Year: 2004
Duration: 01:23:04
Directed by: Gô Shibata
Actors: Ariko Arita, Toshihisa Fukunaga, Naozô Hotta
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
Also known as: Late Bloomer
Description: In this “weird, wicked and wonderfully perverse” shocker from Japan, we meet Sumida, a disabled youthful guy marked by his wheelchair, his electronic voice package, his rampant alcoholism, and his appetite for porn. He is the item of pity among buddies as well as the abject to most everybody else. When a female student temporarily becomes his caregiver for research purposes, he mistakes her benign flirtation for true love. Her eventual rejection sends Sumida on a downward spiral in which his repressed rage erupts in outright revenge.
Review: To best describe the one, film can state that it’s the best elements of Tetsuo: The Iron guy, Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Taxi Driver, Freaks, and Psycho. You will find elements of directors Wakamatsu Koji, Werner Herzog, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Herschell Gordon Lewis in the film too. At times Late Bloomer has a Japanese New Wave quality to it in its penchant and immediacy for hand held camera work and at other times the movie spins down towards pure music video clip area. Most assuredly, the collusion of these elements should not be viewed as a bad thing-nor should they discount the film itself. Later Bloomer is almost like improv jazz: riffing on a little bit of everything.
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