Shôwa kayô daizenshû (2003) Online

Karaoke Terror. Just like the title suggests... nuts! Based in Japan, a young man murders a middle-aged woman who refuses him carnal knowledge. Her five divorced, middle-aged friends seek revenge, which ignites a feud with his five friends. The anty is upped with each vengeful, retaliatory strike.

Understand that this film is a black comedy that never takes itself seriously and if you try and take the film seriously, you won't enjoy it. It does offer interesting commentary on the dullness of middle-age, friendship loyalty, and the way in which folks communicate, however, the complete package is nothing more than a dizzying, wild ride. It is not meant to be some profound demonstration. At least, to take it so would be ridiculous.

Love it or hate it, this movie will definitely have an impact. It starts with a gratuitous murder that triggers a downward spiral of revenge between two rival factions: middle-aged women known as "The Midoris" and a group of young slackers.

With each gruesome murder comes a slightly more powerful retaliation, which leads to the spectacular finale.

Characters are deep and well thought out. Most of them being completely insane. Yoshio Harada (Gessai the Assassins' Sensei from Azumi) is hilarious as a petty arms dealer with a delusional fixation on what is the greatest plague in human history and a dubious definition of a "noble cause".

You will either laugh yourself silly or be utterly disturbed. You shouldn't miss it either way.

This is a good dark comedy, some of which actually translates well, of two feuding Showa Karaoke groups. One group consists of young males. Sugako initiates the feud by killing a member of the woman's group who refused his sexual advances. The "middle aged" women call themselves "Hemmi" which appears to be a form of Hemi or half since they are all divorced. The method of killing escalates with each kill. This would make a great American film. Warning: The DVD back cover has plot spoilers in that it shows the first three kills.

Guide: F-bomb, nudity, sexual groping.

adapted from a novel by ryu murakami (audition, coin locker babies, happiness of the katakuris), of course, you would expect a bizarre and mean-spirited film about the more twisted and unsavory characters in japan.

and this you get.

unfortunately, this film is not very interesting unlike murakami's other novels and films. we're privvy to a group of overly-indulgent middle aged Japanese women who spend their time singing karaoke together and trying to pick up younger men. their name: the midoris.

we then meet their nemesis: a group of horny 20something boys (reminiscent of the cast of porky's) who also adore karaoke and the musical 'cabaret' and engage in a major war with the old ladies once one of the boys murders one of them.

from here ensues a boring testament to senseless murders via: knives, guns, grenade launchers and an atomic bomb (no, this is not a takashi miike film about yakuza).

generally unfunny and grimly disastrous. if you have 2 hours to yawn through, watch this one. otherwise, see one of murakami's other works.

It's hard to say, but perhaps this film was meant as a comedy...but I really am not sure. In fact, I am not sure what its exact purpose was....I just know that despite looking nice, it's an awful film--and I don't say this very often. In fact, among my nearly 10000 reviews on IMDb, I am sure it's the first time I've gone this far. It is awful because the ending is just horrible...and very insensitive--but I'll say more about that later.

The film consists of switching between two groups. One consists of men in their 20s who get together to do karaoke--and do it in a very strange and grand manner. The other is a group of ladies in their 30s who get together as well--and they are unified by all being named Midori and all being in their 30s and divorced. These disparate groups come into contact when one of the men, for absolutely no discernible reason, brutally murders one of the women. The ladies track down the killer and in turn kill him. The men then obtain a gun and kill the female killer--and it HORRIBLY escalates from their to almost comical proportions...ALMOST. By the end of the film, they are using rockets and even a so-called 'gas bomb' to kill thousands--perhaps many many thousands of innocent people.

If this was meant to be comedy, I'd hate to imagine what else they think is funny....all I know is that the killings in the film were brutal, unfunny and cruel. I got the movie because I thought it was going to be a quirky comedy. There were some oddly comic touches (such as the weird psychic lady) but even the Marquis de Sade would fail to laugh at the rest of the movie. It's pretty sad when a movie ends and I STILL have no idea what its purpose or message was. All I know is that the immolation scene was reminiscent of Hiroshima or 9/11 and just seemed sick. What were they thinking?! With a few changes, this could have been a funny black comedy--as it is, I only give it a 2 because at least the acting was pretty good in this nasty and irresponsible film.