“Killing (Zan)” is the latest film directed by Shinya Tsukamoto from 2018. This low-budget film took me by surprise. Tsukamoto’s first jidaigeki (a period piece usually about samurai worriers) has almost the same theme and structure as his commercial debut film “Tetsuo” from 1989. Tsukamoto himself appears as a supporting character who seduces and initiates the protagonist to become a merciless sword fighter much like the similar character Tsukamoto played does to Tetsuo to become a killing machine in his classic film. But this time Tsukamoto portrays Sawamura, a bad-ass swordsman reminiscent of Zatoichi. Hyperkinetic sequences of his sword fighting is pure bliss. I am not sure if Tsukamoto’s recurring theme is the glorification or the critique of the violence but when his message comes through visually there definately is a divine cinematic catharsis. It is a pure, primordial urge, which is perhaps inhuman in its nature.
Also this film happened to be the last film Chu Ishikawa scored for before his passing in 2017. Ishikawa has been an integral part of designing the soundscape for Tsukamoto since the beginning of his career. Some of the memorable scenes from “Killing” are those quiet and still scenes which are accompanied by Ishikawa’s haunting scores.
Guillermo del Toro’s review of the film is spot-on. “KILLING by Shinya Tsukamoto. Brutal fable about the Samurai as weapon- the purpose of the sword. Of a piece-thematically- with his punk Tetsuos.”
