A Snake of June
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DVD details
Actor: Asuka Kurosawa, Mansaku Fuwa, Tomoko Matsumoto (II), Tomorowo Taguchi, Yuji KohtariDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 77 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Tartan Video
DVD Reviews of A Snake of June
DVD Review: explore your inner dark side...
Summary: 4 Stars
alot of people have expressed dissatisfaction for this film, i feel maybe its because the people compare this to his other works a little too rash, but maybe not. shinya tsukamoto is one of of my top favorite directors & i found this film to be quite a pleasureable film experience (though often throughout the film you cant tell whether the characters pleasure or disquietude; i think thats what i enjoyed the most). the cinematography is bliss; a grand blue tinted b/w & plenty of rain to fit the mood. i enjoyed the three central characters as well, finding tsukamoto's character, iguchi, to be my favorite. perhaps because he is the most complex character throughout the film. sure, his "personal & devestating" secret is revealed towards the film's conclusion, but even that aside, you never really pick up upon what is really driving his behavior and actions towards tatsumi. a logical person would maybe identify a sense of sadomasochism, but i like to think deeper than that, almost as if through this "sadism" he is freeing her from a life she thinks she wants, but in her heart, knows she doesnt.
i think maybe viewers were approaching this one more logically because it was less abstract than, say the tetsuo films, or even vital. it focused more on what could be a realistic situation and often a cliche in mystery films(the married couple who's life is shattered by a voyeaur's constant prowl/spy)which did not end like a cliche mystery would, but then again, tsukamoto never really presents this film as a mystery, to me it seems more like a symblism used through urban lore about someone who has lost hope in himself and attempted to, in his own point of view, try and restore hope to the person who helped him find his again, or so it may seem...
i honestly find it hard(& innapropriate) to summarize snake of june or any of tsukamoto's films like an elementary schoolkid would on some book report, so all i can say is that though this is not a good place to start in viewing tsukamoto's films, it is a still a worthy watch, especially if you are already a fan of tsukamoto, or are just open to watching something completly different.
DVD Review: The movie that should make Shinya Tsukamoto famous in America.
Summary: 4 Stars
A Snake of June (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2002)
There are those, and they are legion, who find those of us who contend that the Japanese simply make better movies overall than the Americans these days are just some sort of film snobs with a fetish for foreignness. I would answer that those people should, as just one example of what I'm talking about, take A Snake of June and hold it up against any American sexual psychodrama of the past twenty years (and, come to think of it, the only one I can really find to compare it to is Jane Campion's woefully terrible In the Cut). The simple fact of the matter is that Americans, whether it be filmmakers themselves or the studios who distribute the films, simply aren't capable of coming up with stuff like this. It's just not in our nature or something.
The tale follows Iguchi (Shinya Tsukamoto), who begins as a suicidal photographer. He calls a suicide hotline and is talked out of killing himself by Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa). He grows obsessed with her and her husband Shigehiko (Yuji Kohtari) and begins stalking them, setting in motion events that will take all three on journeys of self-revelation.
That's a woefully incomplete synopsis, but little revelations (such as why Iguchi was suicidal in the first place, and how he makes his presence known to Rinko) pop up sporadically throughout the film that ripple into the greater revelations, and so pretty much everything in the film after the first ten minutes or so is a spoiler. All I can do is say "trust me, the plot's taken care of." And it's a fine plot, if a bit impressionist (this should be no surprise to those who are already familiar with Tsukamoto's work). The actors are very good at what they do, and all the other technical details are nicely done. But what makes this film so compelling is, of course, Shinya Tsukamoto's vision, both literally and figuratively. Figuratively because it's hard to imagine, here in America, that films can still be this deliciously shocking; literally because Kaijyu Theater films have a certain look to them. Shinya Tsukamoto has gotten away from the biotechnological obsessions of his earlier films, but he has retained much of the visual style that made Tetsuo such a nightmarish experience; years of practice, of course, have honed it somewhat, and toning down the subject matter brings the visual style a bit more into focus. It's a kind of blend of the Hong Kong martial arts flick and Polanski's Knife in the Water, if that makes any sense.
This is very, very good stuff, and well worth tracking down. ****
DVD Review: Not as strong as it should have been
Summary: 3 Stars
One of the great things about A Snake of June is the use of the blue lens/filter through which this black and white film was shot. As the cinematographer explains in one of the two excellent extra featurettes that come with the DVD, the blue was used to give the feeling of water. June is the rainy month in Japan and just like in the film Seven, it rains throughout the entire film.
The combination of the blue tint/tinge, the rain, and the growing eroticism should have resulted in a building of intensity, which did take place in Tsukamoto (the director)'s films Iron Man and Body Hammer. But the problem in A Snake of June is that once a certain degree of intensity is reached, there is not much more that can be done. So the film, while not floundering, does not really leave the viewer satisfied, so to speak, once about the midpoint has come and gone.
Even though Rinko, the female protagonist, does become sexier past that midpoint mark, the intensity that is piled on--among other things, using a surreal peep show that kind of bursts into view out of the blue (so to speak)--does not really add anything. In fact, the peep show and the appearance of an appendage that definitely recalls Iron Man seem much more forced and tacked on here than similar events do in either Iron Man or Body Hammer (the Iron Man sequel).
Tsukamoto himself has a leading role in this film; he's the stalker that galvanizes the action, the catalyst that transforms Rinko from a shy social worker into a walking object of pleasure. Her husband sleeps on a couch, typically, and this for a woman can be frustrating, just like it would for a man if his wife did the same thing.
It would have been a much better film if there had been a stronger emphasis on Rinko's psychology. In Iron Man and Body Hammer, there was no need to focus on these internal elements because the external ones of flesh becoming metal were so bizarre that there was no need for an internal focus. But in A Snake of June, Tsukamoto turns his intent and attention inward, or tries to, but he doesn't go far enough.
This should have been a much better film that it is.
DVD Review: Tsukamoto can do better. Much better.
Summary: 2 Stars
I like Shinya Tsukamoto. He's a great director (TOKYO FIST), a talented actor (ICHI THE KILLER) and an imaginative writer (TETSUO), but I didn't care for A SNAKE OF JUNE. It starts out alright with a repressed wife being blackmailed to act out her own sexual fantasies - example: walking around in public in a miniskirt with an active sex toy inside her. That part was interesting, but then it starts going on about her lame husband and I lost interest quick.
Nowhere near sexy enough or surreal enough to recommend.
DVD Review: surreal but not real surreal
Summary: 3 Stars
I do not know if this director is related to Akira or not since the last name is same but the movie is very mediocore - but I was used to watching Passolini so this cannotr really hold my attention -
Rinko , the primary charaster has tried her best but direction fails her - photography could have been so much better considering this is black and white only. The scope of work is so much more in black and white frames -
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