Fantastic Fest 2014

Tokyo Tribe

2014 • Crime, Action, Drama, Science Fiction, Music • 116 minutes • 2,862 ratings • 716 reviews

Directed by Sion Sono

Starring Riki Takeuchi, Shunsuke Daitô, Hitomi Katayama, Ryohei Suzuki and Shôta Sometani

In an alternate Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. The simmering tension between them is about to boil over into all-out war.

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  • ★★★★★ review by davidehrlich on Letterboxd

    god-mode Sion Sono made Jet Set Radio into a Warriors-inspired martial arts rap opera pink film. Insert hyperbole here.

  • ★★★★½ review by YI JIAN on Letterboxd

    Sono. Sono Sono Sono. What a revelation, this master. His films contain a level of insanity that transcends time and space, posessing an energy so large it disrupts the balance of the universe, so pure it tramples over the realm of physics. Entropy reversed, scientists scratch their heads, astronauts cry in space.

    I've come out of his films asking what day, what month, what year is it. I can't recognize my own house. I can't even recognize my own face. My dog has set out to kidnap me, my neighbour is running for president.

    Sono's universe, Sono's rules. Leave your logic, your expectations, your sense of justice, beauty, humor, leave them at the front door, thank you very much. And don't bother wiping your shoes, it's already too dirty inside. This is the land of overblown misogyny now, ridiculous machismo, over-the-top gore, explosive diarrhea. This is the land of Tokyo Tribe. (Never, ever, die!) Sono doesn't seek for approval, he sets out to disappoint.

    What is this man? An artist or a politician? A philosopher or a dictator? A rebel! A rebel that reminded me of Godard, though both directors are so radically different. They're both part of the resistance against the norm but they wave different flags. Godard's the one with a little self-discipline, his films lyrical in composition, textbook sample of a poem. And Sono? Well let's put it this way:

    If Godard is the cool kid who smokes in the school hallway, then Sono is the weird kid who laughs hysterically as he dissects a frog in science class.

    Sono is crazy, cuckoo, he whacks strangers with his umbrella, and you can sure as hell bet that's a compliment.

  • ★★★★ review by matt lynch on Letterboxd

    anyone knows where i can get a gold-plated, jewel-encrusted working Beretta M92 9mm pistol/cellyphone, hit me up.

  • ★★★★★ review by Wes on Letterboxd

    im starting a kickstarter to fund myself to leave earth and live on sion sonos home planet because thats where i truly belong

  • ★★★★½ review by Jaime Grijalba on Letterboxd

    Tokyo Tribe (2014)

    9/10

    I just want to learn Japanese so I can go to the 2024 anniversary screening with karaoke.

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