The Box Man (2024)

The-Box-Man
The Box Man

Gakuryu Ishii might not be the most recognized figure in the West but his craftsmanship as an artist is striking enough to place him amongst the most influential figures however the fact that there are few of them makes it even more terrible. The creations of Sogo Ishii (he would later change his name) first appeared in Crazy Thunder Road (1980) with Burst City (1982) following. In the 1990s he started to work on more complex ones: Angel Dust in 1994 and in 1995 the August in the Water. They’re followed up by Isn’t Anyone Alive? (2012), Punk Samurai (2018), Electric Dragon 80,000 (2001) and That’s It! (2015). He made all of these movies within a decade and while they were all made in a similar time frame, their creation dates were different and the subjects are different as well. His style is multi-genre in nature, but this case is rather amusing because I haven’t seen the film The Box Man which is the film she is waiting for, but who else his masterpiece is being shown in England. So, to the audience of the new film, this question almost always begs to be asked, which Ishii will show himself in this movie?

For decades Ishii held hope of making a film from Abe’s book, but as luck would have it, he only got around to it in the 90s. Only because he suddenly passed away did the production end up being stalled for a long time, coming out on the other side is a film that is quite surreal. Most importantly, one that fans of Abe’s works, such as the aforementioned piece, The Man Who Turned Into A Stick (1957), wouldn’t bat an eye at. For everyone else, in reality, The Box Man is precisely what it is. What does the ‘Box Man’ Off do? He is the sea, he is a severed hand from the civilization and the herd mentality, he has a box on his head. Off ticks the To The Box Man Part One necessary only once for the self-releasing and exorcising from the modern world. There are people in Japan who voluntarily cut themselves off from everyone and everything, or, as some say, live without physical or emotional contact for months and years, these people are called hikikomori.

Nevertheless, his affection alone cannot grant him absolute freedom to pursue his true desires as there exists a rather unusual group whose attention is also fixated upon him a distraught doctor and a self-proclaimed General suffering from major depression (Koichi Sato), one of his fake practitioners Tadanobu Asano, and a beautiful young nurse who is also an actress, Yoko (Ayana Shiramoto). The spear-wielding mute deranged homeless man (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) while also being part of the cast of an independent film, is only the first of the myriad potential cast members of the growing The Box Man crowd; as can be inferred, there can only be one head of ‘The Box Man’ in each city, and by extension, this means that most people are repelled by the idea of being even remotely attracted to The Box Man.

In view of Gakuryu Ishii’s immersive form in The Box Man, it leaves one thinking about its emotional nature, within his oeuvre as a punk filmmaker he does tend to shy away from conventions and negative overhangs if any. What he has done is something many people might consider negative, but given the fact that he is a filmmaker who has a reputation as a punk, it is unsurprising.

Amusement comes in the form of a winner, now dubbed “The Box Man“. Instead, Benoit decapitates the other two men who fought in a boxing match, dressed in a box. A ‘Cross Bow’ man with Asano’s admiration shows a cruel attitude towards a beggar, asking him to wear a paper box head. During this period, one of them is getting an Erotic Enema (the light is turned off). The film opens with Nagase flipping through his notes and reading to a crowd about the people he finds irritating in the audience I am sure he begs to differ as he possesses a delightful low tone, To add salt to the insult, Shibukawa Asano and two other people throw traditional Japanese instruments at him whilst trying to kill him.

This leads the film to its conclusion where it rather deepens its investigation of these comical people who tend to experience existential moments leading them to the borders of surrealism, and if you expect this movie to answer you with something how simple or complicated, you will get out angry because Ishii’s new movie is rather dense and filled with ample of subtextuality unfortunately it will be very interpretational. Many will dislike this parochialism of ideology and its attribution to the company of American experimentalists of the 60s, Czech and Slovak New Wavers, and the Japanese New Waves.

As for people who are ready to see So the Box Man, in parts, makes a phenomenological case for a postmodern anthropologist and location voyeurism and manic depression and envies one with the film’s environmentalist concerns. Do humans design themselves to be too unlimited for this earth if so, do we all need to be simplified because we are too complicated, or are we all simply overly complicated? Give credit to all the cast for taking something so clearly ‘other’ and trying to make it aspirational and transcendental and to all of them it is clear all for one for one addressing the material because if one fragment of this jigsaw is misplaced or misplaced the whole thing is of no value.

A detail that stands out, is the jazz soundtrack reminiscent of Seijun Suzuki’s films, as well as the cinematography by Hideho Urata is stupidly brilliant, absurd, and thought-provoking. The box costumes are crafted beautifully and create an impression of a suit of armor or a house with a dark room inside. When fully integrated with the box, it does spark romance Yoko becomes hope to the three Man’ protagonists who are hopelessly in love with The Box Man. While she is delegated to the ‘hero’ level ‘sister’, in Mank’s world she does not have power.

Ultimately, It’s a bizarre movie that I might have easily called a ‘pretentious’ work or even roasted ragefully, but be it the end of the world minimalism of Isn’t Anyone Alive? or the outlandish, eccentric mystery of Angel Dust Gakuryu Ishii has that absurd element in his creations that just gets on your nerves. That x-factor oddity enhances The Box Man into something I just can’t stop thinking about and given the era of endless and often mindless distractions we live in, this is saying something. Its experimental violent nature is not of that exotic kind that one often sees and admires in modern art galleries, and the sensibilities here, as they stem from the very nonsense of the lives of the characters, are distinctly popular at their center. The Box Man, in its subject, structurally, is not so much weirder than a Peter Strickland film but is rather less the tricky bobbins of a Symbiopsychotaxiplasm but the kafkaesque yank of In Fabric.

Of course, someone without the same references may watch this, come out of the cinema and say that is the worst movie ever made, but I will just say that there is no proof of this, and rather this is a case of ‘what goes around comes around’

For more movies like The Box Man visit 123movies.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top