Why Don't You Play in Hell?

An enjoyably crazy love letter to moviemakin' that doesn't impress through its characters or plot but more than compensates with a contagious sense of fun and joy at taking crazy chances to create something worthwhile. This seems as good a time as any to say I wanted to make a Mortal Kombat movie as a kid SO BAD. We even found a way to recreate Raiden's flying-charge-attack. Of course we never got to shoot a single shot. Good times. (No, I wasn't going anywhere interesting with that, sorry.)

Love letters to cinema are usually too pretentious or too downbeat for my taste, but this, oh, this, this is something different. Something invigorating. I have not had a better theater experience in a long time and I once sat next to Katie Holmes at a screening of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Telling her how awful she was remains as one of my greatest acts of kindness.

I felt like I was watching Cinema Paradiso, but perverted beyond imagination. As a huge lover of film and in particular grindhouse, this film really did it for me. Outlandish personas drive the plot towards a climactic orgy of violence. 10/10 style (also loved the music). The plot could have been much tighter, but we don't care about that do we? Long (?) live the Fuck Bombers!

Sion Sono's new masterpiece. An explosively funny Yakuza rivalry is documented by "The Fuck Bombers", a young DIY film crew that's based on Sono's own filmmaking club. The main character is cinema obsessed and hellbent on making the greatest movie ever, and with Sono's 31st and most personal film yet, he accomplishes that dream. He's my favorite filmmaker in the world and once again I'm ignited by his genius.

A film-about-film in which film is so powerful and violent that it has the ability to conquer love and death each. Since it's a Sono film, his message is broadcast at maximum volume, seguing from weepy melodrama to broad slapstick comedy to blood-soaked carnage at the drop of a hat. Fuck Day for Night.

A delirious, manic, blood-soaked ode to filmmaking, wherein filmmaking is seen as an art form that allows those involved to cheat death a little bit and write themselves into the history books. That's the main thrust of its "message", anyway. In the moment, it's non-stop trashy fun. I smiled all the way through.

Sion Sono's epic and exuberant movie about how much fun it is making a movie. When a team of enthusiastic wannabe filmmakers meet up with a Yakuza gang who want to turn their war with a rival group into an action flick starring the boss' daughter, bloody mayhem and hilarity ensues. Very twisted and blackly funny stuff that ends up ankle deep in gore, it's also got solid action and a very nice message about following your dreams, lol.

A Movie about Mads Mikkelson, who went under plastic surgery to become the best Bruce Lee impersonator ever.

Meh. I'm up for batshit crazy, over the top violent Japanese flicks but this one's hardly impressive. The final 20 mins bloodbath doesn't justify all the failed attempts at comedy or shamefully uninteresting center characters.

An absolute mess of a movie, but one so bursting with exuberance that it never becomes unbearable. I keep thinking about whether it would have been improved by getting to the actual film making faster, but I don't think it'd mean as much without everything else.

Anarchic and jubilant, almost to a fault. But it rides on its enthusiasm and takes that train soaring into the sky.

I just don't buy into this Sion Sono craze. This film is kind of fun, if you don't mind over the top fast paced action, 'loud' editing and childish humor, but it doesn't offer anything serious. Also computer generated blood and flying limbs looks cheap, I prefer old-school fountains of blood.

A surprise movie about movie-making to be sure, but a welcome one.

What the fuck kind of person made this movie, and why am I laughing

The first act is amazing, and the denouement is fun, but it sags in the middle once you realise where the plot is going and Sono just keeps insisting on dragging it out. Like, the time between "We need to make a movie before X happens" and "We found the guerilla film crew that was obviously going to help us all along" is kind of silly. But, I still had fun.

Sion Sono's love letter to cinema

"Realism will lose."

Sion Sono's crazy-ass ode to film making. Doesn't quite hold its high energy the entire time, but Sono's absurdism is always refreshing.

I don't know how many times I have seen this fi by now, but it's a lot. I love every frame of this satirical take on movie making, violence in movies and its numerous references to martial arts and yakuza movies. Everything clicks and works perfectly in this at times insane and sometimes wondetfully somber black comedy that in my opinion, is the best Sion Sono has ever gotten and probably will ever get. Absolute masterpiece. FACKU BOMBERS!!!

Some good scenes, some funny moments, and very wild, but not really my kind of thing.

An absurdist Japanese action comedy about love, a toothpaste commercial, the Yakuza, and independent filmmaking that was quite up my alley. The only thing I really didn't like about it was the CGI-blood and unfortunately there was quite a bit of it. Otherwise it's a glorious piece of cinema.

High quality Japanese madness. The extravagant ending was pretty cool, but dragged for such a long time I kept checking my watch, waiting for it to stop.

Its such a happy feel good movie even with all the death! It starts slow but after it hits the halfway point and its threads come together it just gets better and better

I couldn't get far into this movie at all, I just found it terrible and I don't understand at all the acclaim for it.

Sion Sono's scathing satire of modern Japanese cinema can at times seemingly veer off to hypocrisy, by itself replicating its targets faults, but, by the end, the sheer movie's energy and surprising dark humour stomps out any of those qualms.

Baffling. Another of these Japanese nutso bloodbath films, I don't understand the appeal

Another movie where you can't possibly get attached to the characters: but hey, get ready for the "greatest movie ever" and bring an umbrella. Okay, I must say I was never bored watching this one. Nope.

What a wild ride. Although I felt the movie was clearly too long and meandering, it was stuffed with some wonderful elements throughout, and many satisfyingly interconnected plots and characters. Visually it was rich enough to let me forgive some of the OTT, grating characters. The final bloodbath was fittingly grandiose and tongue-in-cheek. Directed with an air of childish defiance and "just because"-ness. I will certainly seek out some more Sion Sono films.

I'd say this one is best watched with friends. And maybe high too.

Så denne på TIFF 2014, og det var en skikkelig fornøyelig kinoopplevelse, men ikke en film som blir værende med en i ettertid. Morsom metahumor og en del drøye scener gjorde det til en lattermild affære.

"They're fantasists and we're realists... we're so screwed!" "Shoot!" "Action!" "Cut!"

Contemporary Japanese cinema in general is rife with overacting, but there's rare instances like Why Don't You Play in Hell? where the director and the actors fully embrace the over-the-top setting and you get some wildly entertaining moments. Also worth mentioning is the musical score (partially composed by Sono), which helps maintain the high energy throughout the film.

It's about film, and that often works because film people actually know film. There *are* a few clever and absolutely outrageous scenes towards the end. Yet the whole thing left me bored throughout. The characters are the problem: there are too many of them, they are not meaningfully entangled with each other, they're not particularly interesting, and when they suffer it's hard to care one iota. The pervasive comic relief elements are puzzling as well, draining seriousness and tensions away.

Left me stunned. Giving it an 80 for now but I definitely need to see it again.

While I still hold LOVE EXPOSURE as his most ambitious and strongest film, WDYPiH? will probably be the most important movie in Sono's career. It derails itself in the best way possible.