BLUES HARP (1998)
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring: Naoya Narita, Youichiro Onishi
Genre: Yakuza/Drama
Running Time: 110mins

Rating:

Stumbling into the back alley of a Blues club, bruised and battered Yakuza foot soldier Kenji's future lays at the hands of barman Chuji as rival gang members hound the streets. As a result of saving his life Chuji is befriended by the influential Kenji. With new prospects in life and a more secured social status Chuji for the first time is achieving his aims. However, this new friendships hides a secret, one that can bring an end to both parties happiness as fate, consequence and destiny highlight the corruptive nature of power and greed.

Blues Harp represents an extra dimension to Takashi Miike's abilities as a filmmaker. While some may refer to it as a departure from the gore laden offerings that make the headlines, the fact is that Blues Harp is not necessarily a "departure" but a continuation of his ability to tell a very "human", emotional story without resorting to the often "show all" trappings of his brutally black humoured back catalogue.

For fans of his work, Blues Harp rests among the many other examples of "subdued" Miike, from The Bird People of China and Guys From Paradise, and to a lesser extent, Rainy Dog. The emphasis is less on bodily fluids, phallic imagery and debauchery but more about character interaction, social status and consequence. Blues Harp is proof of Miike's diversity (something that is often overlooked) as one of the most exciting directors internationally.

Sure there are flaws, a 3 frame close-up of a penis highlights a slight lapse in restraint sitting out of place within the tone of the film, meanwhile the live performances of the house band are filmed with a lack of vibrancy with flat angles and occasional shots of seemingly "embarrassed" extras struggling to appear natural, the musical sequences are very much a radical flipside from the assured montage of its opening sequence (a pre-cursor to Dead or Alive's mind-blowing intro) as each performance outstays its welcome offering little in the way of excitement or character insight.

However, these are just minor flaws in an otherwise tightly held together tale of friendship, love and identity woven into an otherwise generic Yakuza story of double-cross and the corruptive nature of power. In some ways the narrative plot pre-cursors his later films of Agitator and Deadly Outlaw Rekka (aka Violent Fire) in terms of the replacement of the old with the new. However, Blues Harp does not rely solely upon its plot of consequence and coincidence, it is the heart inside it that drives the film to last long in your memory.

From some beautifully subtle moments (lush sepia tinted childhood memories, a re-conciliation between father and son, and contentment) often played out without dialogue, to the explosive violence which here serves the extra emotional punch the film needs. The fact is that in Blues Harp you care about the characters, and whether it be a punch thrown, or a gun fired there is a "flinch" factor, a sense that something valuable could be lost. It is this connection to both film and characters that sets such a high regard for Miike's film.

With complex relationships of unrequited love featuring strongly amongst the cast from the affection of Kenji to Chuji, Kenji's right hand man Kaneko to Kenji, and the false relationship between Kenji and his boss' moll [expertly handled by Miike who reveals Kenji's disgust through a rigorous re-cleansing of his body], the emphasis it seems is on life and on struggling to grasp hold of what it is we cannot reach. In a somewhat bleak view on this theme, it would seem that the more you push the less you get. In Blues Harp lives are changed by fate, greed and consequences from the past, all will catch up with you in the end.

Exhilarating stuff