Ecstasy of the Angels (1972)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Who payed the critics

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

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.

The third film I have watched from this director is the most skillful but, perhaps, the most exasperating as well: something of a political allegory, the detail is so obscure, however, that one tends not to care about what happens to any of the characters - members (ambiguously named after week-days) of the various terrorist factions (named after months and seasons) involved, and who may or may not be double-crossing one another! As usual, gratuitous sex and excessive violence are the order of the day and, once again, there are haphazard switches to color which serve no discernible function (but who can tell with a film as pretentious as this one?). Still, the final montage of suicidal bombings is notable...and, in any case, this type of art film - however tested one's patience may be by its gross self-indulgence - cannot be objectively criticized, or easily ignored!

I found I liked this a little less than I did when first seen on video a few years ago. Perhaps it just shows what effect 9/11 and subsequent worldwide terrorist activities have had on our psyche. This remains a well put together, exciting and amusing tale of confused young fighters (for they know not what) on the streets of Tokyo late 60's. The pace and style of Wakamatsu's film making is infectious but the pain of events and concerns for safety have made it much more difficult to be sympathetic to lost youth taking it out on innocent people. It's a shame because this, almost Godard like, movie so full of vitality, could inspire many to take up the making of movies but instead one is now frightened that the vulnerable might be encouraged in their cowardliness to take out others for a bit of glory. A sad reflection of the times we find ourselves in. Good film though!

Do you like hot chicks? Do you like it when they take their clothes off? Do you like it when they speak a language you don't understand? I DO! This is my new favorite movie. It also has a PLOT. I give it a 4 out of 10!

Koji Wakamatsu's treatment of this story is, compared to big budget filming, what guerilla warfare is to a full blown World War. Imagine seeing a hysterical comedy about idealistic terrorists betrayed by their leaders as written by Jean-Luc Godard, produced by David Lynch and directed by Gregg Araki: that gets you somewhere in the neighbourhood of what this picture is like. Untroubled by storytelling conventions Wakamatsu lets the thin thread that holds all scenes more or less together snap halfway through the film. His scenes of bloodcurdling violence are thrown at you with the gusto of a rabid modern painter. Visually brilliant and wonderfully over the top with some poignantly funny touches, this ranks as one of the most enthralling political nightmares ever printed on celluloid.