Boiling Point (1990)

After his directorial debut with “Violent Cop”, Takeshi Kitano’s first original screenplay that he directed is a work of pure fantasy, letting his mind wonder in a film that is mad as it is playful. “Boiling Point” (“3-4 x juugatsu”) is a film without purpose, featuring a string of characters who fit that bill. While actions have consequences, there is no sense that anyone has learnt from the whole experience.

Masaki (Yurei Yanagi) is part of an amateur baseball team, but one who essentially has little skill or knowledge of the game. He spends more time in the toilet than at the plate. Working as a garage attendant, he lashes out when an arrogant yakuza criticises his worthlessness, putting the garage on the wrong side of the unlawful. The coach of his baseball team Iguchi (Taka Guadalcanal) is a former yakuza himself and so tries to use his former connections to get the garage off the hook. Instead, Masaki has let both his employers and coach feel the wrath of the yakuza.

Out for revenge, Masaki wants to get a gun and Okinawa is seen as the less-than-convenient location to obtain one. Teammate Kazuo (Duncan) agrees to tag along with him, and the all-too-convenient trip sees them obtain the weapon from local yakuza Uehara (Kitano). But the journey proves little more than a wild weekend away, as they have no knowledge of how to use a gun, so Masaki decides to blow it all to Hell.

His first script, the plot here is essentially meaningless. While Kitano made “Violent Cop” his own from what was a fairly formulaic starting point, “Boiling Point” is the point where director Kitano meets actor, comedian and all-round celebrity “Beat” Takeshi. The director is thoughtful, artistic and minimalist; whereas his alter ego is wild and untamed, making this very much the true debut as a filmmaker.

Away from the slow and plodding scenes on the mainland, the scenes in Okinawa, in which Uehara feature, are a wild party of play, alcohol, sex and violence. His editing means that a lot of the violence on the mainland happens off screen – to good comedic effect – but in Okinawa, it’s all laid out in front of us. Machine gun fire, fist fights and rape are all put on show for us. Interestingly, however, the comedic effect is still the same. Much of this is down to the on-screen presence of “Beat” Takeshi as the wonderfully perverse and violently dangerous Uehara. His kindness in helping out the two hapless young fools fresh off the plane is more down to his destructive desire to take on allcomers. Uehara is a man who wants to rush headfirst into oblivion, with a smile on his face as he does it.

Azuma in “Violent Cop” was clearly a man destined to meet a dangerous end, and Uehara likewise. But what makes Uehara different is the sheer pleasure he seems to take in it. “Beat” Takeshi’s suicidal on-screen self is very much introduced here, with the editing forming flashforwards in his mind as he pictures his own demise. Much of the abuse he delivers is unnecessary: he does it for sheer pleasure.

The editing is the film’s strength – used in various ways to good effect. Not only the comedy of missed violence, but also in the absurd situations it throws Uehara and his followers in. What is he going to do next? one wonders. The single-take scene in the karaoke bar sums up the film completely in its sheer pointlessness of violence and drunken revelry; the final editing again perfected for Kazuo’s overindulgence.

But, as the first meeting of Kitano and “Beat” Takeshi, this is very much raw in its structure and purpose. Much like “Getting Any?” after it, this is a film in which “Beat” Takeshi gets his way, resulting in a night out that refuses to end. Part of the comedy is in just how convenient everything seems to slot into place for our ‘heroes’: The gun is handed over fully loaded; the ease in which Kazuo slips passed security.

“Boiling Point” is difficult to take seriously, but Kitano never gives us cause to. This is a loosely connected set of sketches without explanation. We are left with so many questions, but are given no answers at any point. Many things could have been omitted, but Kitano keeps them in as if to play with us. Fantasy takes over from reality, but as the final scene shows us: that is what it always was. Any meaning, explanation, or indeed coherence, is, therefore, excused as it was never meant to be real. Much of what was tried out here would become key features of Kitano’s later works; here in a much rawer form. “Violent Cop” is the better film, but “Boiling Point” is the real starting point for Takeshi Kitano as a filmmaker.