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Japan · 2013
2h 10m
Director Sion Sono
Starring Jun Kunimura, Hiroki Hasegawa, Gen Hoshino, Fumi Nikaido
Genre Action, Comedy, Drama
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A violent confrontation with a rival Yakuza clan leaves a mob boss's wife in prison and his daughter’s performing career derailed. Some down-on-their-luck moviemakers may be able to give the aspiring actress a boost – but are they willing to walk into a bloodbath?
Like so many memorable yet hard-to-describe movies, Why Don't You Play in Hell? takes a ridiculous concept and commits to it fully. You might laugh with surprise or shriek in horror — both, most likely — but you certainly won't dismiss it.
Slant Magazine by Jesse Cataldo
Refusing to mourn anything, displaying a Futurist-style disdain for the past, Sion Sono imagines a world in which static adherence to old ideas leads directly to doom.
A Quentin Tarantino knockoff from Japan, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? has some of the master’s nutty energy but little of his cleverness.
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? isn’t for everyone, but neither was Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring." Genius is genius, no matter how many audience members may riot.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
The film's blast of self-mocking overkill can be charming.
Even when it’s trying one’s patience with throwaway gags or bits of over-the-top brutality, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is a rather canny celebration of the very type of no-holds-barred cinema that it’s peddling.
The New York Times by Nicolas Rapold
Goofball antics and a terrific, raucous finale can’t make up for the essential slackness of its repetitive comedy and punk chest thumping.
The Playlist by Oliver Lyttelton
Mostly, the film's very funny, Sono displaying a sense of how to frame and time a visual gag that feels positively Zucker-ish. But there are real stakes, and bursts of real feeling too.
Alternately exhilarating and tedious, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is Sono’s tribute to moviemaking—specifically an elegy to 35mm film, though the tone could hardly be called mournful.
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
It is also the post-punk writer/director Sion Sono's most accessible film: a middle-aged filmmaker's tribute to the kind of epic-sized gangster-romance he used to fantasize about making.
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