Home / Reviews / Drama / Sabu

Sabu (2002)

Knowing that this film's director is Takashi Miike, I expected gore and perversion set in a period drama. However, it turned out as a well-made Jidaigeki film which is another piece of evidence of what a talented director Miike is. He handles comedy (Happiness of the Katakuris), drama and controversial films equally well.

Eiji (Tatsuya Fujiwara) is framed for a crime he did not commit and therefore he is exiled to a prison camp on Ishikawa Island. His best friend, Sabu (Satoshi Tsumabuki), believes in Eiji's innocence and tries to find out who tricked him and who wanted him to be away. The film shifts between the life of Eiji on the prison island and Sabu's attempt to free him by doing research in town. Both of them have a love in their life and both women play a major part in the development of the storyline. Will the truth come out? Will Sabu be able to free his innocent friend?

Having not read the novel by Shugoro Yamamoto on which this film is based on, I can not tell how close it is to the original storyline. However, if the novel is anything like the film, I would definitely like to read a translated version of it. The film impressed me in the first place due to the fact that it showed me a side of Miike which I didn't know before. Emotions come across very well. Now keep in mind that this is NOT a samurai-film. It is only set in the days when samurai were common in Japan's society. The emotions I am talking about here happen in scenes which for example last for longer than a minute without a single cut. In one of those scenes for example, Sabu is beaten up by a pimp on a village road. The camer only pans from left to right and back throughout that scene and although there is no dramatic device such as background music, you can still feel the feelings of the humiliated Sabu.

Acting-wise, all actors do a good job. Nothing sensational here, but still convincing enough for the film's story to work well. Considering the fact that this is another TV-film from Miike, the acting by Tatsuya Fujiwara is comparable to one of his cinematic films which was Battle Royale. Now you can say that TV films are more popular in Japan, but Sabu could work as a cinematic film just as well.

At first it was considered to be shot as a TV-series whick actually makes sense. The film features a few sub-plots which I am sure would have been way more fleshed out if they had been given more time to develope. There are for examples Eiji's stories he experiences on Ishikawa island such as fights with other prisoners and evolving friendships as well. Furthermore would a TV-series have been able to go a bit more into detail considering the flashbacks to the times when Eiji and Sabu where children. In this film their youth is covered right in the beginning during the title sequence. Mixed with that wonderful music, this is a very well-made flashback which gets mentioned later in the film again.

Cinematic devices such as cinematography and the soundtrack have been handled quite well. As I mentioned earlier, there are many scenes lasting for quite some time without a single cut. For such long scenes the chosen camera angle is very important, because if there is no camera movement at all, a wrong angle can make the film long-winded.

The music, although rather absent in a lot of scenes, sounds very harmonic and fits the respective scenes very well. The mentioned absence of music, isn't really a lack in the film however. Sabu is one of those films that works well without a lot of music telling the viewer whether a scene is meant to be dramatic or funny.

Overall, Sabu is not your typical Miike-film. If you have been looking for gore and sex, don't be fooled, because Sabu is nothing like that. Although there are some bloody fight scenes, they never match the violence of other Miike-films such as Ichi The Killer or Visitor Q. Sabu is a very well-made drama. Although the story should have been a little bit more fleshed out, I was happy with it and it is definitely a film I will watch again.

Sabu is due for release in the UK on the 26th of June (on the Artsmagic label) and will be released in the US on the ArtsmagicDVD label on the 29th of June. As it will be released on both sides of the Atlantic, you can order it from the location that suits you best.

US site: http://www.artsmagicdvd.com/sabu

UK site: http://www.artsmagic.co.uk/sabu

Written on May 31st 2004

<< back

Copyright © 2005 FULLTIME REVIEWS - Hussain Abdullah