Too Tired To Die (98 Film)

[kewpie-chan]

I bought the DVD last week and watched it not expecting anything. It was a so-so film that had a lot of potential but sadly fell short. The German gal was so two dimentional & boring had to fast forward everytime she was on screen while Lulu was on less than 5 minutes and wanted to see more of "her" acting. I loved the B & W sequences in the film...especially the B & W scene where Kenji is all dressed up in his wedding garb. His facial/body expressions were hilarious as his mom was schmoozing with Death (Mira Sorvino). It's too bad Mira Sorvino and Takeshi-san couldn't have more scenes together...felt they had good acting chemistry together. And yeah, we know Kenji is going to die but whoa Nelly! Did anyone expect him to commit suicide? And hara-kiri at that??? Ouch!
Note to director: was that another pun on your part to point out another Asian stereotype? In this case, Japanese do hara-kiri? (The other stereotype was the cab ride with the young girl and Kenji.) LOL.

[kris]

yah i wasn't expecting him to commit suicide either....that last scene was so sad, needless to say i was in tears....i know, i'm a big crybaby.

[kewpie-chan]

Well I wasn't in tears at the end of film cuz was still in a bit of shock he did hara kiri. I was like, "Oh shit!"
LOL....

[ognyana]

Recently I’ve seen “Too Tired to Die” and it occurred to me that the film is much better than some people think. Indeed, if you KNEW for sure that all the time you have is till the day’s evening, what would YOU do? I bet, pretty much the same. Your day is pretty likely to be as dissolute, absurd.

And one more thought. Suddenly it occurred to me that there are rather a lot of films with Takeshi Kaneshiro that touch upon the theme of death. Look, I haven’t seen ALL his films, but even among those that I’ve seen there are “Sweet Rain” where TK actually plays Death, “Space Travelers“ and “Too Tired to Die” where TK's hero dies, “House of Flying Daggers” and “The Warlords” where his hero is sure to die, “Confession of Pain”, “God, please give me more time” where the theme of death is also present, as the beloved ones of TK’s heroes die, “Sleepless Town” where both the beloved one dies and the character of TK may well be considered as half-dead, emotionally dead, leaving to face his fate and death too (as it’s almost impossible to win all alone), “Lavender” and “Fallen Angels” where the theme is also present.

What’s that, I wonder? Is it a tribute to the Japanese attitude to death – I mean it’s so deeply embedded in the Japanese culture that it’s unavoidable? Is it because death is always a part of youth culture all over the world (as it’s the culture of ‘aorotanatos’)? Is it his theatrical type of a beautiful but doomed hero? Is it his conscious choice of plots? Is it part of his perception of life or his philosophy?

Of course, we’ll never know. But it’s thought-provoking, isn’t it?