Kamikaze Taxi (1995) [Film Review]

Kamikaze Taxi; or, The Winds of the Andes

     I heard music. Not Japanese pop. Not heavy metal either. It was music. I just felt he and I could become friends.

Taxi transportation is so popular in the realm of cinema. Martin Scorsese made the immortal Taxi Driver in 1976, Luc Besson wrote and produced Taxi (1998) comedy, whereas director Jang Hoon had the chance to tackle the subject matter in a 2017 movie. Let me tell you that the Japanese also had their piece of the action in 1995 with Masato Harada’s Kamikaze Taxi, a brutal satire on the topical problems which still continue to perplex the Japanese society.

Release Info

Directed by: Masato Harada Starring: Koji Yakusho, Kazuya Takahashi, Reiko Kataoka, Kenichi Yajima, Mickey Curtis

Language: Japanese Original Title: 復讐の天使 Runtime: 134 min (Theatrical Cut)

Synopsis
Tatsuo (Kazuya Takahashi) is a young yakuza member who is responsible for delivering prostitutes to high-profile clients. After a rough night, one of Tatsuo’s girls gets killed, whereas the other one is badly injured. The gangster wants revenge on a prominent politician (Taketoshi Naito) who did this, but his boss, Animaru (Mickey Curtis), forbids to take any action. Tatsuo disobeys the order and raids the politician’s household, stealing his savings in the process. Now, Tatsuo is on the run from the yakuza gangsters who want the money back, and his only chance to stay alive is a quirky taxi driver, Kantake Kazumasa (Koji Yakusho), who may look like a Japanese citizen, but is actually an immigrant worker of Peruvian nationality...

Wild Target
I was aware of the movie for quite some time primarily because I’m a fan of Koji Yakusho (actually, who isn’t?!), but I could check it out just recently thanks to kind souls on Youtube and their uploads (the movie is out of print). Well, the movie certainly subverts your expectations. I thought that this will be something like a happy-go-lucky flick crafted by Shinobu Yaguchi, but Kamikaze Taxi has more of a Takeshi Kitano touch but without Takeshi Kitano…

The opening sequence is just all over the place, and just as when I was about to turn the film off, the storyline finally started making some sense. Evidently, Masato Harada is not an auteur filmmaker focused on coherent storytelling. The film feels like a series of disjointed vignettes in which people either shot at each other, have prolonged death sequences, or deliver lofty monologues about life and justice.

Nevertheless, beneath all that V-Cinema sleaze, there is a masterpiece of a movie lurking and waiting to be discovered by the viewers. Kamikaze Taxi ruthlessly exposes such social issues as ultranationalist politicians, abuse of women, belief in New Age crap, drugs, genocide, distorting historical facts, and discrimination against immigrant workers. In consequence, our protagonists find themselves on a quest through the pathological margins of a society to kill the bad guys and put things right.

Definitive highlights of the movie are excellent cinematography as well as downright breathtaking music score composed by Masahiro Kawasaki. Allegedly, director Harada ordered the composer to listen to hours of Peruvian music because he wanted to have a soundtrack with South American vibes.

With regard to performances, Koji Yakusho absolutely steals the show as a mystical taxi driver who speaks broken Japanese and suffers from personal trauma. Kazuya Takahashi also does very well as revenge-driven Tatsuo, and Reiko Kataoka is quite memorable as his girl sidekick. Mickey Curtis himself also appears in a supporting role of Animaru, the crime boss who likes playing jazz. In addition, Taguchi Tomorrow himself has a cameo as Charlie Chaplin.

A word of caution, there are different cuts of the film out there. Initially, I have seen the theatrical version which runs at 134 mins. There is also an international version (160 mins), and fan recut (176) which sees the inclusion of deleted scenes. Basically, the only major sequence that got cut out from the theatrical cut is the protagonists’ stay at an onsen resort where they engage in all sorts of pastime games/group theraphy with the personnel.

Recommendations
All things considered, Kamikaze Taxi may suffer from narrative shortcomings, yet it manages to be captivatingly poetic and touching. Undeniably, it is a brilliant commentary on Japan and its problems which are constantly being swept under the rug. Overall score: 7/10

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