Tokyo Tribe – Review

Shion Sono has made as many films as the years he’s been a director. Throughout 33 features (not counting TV movies, mini-series and documentaries) since 1984, the highly prolific man hasn’t let up once, and his output rarely sees dips in quality; his back catalogue is the work of a man possessed, a visionary who must keep making movies, it would seem, to carry on breathing – much similar to the protagonist in his poorly-distributed masterwork Why Don’t You Play in Hell? His latest offering, Tokyo Tribe, is expectedly as batshit-crazy as his best material; he’s just happened to set it to music this time.

Tokyo is a city rife with crime, a sorry place split by warring rival gangs. One day, boundaries are crossed, and a new battle kicks off that will define the future of Tokyo. But this city isn’t the one we’re familiar with: its neon lights cast long shadows behind its host of colourfully nasty characters, and its scum-ridden streets are littered with hip-hop beats. Tokyo Tribe is, as advertised front-and-centre in its marketing, ‘the world’s first rap battle musical’ – and if that isn’t enough to hook you in, then the songs themselves should be. Earwormy tracks help the movie build toward its giggly climax, while in the meantime, Sono throws everything at the wall in terms of odd character beats and visual gags. The most shocking thing about Tokyo Tribe – and there are a lot of shocking things in it – is that most of Sono’s offbeat experiments actually stick.

The Godfather, this warped little gem isn’t; while its multiple story strands do weave near-effortlessly through each other, Tokyo Tribe has no interest in being a crime saga. It grabs the very fact that it’s a musical – a cinematic form that’s inherently ridiculous anyway – and runs with it as far as it can go, most of the time passing all boundaries of taste, yet firmly within Sono’s incessantly fun vision. If you’re not grooving along, then you’ll certainly be laughing along, and if you want something completely different to your week-by-week dramas, comedies, and action flicks, then Tokyo Tribe is for you – despite being made for no one other than Sono himself.