Angel Dust
by Sogo Ishii
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Actor: Etsushi Toyokawa, Kaho Minami, Masayuki Shionoya, Ryoko Takizawa, Takeshi WakamatsuDirector: Sogo Ishii
Cinematographer: Norimichi Kasamatsu
Editor: Sogo Ishii
Writer: Sogo Ishii
Editor: Hiroshi Matsuo
Producer: Eiji Izumi
Producer: Kenz? Horikoshi
Producer: Taro Maki
Writer: Yorozu Ikuta
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 117 minutes
Release Date: 1998-10-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: New Yorker Video
Studio: New Yorker Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Angel Dust
Movie Review: A mind bending experience
Summary: 5 Stars
Sogo Ishii is certainly a genius - but that is an old and tired story. Angel Dust is a mind trip - pun intended. The story is labyrinthine in the sense that it gives nothing away until the last minute. A killer is murdering young women in a Tokyo subway. Setsuko is assigned to the case because of her past experience with issues of this nature. Trying to get into the mind of the killer, the lines between the personal and the professional begin to blur. The road leads to her "ex" Aku - which complicates the story even further. Foreign films, are to say the least, already somewhat inaccessible because of the language and cultural framework within which the story takes place. My sense is that despite this probably being unintended, Sogo Ishii uses that sense of isolation to his advantage. Granted that this film was perhaps designed for a Japanese audience it is nonetheless compelling for non-Japanese. Angel Dust is a multi-layered film with many twists and turns. The more cerebral and less blood and guts approach I have to admit I really appreciated. I found myself almost drawn in to the movie like I was to Andrei Tarkovsky's original version of Solaris (also available on Amazon.com). A little bit of Sake helps take the edge off - it is intense, it is fun and it is thought provoking.Miguel Llora
Movie Review: A triumph of style over substance
Summary: 4 Stars
A very creepy atmosphere makes up for a convoluted storyline that is often difficult to follow. Although I was frequently confused, I was impressed by the cold mood of the film and its depiction of a kind of psychological vampire who is attracted by the despair of others. I'm sure that much was lost in the translation. This film warrants another look someday. Some genuinely scary scenes.Movie Review: Something lost in the translation
Summary: 3 Stars
There's some interesting use of sound in "Angel Dust" and some splendid cinematography by Norimicho Kasamatu, especially of interiors and the memorable scene with many umbrellas. Kaho Minami, who plays the female lead, Setsuk Suma, a Tokyo "police psychologist," is beautiful, and her co-star Takeshi Wakamatsu, as psychologist Rei Aku, has an appealing rakishness about him. Unfortunately the plodding direction by Sogo Ishi lacks tension and rambles more than a bit. Add to that a convoluted mishmash of pop psychology, stilted dialogue, posed theatrics, and we have one long disappointment.The dialogue is probably not as bad as it appears in the English subtitles, which were very poorly edited with bad verb numbers, wrong tenses and some strange word translations, e.g., "re-brain-washing" for reprogramming. Or, "You're a pleasure homicidal mania" the killer is told, meaning the killer enjoys his work, I imagine. Annoying, unconvincing and too long were the "re-brain-washing" sequences presented in grainy, flickering black and white (we were supposed to be seeing them as on video tape). The idea of a religious cult member committing murders on the Tokyo subway is as real as newspaper headlines, of course, but the psychology behind the killings here didn't wash. The "religion" was so generic as to be anonymous. We felt nothing for the victims because they were not made real, nor were any of the characters except the leads really animated.
More than anything though this movie suffered from the miscasting of Kaho Minami as the police shrink. She was somewhat believable in her "disintegrating" phase (although the scene at Aku's sanatorium with him on the TV screen was unintentionally silly), but entirely too wimpy and dreamy to be convincing as any kind of cop. The scenes with her and Aku were interesting as far as they went; unfortunately, the sharp chemical contrast between his macho nature and her alluring femininity was not ignited. One had the sense they were saving that for after the film was over. Too bad. The androgynous nature of her husband and the killer seemed pointless, but again possibly something was lost in the translation.
I think what happened here is Sogo Ishi got caught between a theatrical tradition and some notions of Western style realism, and ended up with succotash.
Movie Review: absolute beauty
Summary: 5 Stars
this is not a movie; this is a piece of art.Movie Review: Sogo Ishii is an excellent director.
Summary: 5 Stars
Shocking images, a striking plot, and beautiful direction make "Angel Dust" a movie that you don't want to miss!
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