Boiling Point

Takeshi Kitano - 1990
Kitano's aesthetic of simple, almost Bressonian actions, laconic editing with ellipses on violence, jumping from before and after the blood is spilt. He uses sound really to convey the strikes. As Bresson again, he often constrcuts the scene (actually, more like Hitchock) from initially closer eyeline stuff, then can move out.
A classic Kitano compostion is a face looking ever so slightly to the left or right. Yet one always has the sense of exact geometry, partly because of very careful seperations in the staging, and clear shapes of the (always very important) objects around. Lots of straight on, blank faces (used very well in some impressionist lightening fast montage, absurdism clearly also), often at the bottom of the frame, though also can be at the top. They also take up a relatively thin amount of his pretty wide frame. He uses mainly a still camera, though can move in a bit, smooth moves, especially near the car, for some reason.
What really is Kitano on about, I wonder? The violence of the social contract, surely, seething undertones to everyday life. Brutality is really deeply sad, one has to say. I didn't feel as strongly in support of this film as certainly 'Hana-Bi' and 'Dolls'- which I regard as masterpieces, especially the former. Why? Perhaps I felt Kitano didn't quite have the same handle on his violence; or more simply, that his mis-en-scene had less beauty, the counterpoint, in it, in here the rather nondescript locations. Still, in many ways an excellent picture, always intriguing. And also; why Kitano himself inflicting the violence?