Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a made for TV film from 2002. That movie is "Sabu".
Now, this film has a little bit of an interesting history to it. You see, this movie was originally made for TV to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Nagoya Broadcasting Network. Which, for those of you not familiar, is a broadcasting studio over in Japan. And then the film was later released theatrically. Now what's interesting about this is that the made for TV film was only 90 minutes. But when it was released in theaters, it was given an extended runtime of 2 hours. Now I'm going to assume that it was probably 90 minutes on TV thanks to commercials and stuff, but it's interesting to me that they did release it in theaters later on. Whether that was because the film was popular enough to get a theatrical release or they really wanted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Nagoya Broadcasting Network in a big way. But regardless of the reasoning, it still ran for 2 hours, which is what I'm gonna be covering tonight.
Now the main reason why I actually did want to check this movie out is because it was directed by a man named Takashi Miike. And despite me only covering 3 of his movies for this series, I've really enjoyed all 3 of them. And I'm hoping tonight's movie will continue that trend. Granted, I don't know much about the plot, aside from the fact that this movie's story takes place in the Edo period of Japan. Beyond that, I didn't really bother to read up on what the plot is because I'd rather go into it as blind as I possibly can.
So yeah, I'm really hoping that this movie will be good. I'm not totally sure if it will be or not, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I am gonna find out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Sabu".
8 minutes later
I will say this much, guys. I am really liking the music in this movie. It has that old-style Japanese feeling to it. Which, obviously, makes sense, since this film does take place in the Edo period of Japan and all. But still, I'm really liking the music here so far. I'm hoping the story will produce the same kind of results, but I'll just have to wait and see for now.
19 minutes later
OK, so they finally explained why Eiji was sent to that island workhouse in the first place. Apparently, some golden-colored cloth was in his bag and it is worth a lot of money. How exactly the cloth got into his bag, I don't know yet. But at least it explains how Eiji got there in the first place. So at least that's something.
14 minutes later
So, guys, just based on what I've seen from Eiji-oh my bad, "Bushu"'s behavior, it seems to me that he's suffering an inferiority complex of sorts. I know that's probably not what the film is suppose to be aiming for with his character, but to me, it just kinda feels that way right now with him.
4 minutes later
OK, this is starting to bug me a little bit now. I get what they're trying to say to Sabu about forgetting Eiji, but they've been repeating that same kind of dialogue 4 or 5 different times now, and I'm starting to get tired of it. Just thought I'd let you guys know.
18 minutes later
Wait, how does this woman even know Osue stole the gold cloth? And I want a better answer than "oh, it's a woman's intuition" thing, because that, to me, is just an excuse of 'fuck you, that's why'. I'm hoping the movie will provide a better answer than the one this woman gave out, because I don't buy that whole 'woman's intuition' thing for a moment. I just don't.
17 minutes later
Wait, so this woman, who Sabu just met for all of less than a minute, mind you, asks him that she needed to borrow some money. And Sabu, again, who *just* met this woman, is just gonna lend him all the money that he has, without even asking *why* she wants the money to begin with. Um...no. I'm sorry, but if somebody was asking me to borrow money, I would ask them, first, how much do you need, and what do you need it for. That's just common freakin' sense! But then again, maybe some people in the Edo period hadn't developed common sense yet, so I'm just gonna chalk that one up to Sabu being stupid as hell.
9 minutes later
Well, guys, I am willing to admit that, despite having a bad leg, Eiji can still kick a ton of ass with that crutch of his. That is kinda badass, really.
The Review
OK, well, guys, that was "Sabu". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well...I may as well start off by saying this. I went into this movie with pretty high expectations. And the reason why I set them high is because it's from a director whose films that I really enjoy. So when I went into this one, I was expecting the same kind of results. And well...it's still a pretty good movie. However, if I were to rank this one amongst the 3 other movies that I've seen from him, this one would rank at the bottom of it. In other words, guys, this movie sorta disappointed me. Not entirely, mind you, just a little bit. That being said, however, I'm not entirely certain if it's a movie that I'm gonna be watching again anytime soon.
So now that I've gotten my summarized thoughts out of the way, let's go straight into it here. I'm gonna start with the writing, as I usually do for in a lot of these reviews. And I'm gonna start with the dialogue, because that is one of the biggest problems that this movie has, in terms of writing. Now part of it has to do with repetition. See, for the first 45 minutes or so, the characters in this movie will constantly tell Sabu to "forget him", AKA Eiji, who's been sent to an island workhouse for a crime that he did not commit. Now I do get why they are telling him this. They want Sabu to move on with this life, be independent, start a business, etc. That's all fine and good...except we are told this same kind of dialogue about 5 or 6 different times, and by that point, it gets old really quickly and you're gonna be sick and tired of hearing it. Now admittedly, the movie does eventually move on from that repetitive dialogue after the first 45 minutes or so. It's just a shame that it almost took up the first half of the movie to get there, but regardless, they do move on from it.
That brings me into the next problem with this movie's writing. Almost nothing of interest actually happens here. This movie has lot of scenes where characters are talking and almost nothing of value comes from it. Now, I want to compare this movie with another film that was also directed by Miike, which also came out 3 years prior to this one, called "Audition". That movie also had a lot of characters talking with each other and, similar to "Sabu", it also runs nearly 2 hours long. But the reason why "Audition" worked better is because stuff was actually happening, and it was actually building up to something. Sure, it was kind of a slow build, but they were still building up to the big climax towards the latter half of the movie. And by the time it reaches that moment of the movie, it ends up having a huge payoff.
"Sabu", on the other hand, really doesn't have *anything* related to a payoff of sorts. There's characters talking, but there's not much happening that makes you care about what's going on. The only kind of exception I can think of is when there's a storm going on at the island workhouse, and Eiji and the prisoners all have to work together to try and keep everything on the island stable. But aside from that, there's not really anything else going that I can think of is even worth mentioning. There's just a lot of characters talking and, well, like I said, almost nothing of interest comes from it.
Now, I probably would be OK with all this, if this film was taking it's sweet time developing its characters. But sadly, that's not really the case here. Almost every character in this movie comes off as incredibly flat and boring. Our main character, Sabu, is honestly kind of whiny whenever he has to cry. Although I'll get more into that when I cover acting. Eiji is more focused on, as he tries to survive his time on the island. And again, it probably should've worked, but even he suffers from a boring personality because he doesn't go through any real changes in the movie, aside from towards the end, which comes as a little anti-climatic. Not even the prisoners that he's made friends with are interesting whatsoever because they're not all that important to the overall story. Not even his girlfriend, Osue, who, a bit of a spoiler, is the one who actually put the gold cloth into Eiji's bag and her reasoning for it is really kinda stupid. I won't spoil why, if you're really curious in checking this movie out. Just don't expect a halfway decent explanation out of it.
So...yeah, this one is kinda hard to admit, but the writing here is definitely the weakest thing about this movie. Now again, I will state that the movie itself isn't necessarily bad, it's just nowhere near as strongly written as the other movies that I've seen from Miike up to this point. Now, I will say that, despite all the problems the writing does have, the acting is mostly really solid. The only one I would say that turns in a somewhat flimsy showing is the actor playing Sabu. Now I say somewhat flimsy, because his acting is mostly pretty solid...at least until he has to start crying, and it feels rather flaky. I get that acting while crying is somewhat difficult to pull off, but he doesn't exactly pull that off very well here. The rest of the acting, though, like I said, is pretty solid for the rest of the actors, even if the script that they were given to work with was on the weak side.
I will also say that the sets here, along with the costuming and makeup effects look great. You can tell how much effort was put into it by that aspect, along in trying to nail down on how people looked during the Edo period of Japan. It's really impressive to see. There really isn't much I can say about special effects, aside from blood effects, which are very, very little here to begin with. It's ultimately nothing special.
Camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is fine. The sound-mix here is good, too. The score in this movie is also great. Like with the costuming and makeup effects, the music also feels like it came from the Edo period of Japan, and it's great stuff. I actually really like the music here. So yeah, I can say that much when it comes to this movie.
Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Sabu"? It's kinda difficult to answer that, honestly. I would say that if you are someone who likes the works of Takashi Miike and you want to see something of his that you haven't seen yet, I could maybe recommend this one as a rental. If you can find it on DVD for cheap, or if you can find it somewhere online, I would say it's worth checking out at least once. But to watch it multiple times over...I'm not entirely sure I can say that. Like I said, the writing here is the biggest weak point of this entire movie. And it may not be enough to watch it again on repeat viewings. Now who knows? If you really liked this movie more than I did, then I say go for it. It might totally be worth your time. But as for me, personally speaking, I just don't see myself watching this thing again anytime soon, if ever. Which is really disappointing to say, because I really like Miike's work as a director, but this one didn't exactly win me over as it should. But that's OK, because I do have his other movies that I've covered for this series on my DVD shelf. In fact, I think I'm gonna go watch one of them right now. I think "Audition" will be perfect for this one because it's my personal favorite of his. So I'm gonna go watch that next once I get done typing this one up.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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