Bozo / ぼっちゃん

Inspired by the 2008 Akihabara massacre, where a mentally unstable individual knifed some random pedestrians, killing 4 and injuring 8, Tatsushi Omori’s Bozo attempts a bit of absurdist theatre of cruelty to ostensibly ferret out the psychology of and reasons why someone who would be driven to do such a thing. Too bad Omori doesn’t have the craft, talent or the where-with-all to tackle it. The story focuses on the grotesquely socially inept Kagi (Shingo Mizusawa), the bozo of the film. Getting a job in the sticks, he suffers humiliation at the hands of serial rapist/killer/co-worker Okada (Yasushi Fuchikami). Befriended by fellow outsider and narcoleptic queer, Tanaka (the usually reliable Shohei Uno), they get involved in further humiliations and adventures, which end up inexplicably with Kagi and Okada parked on the street in Akihabara – Kagi screaming his rage at the world. The screenplay and the direction are horrific. Even the internal logic of Omori’s absurd world fails. At least Omori couches his usual misogyny in the hands of a rapist, for what it’s worth.

Originally published in EL Magazine, March 2013.