Including silliness and slapstick elements in extreme cinema seems to have become a tendency for Koji Shiraishi, with “Sadako vs. Kayako” being a testament to the fact .This time, these elements are applied to a distinctly exploitation film, that takes place in “a town in Japan, where the law is defunct, sociopaths dominate and murderers thrive”
A Beast in Love is screening at Japan FilmFest Hamburg
In this setting, we are introduced to the first four characters, three of which, the Boss, Futa and his girlfriend Shiori are tormenting the new guy on the job, Chuya, with the bullying getting a particularly violent turn. As soon as the three torturers decide to leave however, Chuya seems to experience a transformation to a wolverine of sorts, while the girl comes back to tell him to meet her in a bar, for the two to elope together. The next sequence introduces another sociopath, a crossdresser named Shohei Eno, who beats a man with a bike when he declines marrying him. The next part brings us to a bar, where the owner/bartender Jiro is having a fight with his girlfriend, which soon also turns up rather violent. It turns out, this is the bar Shiori asked Chuya to meet him, but eventually all the aforementioned protagonists end up there, and, expectedly, all hell breaks loose.
To begin with, as also mentioned in the prologue, this is a film that demands from its viewer a certain knack for absurdity, extreme violence and humor, which are presented through a combination that can be rather offensive, if the viewers take what they see seriously. What Shiraishi actually tries to do is mock a number of genre and cult concepts, with the movie including elements of western, romance, crime, not to mention serial killers, killers for hire and a werewolf. As soon as Shohei Eno appears on screen however, the fact that Shiraishi does not take seriously either the story or his protagonists, becomes rather evident, with the extremity, in this case, aiming at absurd humor. One could say that the mocking seems to point towards Tarantino style, including “From Dusk till Dawn” but eventually, the absurdity is what takes over.
In that regard, Shohei Uno as the similarly named crossdresser is the embodiment of the overall aesthetics, with his performance (and his appearance) being the most memorable in the whole movie, with the absurdity deriving from every word he utters and every move he makes.
Furthermore, the fact that a number of people who are sociopathic, and essentially professional killers are brought together first in a bar and then in a warehouse, also works quite for the narrative, with the first aspect inducing it with a stage-play like quality, and the second with a supernatural action thriller, only for the ending to shutter every notion of even these absurd elements, as romance takes over.
The action follows another combination, that of exploitation with manga-esque aesthetics, with the finale in particular leaning heavily towards the second, but even including splatter notions. In that regard, the mixture of cinematography, VFX and editing result in a number of scenes that are brutal as they are impressive, with the comedic/ironic elements being always present.
“A Beast in Love” is violent, absurd, nonsensical to an almost blasphemous degree genre mashup, that is bound to satisfy, though, all those who are looking for their entertainment in these elements.
