Seven
years before Sion Sono hit cinematic gold with his SUICIDE
CIRCLE (2001), he made this minor masterpiece
of quiet desperation. Those cult fans who have only seen the prolific
director’s recent work (often called his Cinema Of Excess) like
TAG,
VIRGIN
PSYCHICS and TOKYO
TRIBE, will be duly impressed by this stoic study of an aging
criminal and a young property agent. The film makes a considerable impression.
Not
to be confused with the American phenomenon, Tommy Wiseau's The Room
(2003), this motion picture from Sion Sono is a tribute to the
very art of filmmaking. The central character is a nameless world-weary
hitman who goes to a rental agency in search an apartment. An agent
[identified only by her employee number 849957] listens intently to
his requirements: a room with an April breeze so he can smell the cherry
blossoms, a view that is not obscured by nearby tall buildings, and
it must be quiet as possible. They go apartment hunting for most of
the day but nothing seems quite right. That evening, the killer meets
a former associate (who laments that he's killed so many people that
he now hears the dead whispering to him) and this brings back a memory
of his most recent hit. The following day, as the agent begins showing
her client other options, she suddenly realizes what he's really searching
for...
A Japanese black-and-white
production with good English subtitles;
fullscreen format, uncut 91 minutes, encoded for ALL REGION NTSC,
playable on any American machine. Extras include Sion Sono trailers.
