So much average

Load of rubbish!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

If ya like colors, this is the flick for you! So all you lame-o b&w Orson Welles fans who are looking for cinematic architecture and intellectual substance, go away!Ok sarcasm aside, this is truly an enjoyable film... if you like colors. If you like to be bombarded with surreal images and bizarre plot leaps, such as characters being dead one minute, alive the next, and basically existing in an incomprehensible dream world which ends with the words "wtf" on everyone's lips, then this film will wow you.Me personally, I liked it, but I liked it the same way I like an opera (literally an opera, get it?) where the point is to enjoy the artistry of the presentation rather than any type of storytelling.Compare this to maybe some of Andy Worhol's experimental work, though not quite as self indulgent as an 8 hour still camera on the Empire State Building. Maybe closer to something by David Lynch, Peter Greenaway or Tarkovsky... BUT (and this is a "big butt" of Peewee Hermanian proportions), what makes it interesting is a dark comic, tongue-in-cheek sort of self mockery which keeps the film from seeming too pretentious.So imagine all those "pretentious" filmmakers I just mentioned, but add a heavy splash of Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction"), mix vigorously and of course add lots of bloomin COLORS. Have you seen the infamous Monkees film "Head"? There ya go

If you've never seen a Seijun Suzuki film don't start with this one. I cannot state that strongly enough.Taken as a film in isolation, judging it on its own merits, this film fails. Fails interestingly, but fails.The acting is appalling. The script is pretentious gobbledegook. There are parts of the film when it seems like even the director is sleepwalking. The sets and props are clearly badly made. The actors aren't very good or even interesting looking. The soundtrack is bad. Your friends will think you're a paedophile.BUT... There are incredible moments in this film. Jaw dropping changes of colour. Symbolic actions. Bizarre perspectives. A new way of looking at everyday items and interactions. Some moments that recall the old thrill of watching the original "Branded to Kill".The sheer ambition of certain moments is heartening. You think of things like German Expressionism and pop art and say "wow". It's tantalising.This is a film interesting for those people who've followed Suzuki's career and want to see his next experiment in non-realist cinema and storytelling. Unfortunately that's the only level on which this film works.

The summation of Suzuki's life's work. Will be perceived by the lazy audience -- such as the attendees of its screening at the 2002 Seattle International Film Festival -- as a series of style-tableaux and disappoint those hoping for a gem of a story, such as in 'Elling,' a piece of work fit to wrap a fish in. Much more than that -- Suzuki is one of the great Japanese auteurs of all time, -- his reputation hasn't grown to the stature of the big three (Kurosawa / Ozu / Mizoguchi) due to the surface inscrutability / surface "style" of his work. The truth of the matter is that there is great depth in the Suzuki canon. His "style" must be no more mistaken for simple "flashy cool" than one would regard Godard's work. 'Koroshi no rakuin' ('Branded to Kill') is a stunning tour-de-force that examines the emasculation of the male, vivisecting cinematically a one-time master-assassin's slide into madness. 'Pistol Opera' -- the "spiritual sequel" of 'Branded to Kill' (working title was 'Koroshi no rakuin 2') examines the theatricality of assassination -- that is, one of the manifestations of an individual's or society's pull -toward- a universal order. Another manifestation of which is a director's mise-en-scene, -- shot compositions are as meticulously constructed in Suzuki as in Kubrick -- the 1.33:1 aspect ratio of 'Pistol Opera' allows Suzuki the greatest control of the frame-"tableau." (cf. also Kubrick's 1.33:1 framing, employed for all films from 'The Shining' on) 'Pistol Opera' is one of the great masterpieces of our modern cinema.

This long-awaited sequel to the 1967 Koroshi no rakuin (Branded to Kill) replaces the redoubtable Jo Shishido as Number 3 with Makiko Esumi, an actress of the same vintage as the original film, seen to good advantage as a very different type in Maboroshi no hikari (1995). As in the original, her character Miyuki Minazuki, nicknamed "Stray Cat", is a stylish contract killer striving to attain top ranking among her peers in the most natural and conclusive fashion imaginable. As in Suzuki's splendid yet seldom seen Zigeunerweisen (1980), the 2001 film deftly alternates between cryptic narrative constructions in the manner of David Lynch and dreamlike compositions reminiscent of Alejandro Jodorowsky at his best. I urge every fan of these directors to see it at any cost.