Tsuitô no zawameki (1988) User Reviews

A unique film

[josephloveys · 8/10 · 13 February 2023]

I saw this the other day on youtube and it has been on my mind a bit since, as often happens, you know, after seeing an extraordinary film that leaves you stunned for a while, a few hours, a few days, or longer. Some even stick around years later any time you are somehow reminded of them. Having watched my share of movies I know most are forgettable, even many good ones. They all sort of just blend together and recalling their details isn't important anyway, even when after watching, you thought, "that was really good." Well, I've seen many good and great movies too, and can't really tell you much about most of those.

There is a lot of strange stuff in this film, it really is weird. Although so much happened in this one, and there is still some stuff to unpack psychologically, I won't ever forget that I saw this. Someday I might revisit it. I'm not surprised it is an obscure film, the contents are not really something that can be mainstream cinema, but are told in a dark and often beautiful way. It was said the director spent five years getting this one made, and certainly the final product, a bit too long, and not "perfect" at all, reflects that labor of love.

A unique film.

pure genius

[harryinkoeln · 2 October 2002]

this black/white movie was 5 years in the making and described by the director Yoshihiko Matsui as " would be a scandal if made into a motion picture." Its focus are the daily lifes of social outcasts in kyoto, misfits and freaks, we have a serial killer, crippled soldiers, an incestuous couple, dwarves and homeless people, all of them struggling to get by. NR is the most uncompromising look at alienation, a raw and violent depiction of society and the gaps it creates. If you ever get the chance to see it, please do so, it´s one of those forgotten masterpieces

A true nightmare

[mevmijaumau · 15 November 2015]

Noisy Requiem is the most well-known movie of the few directed by underground director Yoshihiko Matsui, who showed the script of this film to his friend, director Shuji Terayama, who said that if it were ever to be made into a film, it would evoke scandal. Terayama died before Matsui made the film, which took five years to make (it's even dedicated to a crew member who died before it was finished).

This film takes place in the slum-like, poverty and insanity-ridden streets of Osaka filled with marginalized outcasts whose sexual perversions and shocking understandings of love are presented on screen. It's an uncompromising and shocking look at alienation which mixes the dirty industrial setting with an ethereal, melancholic mood. The filthy B&W scheme is contrasted by the absolutely beautiful melancholic soundtrack by Shigeo Suganuma, mirroring the thin line between love and violence between the film's characters. It also establishes a remarkable marriage of gritty realism and surreal shock factor.

A bit too long and sprawling at 150 minutes, but this is one of those movies that you never forget. It is incredibly shocking, violent and transgressive with a harrowing, depressing atmosphere. Fun fact: that rooftop was actually set on fire by Matsui and his crew.