BAD FILM / BAD FILM
Japan / 2012 / 161 min.
Director: SONO Sion
[Introduction]
"BAD FILM" is a legendary production that was shot in 1995 over the course of the year, but went unfinished due to funding difficulties. This year, over 150 hours of footage captured on the now obsolete format Hi-8 (8-millimeter high resolution video), was re-edited to create a stunning work of cinema. Its concept: "Near the end of the 20th century on Tokyo's Chuo train line, just before Hong Kong's return to Chinese control, masses of people go on a rampage, and love runs wild." Its premise sees Koenji being taken over by Chinese, and running battles erupting on a tremendous scale between Japanese vigilantes and foreigners on the Chuo Line, Shinjuku, and elsewhere. Most of the cast are members of Tokyo GAGAGA, a performance collective formed by director SONO Sion in 1993. A succession of awe-inspiring setpieces unfold that would normally be regarded as impossible to accomplish, such as a clash between the rival groups shot guerilla-style inside the first Chuo Line train of the morning, and a massive brawl in front of the Shinjuku Alta building for which over 100 extras were mobilized. Let it be called a masterwork that encapsulates every element found in SONO's films to date.
SONO Sion
Born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Debuted as a poet at the age of 17, and began making 8mm films at Hosei University. Won the Pia Film Festival's Grand Prize in 1986 for "A Man's Flower Road", and his subsequent PFF Scholarship film "Bicycle Sighs" (90) was screened at Berlin, Vancouver, and many other festivals. "The Room" (93) and "Noriko's Dinner Table" (05) won awards at the Sundance and Karlovy Vary film festivals respectively, and "Love Exposure" (08) received the Caligari Film Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. In recent years he has been particularly prolific, directing "Cold Fish" (10), "Guilty of Romance" (11), "Himizu" (11), and "The Land of Hope" (12).
