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Starring
:
Keishu
Tsumagata
Manabu
Inoue
Rakendra
Moore
Hataro
Jurokuhari
Kuniichi
Takami
Producer
:
John
Foster
Director
:
John
Foster
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KYOTO
NOCTURNES, PART 1: ELEGANT SLAUGHTER (2005)
Reviewed
by Rob Daniel
Darkly
comic, stylishly violent and twenty minutes long, the first
instalment of John Foster's 'Kyoto Nocturnes' series has made
him a director to watch. And, as effective
as this ghostly tale of yakuza madness and murder is, the
truly mouth-watering news is 'Kyoto Nocturnes, Part 1: Elegant
Slaughter' marks the first of a proposed five part series.
In
the geisha district of Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, a
yakuza war rages between the Watanabe and Aihara gangs.
Boss Aihara's (Takami) latest hit on the Watanabe gang
has left Watanabe's army crippled, and Boss Watanabe (Tsumagata)
and his loyal lieutenant Uchida (Inoue) seek refuge in a seedy
bar, awaiting the final assault. In
desperation, Uchida hires the services of a cocksure
African-American hitwoman, K (Moore), to swing the balance of
power back in their favour, but Boss Watanabe's nightmarish
visions of his slain yakuza soldiers suggest he has already
lost the war. And what is the Consortium, a
shadowy group who may or may not be pulling the strings?
A
loaded Beretta of short film, 'Elegant Slaughter' begins the
'Kyoto Nocturnes' series with a bold and bloody bang.
Dropping the audience into the middle of a yakuza
conflict, the smart script deftly fills in the back-story,
while the tension wracks up as Aihara's army draws closer.
Made
on location in Japan with a limited budget, Foster uses the
bar as the principal location, but dynamic compositions
coupled with Akihiro Matsuura's infernal red photography avoid
a bland staginess. Tsumagata gives a
committed, exaggerated performance as the tortured Watanabe,
while Inoue’s loyal yet conflicted Uchida is straight out of
the yakuza movie tradition. Foster wears
his influences as a badge of honour, so consider 'Elegant
Slaughter' as 'Graveyard of Honour' meets 'Night of the Living
Dead', guest-starring 'Kill Bill’s Vernita Green, and then
get excited.
Despite
a short film budget, 'Elegant Slaughter' boasts two effective
action sequences. A galvanising opening
plays the sound of the Watanabe gang's slaughter over a black
screen, while a climactic assassination, with K garbed in a
geisha gown dispatching gangster goons, makes audacious use of
rapid editing and freeze frames. Watanabe's
confrontations with the grisly apparitions of his fallen
cohorts are also successful nods to horror cinema, invoking
the work of Romero and Raimi.
A
rewarding stand-alone experience, 'Elegant Slaughter' is also
an irresistible taster for stories yet to come. The
queue starts here.
Rating:
 
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