Review for Teruo Ishii's 'Screwed' (1998, aka 'Neji-Shiki', 'Wind-Up Type').

The second of two recently release Teruo Ishii films, issued in America by Panik House late August 2006 on R1 USA DVD...Tadanobu Asano stars in a Manga adaptation (source material by Yoshiharu Tsuge) about a depressed Manga creator on a downward spiral.

One of the very last films in Ishii's body of work, a Manga adaptation of a work by Yoshiharu Tsuge - of which there appear to have been more than a few films and TV shows produced over the years. Now, looking into Tsuge briefly, he is credited as having been responsible for the rise in semi-autobiographical mangas. I say 'semi-' because it's clear this isn't entirely autobiographical, considering the state of mind that's shown on film and hinted at elsewhere, I doubt Tsuge entirely remembers absolutely everything he puts into each tale he might be telling or that his life was particularly logical for large parts of it. The key to the film and the story within it is the increasingly frequent tangents it takes, suddenly Tsuge (played by Tadanobu Asano) is in a different location, different point in time, different state of mind.

As a narrative, it's a fairly traditional drama, although massively downbeat and sober for the most part, but the tangents increase the oddness. Then there's the other element of the story, the rapid decent into abstract logic, and coupled with the tangents we're taking, the film gets more and more dreamlike in its' logic as it progresses. Interesting idea, nicely deceptive and creeps up on you to take you by surprise, and if you later think back you'll be amazed at where the story started out.

Tsuge is a struggling Manga artist and writer, a creator, and although in an apartment (albeit briefly) and married (albeit briefly too, in some ways) he rapidly comes unstuck and life begins to slowly spiral beyond his grasp. It looks as though this character is very troubled and struggling with more than the idea of his job and wife, his inner demons are the elements responsible for the trail the story will take, and this plays out increasingly over the film. Shot on a very low budget, dialogue dubbed in post-production, and given an odd orange tint throughout, the limitations are obvious but it manages to shine (as does Ishii's final film, though less so in this case, 'Blind Beast Versus Killer Dwarf' from 2001). It's a fairly familiar style of film, a drama that's slow, though this is a brief film at 85 minutes, but it doesn't make it any less interesting - key to this is the increasing oddness, the tangents and spiraling logic - but it is the Ishii connection and the Asano lead that remain the most important saviors of a film that is an odd choice.

I think this film, more so than 'Blind Beast Versus Killer Dwarf', is a taste of what we need rather than what we want. In a sense the films are a chore, those films being better in the memory and in your thoughts rather than in the viewing experience, nothing uncommon and almost a preference of mine, these are step too far even for my admittedly odd self-set challenges. Ishii may well be a legend, a great Director is clearly at work here, but there's little experience of his work amongst the most ardent Japanese Cinema fans in the West, that is unless they speak Japanese, or have money beyond most peoples means - you'd have to import European DVD issued by Japan Shock, and they're regarded as a bit hit 'n' miss.

These are films much more likely to hit with those who've been in the position to experience Ishii's work as it appeared, those more likely on the same page of the story, rather than those blind-buying with even the best intent at heart. The choices may well have been made on cost grounds, but beyond that the subtitling jobs on the films feel lazy and flawed, the presentations are limited to the low-budget source materials, and because of Ishii's inherent diversity throughout his career these are not films to be selected or portrayed on simplistic terms.

'The Influential Manga of Yoshiharu Tsuge' at The Comics Journal.
Yoshiharu Tsuge at Wikipedia (in German).

ねじ式 x つげ義春 x 浅野忠信 x 塚本晋也 x 石井輝男