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Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

Posted By: Someonelse

Date: 23 Sep 2017 13:10:07

Director: Masashi Yamamoto
Writer: Masashi Yamamoto
Stars: Ali Ahmed, Arata Furuta, Mika Kumagai

A blind woman wakes in the morning and goes to buy a loaf of bread. This may not seem like the most auspicious of beginnings, but Japanese filmmaker Masashi Yamamoto spins this simple act off into a chaotic filmic experiment documenting 24 hours in the life of modern Tokyo.

IMDB

When it comes right down to it, all big cities are essentially the same. Sure, there are superficial differences, much of them cultural, but once you get past that and explore the core of the modern urban sprawl and what lies beneath its surface, it all becomes universal. The only thing that really does differ is our perception of them, and this perception is often generated through various forms of media, whether it's the news, TV or film. With "Janku Fudo" aka "Junk Food", director Masashi Yamamoto attempts to alter our perception of Tokyo ’s underbelly. Instead of the often depicted yakuza world, we see the world of the outsider, the person who is rejected or chooses to reject common society.

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

Yamamoto depicts this cross section of Tokyo culture by using the wonderful format of the omnibus film, giving us small snippets of one day in each of the outcast’s life. The three sections are visually different and uniquely distinct narratively, but thanks to the way in which Yamamoto sets it up and pieces it together, it still forms a cohesive whole.

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

The first section, shot on video, book ends the film and provides the through line. It features a blind elderly woman (played by Yamamoto’s own mother) as she wakes up and runs through her daily regiment of eating, praying and shopping. The second section, shot on film, stars Iijima Miyuki as Miyuki, a junkie salary woman who starts off by suffocating a man after she ties him to a bed. Then she hunts down her daily fix before jaunting over to the office for the daily grind. The final and longest section of the film is shot in a variety of digital video formats and follows the lives of Chinese-American prostitute Myan and her ride Hide who is traveling with his friends ashes (which becomes an important narrative link between all the characters), a group of street hoodlums who drive Western low rider cars, a Pakistani illegal alien and a female South American wrestler looking to return home.

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

Alone, these sections wouldn’t work, but together, they form a unique cinematic organism. Yamamoto presents no back-story for any character, and very little motivation for their actions, at least initially. Some commit acts of murder, others lie, cheat and steal. But because of the way they are set-up, Yamamoto never judges any of the characters, nor does he allow the audience to judge them. There’s no sob story about why these characters behave the way they do, the film doesn’t tell you what to think, but instead allows you to draw your own conclusions about the characters that occupy the world of "Junk Food".

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

Yamamoto wanted to get back to his independent roots with this film, and he most certainly does, presenting us not only a refreshing take on the unseen world of the most populated city on earth, but he presents it in such an original manner that you can’t help but become enthralled.
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Concentrating on the tattered fringes of society, Yamamoto introduces us to a random collection of Tokyo low-lifes. First up is Miki, a pathetic junkie who smokes some crack, strangles her lover to death, gets dressed and goes to work as a computer programming exec at a high-tech Tokyo firm. Miki's story seems to be the most central, and Yamamoto lenses her tale with an aggressive experimental style. Flashes of light, kinetic condensations of time and rapid shifts in color signal Miki's deteriorating mental state. Following in close succession, though, is a seemingly unrelated string of characters: a female Mexican wrestler biding her time until she flies home, the hyper leader of a hip-hop gang obsessed with finding his stolen car, an American prostitute prowling the streets of the Ginza district looking for kicks, a Pakistani immigrant fleeing the consequences of a heinous crime.

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

Most viewers would rightfully expect some kind of convergence or at least a resolution to all these divergent storylines. That isn't in the cards. Yamamoto isn't interested in narrative structure here. Junk Food contains much of the dirty DIY ethic of New York's underground filmmakers. Using largely amateur actors and a mix of film and video stock, Yamamoto creates a stylish collection of brief experimental sketches. Mood, place and character float through this free-form narrative, occasionally incandescing in a vivid visual image. Yamamoto wants to shock his audience, and occasionally he does with some bloody doings which leap from the languid narrative.

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

Fans of Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai (Chungking Express, Days of Being Wild) will appreciate the hip, aloof stylings of Yamamoto. Amid the gritty vignettes, Yamamoto weaves a ponderous musing on today's "junk food" culture. Aside from the obvious drug pun in his film's title, Yamamoto seems to be dwelling on the cultural corruption of Japan. The street gang and its preoccupation with rap music and low rider cars seems like the ultimate symbol of Japan's cultural cannibalism–so eager to devour any trend or style, while its own long-standing mores, values and history slip away. One tattooed cast member expresses an open hatred of the Triads. But even those organized gangsters seem like models of moral behavior when compared with the anger-fueled "homies" on display in Junk Food. What are we to make of their brutal hatred of their own leader?

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

There's also the question of the "American" prostitute. By film's end, there's a growing suspicion that she may not actually be an American. Her accent isn't the smoothest, and she seems to know her Japanese pop stars far better than her American. Is she intended to be an actual Asian so obsessed with Western culture that she pretends to be American? Yamamoto isn't providing answers to any of these questions. His stream-of-consciousness narrative drifts on to another character, another location before we are able to glimpse the entire picture. Some may find this lack of information frustrating. Others will just go with the flow.

Junk Food (1997) Janku fudo

Yamamoto's sordid, shocking, gutter-dwelling mood piece is certainly not for every taste. Some critics have accused him of hewing too closely to the stylish, self-absorbed New Wave crime genre pioneered by Wong Kar Wai–much like young American filmmakers now parrot the works of Quentin Tarantino. There is a certain validity to the accusation, yet alert viewers can also see hints of early punk filmmakers like Derek Jarman. In the end, Yamamoto's work has an inscrutable, drug-crazed edginess all its own–guerrilla filmmaking turned kamikaze filmmaking.
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