If you're looking for entertainment at face value then Why Don't You Play in Hell is for you, compared with Sono's other psychological films like Himizu or epic, Love Exposure. WDPH is full of pleasure. It's an action-comedy guerrilla style, sometimes a teenage love story, sometimes a violent off-with-the-head shot or sometimes just...whatever. And that's totally okay. If it doesn't make sense, if it can't be explained, that's okay. WDPH is just that. It's a mish-mash of things that's suppose to be entertaining for everyone. Action, comedy, love story, friendship..yada, yada.
I especially love how all the sub-plots and story line just come in together and blend in towards the later part of the film. First, a yazuka story. Then, a rebellious young adult who meets a man that has loved her...for 10 year after seeing her in a commercial. Then an amateur-yet-passionate film crew that just wants to make the movie of the century. And all these story lines come in because of one thing: film. And here you are, watching a film too. Film-ception?
Everyone here is great. Angry, sad, crazy, all these emotions portrayed by the actors were great. Some of them I'm seeing the first time on screen. Everyone has such good chemistry, you can't really hate anyone...even with all the killing and blood. It's just so hilarious how Sono combines all the blood with comedy, all the killing and still make it feel so...light and heavy at the same time. The thing is, as you watch, you're always in for a surprise. You'll never know what to expect because of this mish-mash and unorthodox style. That's what's going to keep you hanging.
A slight comment on Fumi Nikaido. This is the third film that I've seen her in and yet again, she proves how much of a versatile actress (who got nominated for her performance here in the Asian Film Awards) she is. Heavy drama in Himizu, forbidden love in My Man and now a rebellious fighter. But she still keeps her signature acting that I totally love: that secrecy in her eyes that actually makes her scary (and very fun to watch).
Cinematography, sound and mere 35mm comparisons to digital is tackled and very much in sync with the overall film. If I can describe WDYPH, it's creatively entertaining. This is probably Sono's ode to Asian cinema and proves just how much amazing it can be.
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Funny, Original, and Excellently Performed
I'm no fan of Sion Sono, and find most of his stuff to be overly stylized, overly long, bombastic explosions of an Auteur Director who takes himself far too seriously. Which is why I was so surprised by how this movie not only pokes fun of such directors, but does such a spanking good job of it.It is a brilliantly funny, original, and excellently performed movie about a guerilla group of filmmakers called "The Fuck Bombers" who are making, yep, a movie. Meaning, we get a movie within a movie. And since they are filming a real life Yakuza war, this means they get down with gangsters in the actual act of killing each other; hence, portraying how The Fuck Bombers will die for their art.
It is Sion Sono's meta movie with in-jokes on the nature of making movies, and the obsessives who make them.
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