Let it be said that "Tokyo Rampage" is largely about style. Now, this could easily mean that a movie is superficial. However, the style here is slickly appealing and, moreover, part of the movie's theme about socio-cultural vacuity. In short, it works.
As for the story itself, there's a certain hipster nihilism which would -- just like the movie's surfeit stylishness -- seem a negative element. Yet, no, it's actually handled in a way that's purposeful and, hence, intriguing. Indeed, I enjoyed the ride because I had decided early on that the inscrutable, psychopathic lead's maddeningly repeated line, "Not needed," made him the homicidal cousin to Bartleby in Herman Melville's famous short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener." I am referring, of course, to the inscrutable Bartleby's maddeningly repeated line, "I prefer not to."
Like Bartleby, this character is a blank, and his mission to murder every "Not needed" person in his path does not make us hate him, because one cannot hate a blank space. Meanwhile, the audience is intended to empathize with the other lead, the psychopath's boss (the one sympathetic character in the whole movie), and for the boss the line, "Not needed" eventually begins to register as an existential crisis.
The viewer, just as the boss, begins to squirm under the same frustrating fear and bewilderment each time they hear the line, "Not needed." It's when you realize that you are just as effected by this line as he is that you also realize, son of a bitch, this bizarre, disturbing movie worked. In other words, it achieved precisely what it had set out to achieve.
Oh, and watch for the visuals -- such as the bathes of tomatoes, the swooping down of death crows, and the falling of knives. But especially the falling of the knives. That scene is worth the whole movie alone.
Oh I so agree!My heart was wringing for the boss because he was so sweet about the whole thing. When she ran to…
I didn't even think about those sticky notes, but now that you mention it, yes, that made it even more cruel. And you know she was TOTALLY into writing those because it's all what she wishes was true with Souta, right?
I can see why this flopped in Korea when it came out 20 years ago, just as I can see why it was a huge success on the American College circuit back then. Indeed, it still plays at some colleges due to its strong cult following. It appeals to a certain crowd because it's smart, funny, original and, finally, wildly creative in the way it criticizes how capitalism tramples on both human rights and environmentalism. More than anything, it's just plain weird. And that's its charm.
The set up is pretty simple. A beekeeper thinks aliens are going to destroy the earth in 2 weeks during the lunar eclipse and that the alien leader hides among us disguised as the CEO of a vast chemical corporation. The beekeeper kidnaps the CEO and, together with his dimwitted girlfriend (who happens to be a circus tightrope walker), he commences to torture the CEO to glean information on how to save the planet from impending annihilation. The next 2 hours are a cat and mouse game between the beekeeper and the kidnapped CEO, while detectives search for them.
While one might think the film did not always succeed in tonal evenness because it vacillates between humor and violence, this was part of its brilliance. The viewer is not ever quite sure if they are supposed to be laughing at the hero for his ideas about aliens, alarmed by his violence, or sympathizing with him. But it's precisely this uncertainty that keeps us on our toes and gives an extra frisson to the viewing experience. We also don't know who to root for because as much as the CEO whom the hero kidnaps is a "victim" he is also the CEO of a chemical company notorious for polluting the environment. Moreover, he was shown in an early scene to be a rich jerk who stiffs poor working people like a cab driver. So we can't feel too much pity for this schmuck.
However, it's also hard to root for the hero because we simply are not certain of his sanity for most of the film. We don't find out if he's sane or not until the final 2 minutes. Keeping your viewer in doubt that long is a real risk, but the payoff was there when we got the answer at the end. I noted that some disliked the ending because it was simply too darn weird. But I see it as just one more of the film's riskier, wild, and out there twists. Besides, it afforded the single funniest line in the entire film when the guy said, "Of course I couldn't signal you, I had no hair!" You'll get the joke if/when you watch the film.
The film took a number of risks and nothing about it was formulaic. Indeed, I'd give it a 9.5 for sheer audaciousness alone. There must be others who agree, because Variety reported in February of 2024 that a Hollywood remake is in production with Emma Stone cast so far. I doubt it will be as good, so catch the original Korean version first.
Adored this episode. Gave me so many feels. There's something about South Korean BL dramas and especially (thankfully)…
I also had no problem with Jae Hyun's forward approach to pursuing someone in whom he's interested. I found him a likeable, amiable sort of guy right from ep 1, when everyone else was complaining that he was too forward. And now, at ep 5, I find him even more likeable. I suppose open, innocent, chatty personalities simply appeal to me.
Ok, so that's my take on personalities in this show. Can we now talk about hotness? Because Surfer Boy is searing, scorching, freaking hot! Look at those high, angular cheekbones and those pillow lips! Good lord, he's beautiful.
I agree that Mahiro is jealous of Komichi. So it's odd that he's the one who told Souta to go ahead with the plan…
True. But I think the show's been trying to establish that Souta was popular in HS cuz he's always shown surrounded by people in those flashback scenes, while Mahiro is shown to be alone and gazing at Souta.
Detailed discussions about the moral status of Haram's behaviors are beyond the scope of this comment sectionMuch…
".... what we caution ourselves to avoid outside fiction can be an impetus to improving the relationships between fictional characters."
//////
Bravo! Take it from someone who teaches English Literature, you put it very well on how fiction works. I was beginning to despair of the puritanical tone in many of these comments. These viewers would freak the hell out if they'd every read something like "Wuthering Heights" where Heathcliff goes way beyond the limits of Victorian social norms to win his beloved. Hell, even the more socially acceptable Mr. Rochester from "Jane Eyre" would be pilloried by this crowd for sexual harassment. Indeed, if this crowd had their way, the literary canon would be bereft of any romances with social/sexual norms predating 2010.
To be clear, I don't think "Love Mate" is a particularly good BL (too fluffy and too cliched), but I also don't find anything offensive in it, as so many here do. However, I did adore "My Beautiful Man," and found myself constantly defending that show from those accusing it of portraying "toxicity" and "co-dependency" during Season One. I had to remind them that love is often not pretty. Hell, in "Romeo and Juliet" one stabbed herself and the other drank poison. Would they call this "toxic co-dependency" as well? Lord, I hope not! LOL
Tender, Charming, Funny, and Altogether Moving ________________________________________________________
The Best Film prize that this won in the Hong Kong Film Awards was entirely deserved, as was every word of praise it received in the Western Press. It's fresh, original, and sincere, while also imparting a terrific sense of the grittiness of a street kid's life in 90's Hong Kong. Best of all, it has real heart. The characters were conceived with a feeling so true that it translates to the viewer in ways at once tender, charming, funny and, alas, sad.
For instance, it's adorable when the male lead (Autumn Moon, played by Sam Lee in his 1st role), falls for a pretty, pixie, teenage girl since he says all the goofy things to court her that we'd imagine a sweet, word-addled, high school dropout saying to his crush (eg, he looks at her manicure the first time he asks her out, and defiantly says, "Who do you think you are, Madonna?"). Yet we no sooner laugh at Autumn Moon's clumsy pickup line than we're aching for him as he struggles to come up with cash for her life-or-death kidney surgery. The stakes are high, and this is signaled in a standout scene of the 2 teens joyously kissing........ in a cemetery.
I was equally touched watching tough, streetsy Autumn Moon take care of a large, slow-witted, boy whose family had abandoned him. There's a tenderness in how the small, skinny, clever teen cares for his big, dumb sidekick that echoes Lenny and George from "Of Mice and Men." And without giving spoilers I can say that this film, like that novel, kicks you in the stomach at the end. But the journey toward that ending is well worth it because the emotions are earned, and nothing felt false or contrived.
"Made In Hong Kong," was completed for a mere $80,000 but had me more emotionally invested than any Hollywood Blockbuster where just one mega-movie-star's paycheck is fifty times that of this film's entire budget. Indeed, the actors in this were all virtually unknown novices at the time. This makes it all the more impressive that the actors gave such ace performances evoking their characters' innocence, confusion, and love for each other.
Lastly, do not be fooled by the small number of viewers, nor the low rating on this MDL page. MDL is a new site wherein people rarely visit pages for movies made over 5 years ago, and this was made 25 years ago. For a truer measure of this film's quality just google the professional critical reviews and you'll find it was highly regarded both at home in Hong Kong, and internationally.
I agree that Mahiro is jealous of Komichi. So it's odd that he's the one who told Souta to go ahead with the plan…
Yep, it's odd that Souta does not even recall Mahiro's name. I often don't recognize high school people's faces cuz people change their looks so much over 10-20 years, but I will usually recognize their names. So if Souta doesn't even recognize Mahiro's name, it must mean that poor Mahiro was a loser, nobody in high school, while Souta was probably popular.
I agree that Mahiro is jealous of Komichi. So it's odd that he's the one who told Souta to go ahead with the plan…
I'm having a hard time with those scenes. Someone here said they are there to establish that Mahiro had a crush on Souta back in high school. However, I view them as establishing nothing at all. As I view it, they are just there to show that Mahiro and Souta were in the same high school, and Mahiro sometimes looks at Souta. I suppose this means that Mahiro remembers Souta now, as an adult, but we're not really sure. Ultimately, I think those high school scenes have been weak and not relaying all that the director intended them to.
Agree with all of this. The lead with the panic disorder is actually the weakest actor in the show and his depiction…
LOL, I hate saying "vagina" as it sounds so clinical, like a doctor is saying it. Vadge is better. I wish I had a less clinical sounding word for "penis" too, but I just can't come up with anything, and "pee-pee" sounds too much like a little kid is saying it.
Absolutely!! Also remember that she had been under the impression that he had a girlfriend already & was STILL…
Yep, I hate when weak, mousy women maneuver from behind the scenes like that. It's usually just an act anyway, because they can be extremely forceful when getting what they want. I mean, look at how this woman travelled all the way to the countryside to see Souta when uninvited.
Kudos to the writing of the section chief. Unconscious bias would make it easy for the viewer to write him off…
I agree. The way he was portrayed, his behavior at work did not go over the line. I think that if she simply said, "I'm not interested," he would have politely retreated without retaliating by making her work life miserable (eg, demoting her, or dumping extra work on her). That, of course, would constitute sexual harassment, because it's precisely what so many bosses do when an underling rejects their romantic advances. But his character was carefully written to establish that this was not what was going on.
My god, the eyelashes on Souta. Mahiro’s face during their “practice” was great. So regretting his suggestion,…
I agree that Mahiro is jealous of Komichi. So it's odd that he's the one who told Souta to go ahead with the plan to be a pretend boyfriend. Souta was hesitating, but Mahiro said to do it because he "felt sorry" for Komachi. I wonder if it was one of those deals where he said it just to test Souta, and see if his crush would actually say yes and go along with it?
I feel sorry for the boss with the crush on the girl. Sure, it's annoying to have a person at work crushing on you, but he's portrayed as a nice, gentle soul. So all she had to say when he kept asking her to dinner was, "I'm flattered by your interest, but I just don't feel the same way." And he would've laid off.
Alas, she was too weak to speak up and, instead, manipulated Souta into playing her boyfriend. Because she clearly has a crush on Souta and wanted to get him involved her life on a regular basis. This messes things up for Souta, while also making the poor boss feel even more rejected. In short, she's one of those weak, passive kind of girls, whom you'd never peg as a manipulator, but actually is.
I think a lot of people noticed it. I mean, you can't help noticing it. The thing is, people are loving the show and the characters are very appealing, so we just want the plot to move forward and see what happens to them. This is why all the flashbacks are so frustrating. They keep bringing us backward instead of forward.
1 
As for the story itself, there's a certain hipster nihilism which would -- just like the movie's surfeit stylishness -- seem a negative element. Yet, no, it's actually handled in a way that's purposeful and, hence, intriguing. Indeed, I enjoyed the ride because I had decided early on that the inscrutable, psychopathic lead's maddeningly repeated line, "Not needed," made him the homicidal cousin to Bartleby in Herman Melville's famous short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener." I am referring, of course, to the inscrutable Bartleby's maddeningly repeated line, "I prefer not to."
Like Bartleby, this character is a blank, and his mission to murder every "Not needed" person in his path does not make us hate him, because one cannot hate a blank space. Meanwhile, the audience is intended to empathize with the other lead, the psychopath's boss (the one sympathetic character in the whole movie), and for the boss the line, "Not needed" eventually begins to register as an existential crisis.
The viewer, just as the boss, begins to squirm under the same frustrating fear and bewilderment each time they hear the line, "Not needed." It's when you realize that you are just as effected by this line as he is that you also realize, son of a bitch, this bizarre, disturbing movie worked. In other words, it achieved precisely what it had set out to achieve.
Oh, and watch for the visuals -- such as the bathes of tomatoes, the swooping down of death crows, and the falling of knives. But especially the falling of the knives. That scene is worth the whole movie alone.
I can see why this flopped in Korea when it came out 20 years ago, just as I can see why it was a huge success on the American College circuit back then. Indeed, it still plays at some colleges due to its strong cult following. It appeals to a certain crowd because it's smart, funny, original and, finally, wildly creative in the way it criticizes how capitalism tramples on both human rights and environmentalism. More than anything, it's just plain weird. And that's its charm.
The set up is pretty simple. A beekeeper thinks aliens are going to destroy the earth in 2 weeks during the lunar eclipse and that the alien leader hides among us disguised as the CEO of a vast chemical corporation. The beekeeper kidnaps the CEO and, together with his dimwitted girlfriend (who happens to be a circus tightrope walker), he commences to torture the CEO to glean information on how to save the planet from impending annihilation. The next 2 hours are a cat and mouse game between the beekeeper and the kidnapped CEO, while detectives search for them.
While one might think the film did not always succeed in tonal evenness because it vacillates between humor and violence, this was part of its brilliance. The viewer is not ever quite sure if they are supposed to be laughing at the hero for his ideas about aliens, alarmed by his violence, or sympathizing with him. But it's precisely this uncertainty that keeps us on our toes and gives an extra frisson to the viewing experience. We also don't know who to root for because as much as the CEO whom the hero kidnaps is a "victim" he is also the CEO of a chemical company notorious for polluting the environment. Moreover, he was shown in an early scene to be a rich jerk who stiffs poor working people like a cab driver. So we can't feel too much pity for this schmuck.
However, it's also hard to root for the hero because we simply are not certain of his sanity for most of the film. We don't find out if he's sane or not until the final 2 minutes. Keeping your viewer in doubt that long is a real risk, but the payoff was there when we got the answer at the end. I noted that some disliked the ending because it was simply too darn weird. But I see it as just one more of the film's riskier, wild, and out there twists. Besides, it afforded the single funniest line in the entire film when the guy said, "Of course I couldn't signal you, I had no hair!" You'll get the joke if/when you watch the film.
The film took a number of risks and nothing about it was formulaic. Indeed, I'd give it a 9.5 for sheer audaciousness alone. There must be others who agree, because Variety reported in February of 2024 that a Hollywood remake is in production with Emma Stone cast so far. I doubt it will be as good, so catch the original Korean version first.
I am sooooo loving that you just said that!
Ok, so that's my take on personalities in this show. Can we now talk about hotness? Because Surfer Boy is searing, scorching, freaking hot! Look at those high, angular cheekbones and those pillow lips! Good lord, he's beautiful.
Is virtually every cute boy in Korea aged 15-20 an idol trainee?
//////
Bravo! Take it from someone who teaches English Literature, you put it very well on how fiction works. I was beginning to despair of the puritanical tone in many of these comments. These viewers would freak the hell out if they'd every read something like "Wuthering Heights" where Heathcliff goes way beyond the limits of Victorian social norms to win his beloved. Hell, even the more socially acceptable Mr. Rochester from "Jane Eyre" would be pilloried by this crowd for sexual harassment. Indeed, if this crowd had their way, the literary canon would be bereft of any romances with social/sexual norms predating 2010.
To be clear, I don't think "Love Mate" is a particularly good BL (too fluffy and too cliched), but I also don't find anything offensive in it, as so many here do. However, I did adore "My Beautiful Man," and found myself constantly defending that show from those accusing it of portraying "toxicity" and "co-dependency" during Season One. I had to remind them that love is often not pretty. Hell, in "Romeo and Juliet" one stabbed herself and the other drank poison. Would they call this "toxic co-dependency" as well? Lord, I hope not! LOL
________________________________________________________
The Best Film prize that this won in the Hong Kong Film Awards was entirely deserved, as was every word of praise it received in the Western Press. It's fresh, original, and sincere, while also imparting a terrific sense of the grittiness of a street kid's life in 90's Hong Kong. Best of all, it has real heart. The characters were conceived with a feeling so true that it translates to the viewer in ways at once tender, charming, funny and, alas, sad.
For instance, it's adorable when the male lead (Autumn Moon, played by Sam Lee in his 1st role), falls for a pretty, pixie, teenage girl since he says all the goofy things to court her that we'd imagine a sweet, word-addled, high school dropout saying to his crush (eg, he looks at her manicure the first time he asks her out, and defiantly says, "Who do you think you are, Madonna?"). Yet we no sooner laugh at Autumn Moon's clumsy pickup line than we're aching for him as he struggles to come up with cash for her life-or-death kidney surgery. The stakes are high, and this is signaled in a standout scene of the 2 teens joyously kissing........ in a cemetery.
I was equally touched watching tough, streetsy Autumn Moon take care of a large, slow-witted, boy whose family had abandoned him. There's a tenderness in how the small, skinny, clever teen cares for his big, dumb sidekick that echoes Lenny and George from "Of Mice and Men." And without giving spoilers I can say that this film, like that novel, kicks you in the stomach at the end. But the journey toward that ending is well worth it because the emotions are earned, and nothing felt false or contrived.
"Made In Hong Kong," was completed for a mere $80,000 but had me more emotionally invested than any Hollywood Blockbuster where just one mega-movie-star's paycheck is fifty times that of this film's entire budget. Indeed, the actors in this were all virtually unknown novices at the time. This makes it all the more impressive that the actors gave such ace performances evoking their characters' innocence, confusion, and love for each other.
Lastly, do not be fooled by the small number of viewers, nor the low rating on this MDL page. MDL is a new site wherein people rarely visit pages for movies made over 5 years ago, and this was made 25 years ago. For a truer measure of this film's quality just google the professional critical reviews and you'll find it was highly regarded both at home in Hong Kong, and internationally.
Alas, she was too weak to speak up and, instead, manipulated Souta into playing her boyfriend. Because she clearly has a crush on Souta and wanted to get him involved her life on a regular basis. This messes things up for Souta, while also making the poor boss feel even more rejected. In short, she's one of those weak, passive kind of girls, whom you'd never peg as a manipulator, but actually is.
I just dropped Gaga at the end of April and when I hear things like how this show is buffering badly, I realize I made the right choice.