Ryuhei Kitamura uses Tsutomu Takahashi's comic 69 as inspiration for his wild action movie <i>LoveDeath</i>.<p>The story is short and the movie is long. This isn't a good thing. Especially when long is just over 2 hours and 30 minutes. Yeah, that… More
Ryuhei Kitamura uses Tsutomu Takahashi's comic 69 as inspiration for his wild action movie <i>LoveDeath</i>.<p>The story is short and the movie is long. This isn't a good thing. Especially when long is just over 2 hours and 30 minutes. Yeah, that isn't a joke. The story takes shape at the beginning, but quickly dissolves until it comes back up for the ending.</p><p>There are so many parts of this film that are just so wacky. All the swearing, sexuality, violence, and characters helps to relieve some of the boredom in the drawn out middle, but not all of it. The action isn't as stylistic as Kitamura's classic, <i>Versus</i>, and there is none of his popular swordplay. However there is a lot of shooting throughout and the 30-40 minutes near the end is all guns, guns, and more guns.</p><p>Kitamura's signature is all over the film, especially in the latter parts. The camerawork and directing is nothing to be ashamed of. Nobuhiko Morino and Daisuke Yano reunite with Kitamura by putting together the rocking soundtrack.</p><p>Shinji Takeda is the typical unemotional hero, so it isn't he that stands out. The lovely Nora puts on a good performance and the over the top acting of many of the other supporting actors liven up the film more than they annoy.</p><p><i>LoveDeath</i> is one entertaining film, but it is the lack of story and the much too long of a run time that brings it down. Still, fans of Kitamura will want to check this one out.
