THE WORLD OF KANAKO (2014)

2/4/2016 -The World of Kanako (2014) – 4+/10

Overly violent. Schizophrenic, in script, camera, and character. Playfully psychotic, but too frenetic. Exploitative and referential , but with only the passing glamor and token attitude of its beloved genres. Moments of acute skill and delightful visions, but they were lost in the unending shuffle of too much and repetition. Not to mention the excessive use of rape and the complete un-likability of every character.

I wanted to give credit to Kanako for trying to be entertaining, use the characters psychological perversions and quagmires in a cinematic storytelling capacity, and playing with genres and references. Regrettably, none of those elements were fully or satisfactorily executed. I saw what Nakashimi was going for and I even applaud some of his efforts, but can’t get behind his final product.

Again, I wanted to like Kanako, but it ground it out of me with unpleasant characters, showy but ultimately false & flat stylization, and a trudging arduous gauntlet of "shock violence" and "over the edge" distasteful storytelling. It didn't have the style of a "Shark skin man, peach hip girl", the visceral violence/horror/gratuity for a reason of an "I saw the devil" or the full petal-to-the-metal of a Miike, Tarantino, or Park. Bits of them all, cut off with a razor blade, thrown into a blender with some speed and Molly, and drunk down in an emotionally disturbed adolescent fever dream while watching 70's sex & violence exploitation flicks. Fun at times and in small doses, but not so much in this package.