Diagonaldi Very well executed

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

guisreis The first ten minutes are awesome. The movie is very strong, but the quality varies a lot along its development until its bad end. Both the fast paced training scenes and the oppressive Tokyo city footage are very nice. Though, the bizarreness of the story bores. This is a live action film with an anime aesthetics (for anime fans perhaps the movie pleases more). It could be a great movie if it had developed better the main character's ordinary life as a white collar, the chaos of the city (the story does not explore the interesting way the town is shown), the dangerous boxer who tattooes the number of defeated challengers on his shoulder. Less emphasis in body horror and sneezing blood would also contribute to a more satisfactory outcome. The director's brother should be substituted by a better actor. A different and better story for the love triangle would be necessary too. To conclude, the director/writer/actor Shin'ya Tsukamoto has the skills, but lacks good taste and makes bad decisions.

politic1983 It's Tokyo, the mid-Nineties and you fancy punching the poo-poo out of someone. That's how total cult directors Tsukamoto Shinya and Kitano Takeshi felt, at least. Coming a year apart - much like your mother's sex life - both made Tokyo-based films centred around boxing: 'Tokyo Fist' (1995) and 'Kids Return' (1996), both bringing their own unique flair to the art form. To start, the films are very similar: 'Tokyo Fist' starts with salaryman Tsuda bumping into an old school friend, Kojima, a part-time boxer. Likewise, 'Kids Return' begins with former best friends from school, Masaru and Shinji, happily bumping into each other on a Tokyo street, both recognising that their lives have taken a downward spiral since they last saw each other. However, due to the nature of both directors, the similarity largely ends there. 'Tokyo Fist' is very much along the lines of Tsukamoto's most famous work: 'Tetsuo: Ironman'. Focusing on ideas of revenge and aggression, Tsuda soon becomes paranoid that his old classmate might be knocking up his missus, Hizuru. His paranoia gradually drives Hizuru away, as their quiet life becomes loud, aggressive and full of blood-splattering scenes, with her ending up in the arms, and bed, of Kojima, played by Tsukamoto's brother, Koji. The anger and rage building inside him, exemplified by the ever-present loud music, Tsuda joins Koji's boxing gym, determined to beat him in the ring, much like Koji is doing to Hizuru. The film then becomes a loud, brash experience, with fast camera movements, editing and thrashing music, leaving the viewer out of breath just watching it. And, as ever, a confusion is created as to what exactly is going on, throwing in extreme moments to push things just that little further. Rage, obsession, and fetish are themes running throughout Tsukamoto's works, and 'Tokyo Fist' is no exception, working as a more polished version of 'Tetsuo: Ironman'. The special effects are still a little budget, but creative in the excessive blood pouring and Hizuru's new fetish for piercing any part of her body possible. Punch, punch, punch is the style for the boxing scenes, with Tsukamoto creating a work to seep into your mind and punch your brain into dazed confusion.But where Tsukamoto chooses to show graphic violence and gore, this is the very thing that Kitano often avoids. Since starting with 'Violent Cop', the violence is Kitano's films is more in the mind than on screen. The use of still cameras and editing means that actual acts of violence fall out of shot or are skipped for comic timing. The majority of punches thrown in 'Kids Return' are at punching bags or in sparring practise. 'Kids Return' is seen as Kitano's most autobiographical work, set in the part of Tokyo where he grew up and featuring events and job roles that he himself experienced while growing up. The two friends, Masaru and Shinji drift through school, seen as the ultimate prodigal sons by their teachers. Neither has much direction; simply wreaking havoc on the lives of their classmates. Meeting his match, Masaru decides to take up boxing, but soon realises he hasn't the discipline for the sport. His perennial sidekick, Shinji, however, does, and his talent is quickly spotted by the gym's coaches. Masaru then drifts away, becoming a low level yakuza.For Shinji, boxing is a sense of direction after days drifting, rather than an act of aggression. 'Kids Return' is all about direction when entering adulthood, mirroring roles taken by Kitano himself. Meek Hiroshi tries his hand at selling scales and driving a taxi on finishing school - two jobs Kitano had - but soon finds that neither provide him with what he wants out of life. Two students forming a school double act perform stand-up comedy to their classmates with a manzai act similar to that brought Kitano his initial fame. If anything, 'Kids Return' is quite a depressing film. On leaving school, hopes and ambitions are quickly lost for all characters, with all left feeling lost and abandoned by their seniors. Hiroshi is repeatedly criticised by the bosses of his various jobs; Masaru is expelled from his yakuza family for speaking out of turn; and Shinji's coaches give up on him once he is led astray by an older boxer who takes him drinking. The boxing in 'Kids Return' is exactly that: there is more emphasis on the sport, with more realistic bouts and styles. 'Tokyo Fist' goes down the Stallone-form of boxing with non-stop punch fests that would lead to permanent brain damage in seconds, but with blood spurting out of eye sockets, this is the only way Tsukamoto of the Nineties would work. Both made in the mid-Nineties, set in Tokyo and with boxing as a key element, the films are very different. Tsukamoto favours high-octane fight scenes and special effects to create a visually spectacular gore fest, while Kitano chooses a more mellow-paced drama. At a time when two former boxing film legends return for the undoubtedly terrible 'Grudge Match', 'Tokyo Fist' and 'Kids Return' are both blasts from the past that fall under the same weight class, but see a clash of styles.

Bogey Man Japanese film maker genius and multi-talent Shinya Tsukamoto's Tokyo Fist (Tokyo-ken, 1995) is as stunning and incredible experience as can be expected after seeing his two Tetsuo films in which a human body and metal (machine) became one with a horrific results. Tsukamoto's cinema is filled with hyper fast editing, shaking camera, fast forwards and every imaginable things to shock the viewer senses and make the weakest faint. Tokyo Fist is not any exception.Director himself plays Tsuda, a nerdish Japanese insurance salesman who has a beautiful girlfriend Hizuru (Kahori Fujii) whom with he lives seemingly peacefully and in love. But still it looks like Tsuda has some problems in his life and seems to be on the edge of his sanity. Soon his high school time friend Kojima arrives (played by the director's brother, Kôji Tsukamoto) and he is a professional boxer and very fierce one. When he starts to be interested in Tsuda's girl, all physical and mental hell breaks loose as Tsuda gets an obsession to start to box himself, too, and Hizuru starts to have some very severe habits of body piercing and self mutilation. The infernal ride has begun and the viewer is not recommended to take it granted that he'll/she'll stomach the ride till the end because this is Tsukamoto. That means incredible power and impact straight to your face.The film is perhaps even wilder at some points than the first Tetsuo (1988) as the message and imagery is really heavy this time and the film is in color, too. The fists, the punches and the mayhem is always aimed straight to the camera, the viewer and audience, so the viewer will be on the edge of the seat for the whole time, and it all is of course at its most powerful when seen on the big screen. Tsukamoto has the talent to hammer and force his things to the skull and spinal cord of the viewer and he does it all with the magic of editing and cinematography, and definitely not least of Chu Ishikawa's pounding and merciless soundtrack which is here as effective and wonderful as in Tetsuo.The visuals are impressive and every twisted camera angle has its purpose and meaning as well as every bit of mist and darkness that is shed during the ride. The effect when he shakes his camera is something truly unique and definitely much more powerful way to depict the feelings and mental states of the characters than any dialogue ever could. Fast edits and unconventional usage of camera can be very irritating and needless when used without any real reason or to make the film look "stylish", but they can also be heart stoppingly effective when they have a cinematic meaning and the director could just simply write on the paper what the edit or camera angle means inside the film. Tetsuo is another great example of this and its black and white scenery is no less powerful than the colors in Tokyo Fist. Tokyo Fist is extremely menacing as there hardly are any peaceful moments and there's all the time some element there to make it clear that it is not peaceful even though it may look like it.The film's theme is about human nature and its jealous and weak sides as the characters can't live without taking or producing physical pain. The smashed faces and the scenes of surreal gore spurting at nightmarish anger are really something to make us ask why do the characters do it. Why cannot human nature solve things in other way than physical force and violence and how many of us dares to admit the brute sides of ourselves and accept them? And then of course keep them away and on the background. The final image is kind of "optimistic" but definitely no character gets out without the result and payment of their deeds. The film is also a good example for those who think that in Japanese cinema females are often on the background and weaker than men as the lead female in Tokyo Fist practically (and quite passively!) makes, at first so powerful and dominating, Kojima as her submissive slave. The film begins as in our familiar world in modern day Japan but it is not so long before Tsukamoto gives us the first glimpses of his surreal visions that are taken at their extremes in the incredible blood soaked nightmare finale "in the ring", a finale that is so fierce, kinetic and merciless piece of film making it just makes me appreciate and love Japanese cinema even more with its many sides never or very rarely paralleled in other world cinema. The gore and violence is sudden and almost unbearably shocking at times but the blood geysirs are not realistic nor they're meant to be; they are from the film's own world and as symbolic and surreal as in the Japanese samurai classic The Baby Cart aka Lone Wolf & Cub series in the early seventies, the first two parts of that series edited also into one feature film as Shogun Assassin (1980). Still none of these films manages to give the kind of impact in their violence or any other element than Tokyo Fist, but the surreal depiction of physical violence is pretty similar with Tsukamoto and The Baby Cart pieces.Perhaps only negative point I can find in Tokyo Fist is that some of the characters seem to develop a little too fast and they should have been little more motivated and restrained. For example, Tsuda seems to be completely mad already and is capable to rape his girlfriend any time so these kind of things should be explained little more carefully in order to make the piece perfect and the characters more real. Still the characters are very good and the message and theme gets delivered very effectively through their acts and there's absolutely no question that the visual magic and impact of Tsukamoto's deserves nothing less than praising and moments of pure amazement.Shinya Tsukamoto is the kind of Master of Cinema that he really deserves his name in the thanks section of the end credits of every young film maker's film who has got inspiration from his work. His films have the ability to make people faint, shock, turn the head off the screen and stun in their power and it all is done practically by himself as he works as an editor, cinematographer, art director etc. in his own films and thus expresses his visions. His films would be totally unforgettable when seen at least once in the big screen but fortunately the effect is still very strong on television, too. Tokyo Fist is among the most fierce, angry and honest rides of cinema I've ever experienced and everytime I see something from its maker, I cannot help but feel confused and amazed in front of Japan and its invaluable gifts during the centuries to the world of cinema.9/10

cai24 This is one of the most vital examples of modern indie cinema I have ever witnessed. I could go on and on, but I only say this: watch it ! Thought-provoking, dramatic, black-as-night-humorous, ultra-violent, hypercharged - it gets better with each viewing. Tsukamoto is one of the most original and powerful moviemakers of our time.