player.
I have made an effort to avoid similar films in the hope that I would evade the boredom and snobbery of these misguided projects. This proves difficult, because I have grown fond of other low-budget Japanese films that touch upon youth issues in interesting ways - e.g., "Love and Pop" (1998), "Bounce Ko Gals" (1997), etc. Unfortunately, I mistook "Peep TV Show" as one of these interesting projects.
This movie must be the biggest waste of time in the universe. Some guy "peeps" on unsuspecting citizens while they do nothing remotely interesting. If Tsai Ming-liang decided to make a live action version of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" using a camcorder, you'd end up with "Peep TV Show." If that sounds enticing to you, have at it - everyone else may as well jump in front of a speeding 18-wheeler instead of enduring the excruciating pain of sitting through this disaster.
There's really no way I could rip this movie apart as much as I would like to because there's so much here that sucks; it would take 10,000 words to perform a thorough demolition job. The lead actor looks like a reject from the Rolling Stones, and every time he looks at the camera it's like he's saying, "Oooh look at me. I'm helping to make a pointless art movie so we can win awards at snob-infested film festivals." Yeah, I'd like to slap this guy, but he's nothing compared to the overall stupidity of this movie. Here are a few moments to look forward to.
A girl makes posts on her website that say, "I slept with M's boyfriend. We copulated like animals. Life is wonderful! I hope you all die! I hope I do too!" Your typical Japanese youth angst rant that provides no insight into anything. It's all a bunch of pointless babbling that makes me question how anyone could possibly find enjoyment in these horribly made films.
A guy beats up his girlfriend for staying out late. The cameraman says, "There just doing what they saw on television." Yep. If you adhere to the same views of your typical nutcase psychologist - who thinks that television creates violence - then you'll love this scene, which is really another feather in the cap of an imbecile filmmaker who apparently wanted to promote every irrational, stupifying belief system on planet Earth in one film.
We see a group of girls get peeped on while going to a public restroom. Then a lolita girl starts whacking the bathroom stall doors angrily with a stick. All of this is played to the backdrop of horribly played rock music. The point? There is none.
A guy pays a prostitute to beat him. He then wraps himself in plastic like he previously did to a cat. The point? There is none.
Two people have sex while the cameraman says, "They're like little monkeys." Okay, so what is the point of this again? Oh, that's right. THERE IS NONE!
Disregarding a few simplistic monologues directed at the camera that proclaim the 9/11 terrorist attacks as magnificent television entertainment, the rest of the film consists of people sitting around their computers while peeping on people who - that's right - do nothing of interest. Movies like this are akin to those paintings you see auctioned off for $1 million - you know, the ones that are basically a single red line drawn on a blank canvas. No matter how worthless a painting is, some moron is willing to buy it. Such is the case with cinema. No matter how pointless a film is, some artsy snob is going to love it."