★★☆☆☆
10 March 2016
A movie review of A MAN'S FLOWER ROAD. |
“What do you want?” Sion Sono
“When will you grow up?” Sion Sono’s mother
In 1986, at 24 years old, prolific filmmaker (five movies in 2015) Sion Sono made his feature directorial debut. His hard to see 8mm, almost home movie, has been digitised and given English subtitles. For fans of the gonzo helmer, this is a rare treat, even if the longed-for experience turns out to be determinedly patience testing. (I counted 16 walkouts at my screening, though that was only a fraction compared to those of us who saw it through.) His anarchic, cult style is evidenced at the outset of his career, but in very rough form; like a punk sailor finding his sea legs.
“When will you grow up?” Sion Sono’s mother
In 1986, at 24 years old, prolific filmmaker (five movies in 2015) Sion Sono made his feature directorial debut. His hard to see 8mm, almost home movie, has been digitised and given English subtitles. For fans of the gonzo helmer, this is a rare treat, even if the longed-for experience turns out to be determinedly patience testing. (I counted 16 walkouts at my screening, though that was only a fraction compared to those of us who saw it through.) His anarchic, cult style is evidenced at the outset of his career, but in very rough form; like a punk sailor finding his sea legs.
Considering what he has thrown his casts into over the years, he did it to himself first. Directing, shooting and starring, Sion begins by running around an education campus in just an unbuttoned red raincoat, naked underneath, as he is pursued by a gang in white coats (ironic?). Fast cuts, shaking camera, mild rampaging goes on for an unexpectedly long time. Brief pause occurs for, how can one put this, for the auteur to unashamedly vacate his bowels in a public park. There does not appear to have been a stunt double!
Sion gets beaten up, brawls with everyone. This is YouTube stuff before the platform was a twinkle in the eye of the creative team. The more you have seen of Sono’s work, the more mildly amusing you will find initial proceedings. Newbies will (probably) be baffled, with their eyebrow raised quizzically higher than on the fans’ faces. The only stony faced patrons are likely to be out-there rivals, Beat Takeshi and Takashi Miike.
The rambunctiousness continues to a canal where Sion fights a couple of guys poorly dressed as kappas – half men, half turtles (for more of them, you can see UNDERWATER LOVE and YAKUZA APOCALYPSE). How was Sono not arrested? The question will come up again, as he takes one of those highway markers that paint white lines and covers the streets in paint – messaging “life sucks” in the middle of the road. Deep? Of course not.
The rest of the runtime is concerned with his family life. Hyperactive in a docile household, Sion literally climbs up the walls.
Surreal, natch. Sporadically funny, check. Bonkers, most definitely.