Introduction

While Masato Harada has been directing movies for more than three decades, it might be surprising that many foreign spectators have only recently started to savour his work with the release of Hell Dogs (2022) and Bad Lands (2023) on Netflix. Yet, if Harada can please the spectator with his recent work, he might successfully invite him/her to explore his older celebrated work – Kamikaze Taxi (1994), Bounce Ko Gals (2017), Jubaku: Spellbound (1999), Chronicle of My Mother (2011), The Emperor in August (2015), Sekigahara (2017). Can Bad Lands be such an inviting work?

Review

Neri (Sakura Ando) works for a well-organized criminal network that, mainly, swindles elderly people. Yet, when Neri notices undercover cops roaming around their latest target Mikiko Inoue (-), she immediately calls off the transaction.  

While the Osaka’s special fraud task force failed to arrest someone taking part in the swindling, the failed operation did produce two leads: the white van used in the swindling and reappearance of a woman, who appears to be deaf on her left ear, around the targeted victim. Not that much later, Chairman Goya (Yasushi Fuchikami) to learn from his secretary and lover Chiharu Kuramada (Canon Kurumada) that the woman who has been searching for the last few years has been found (Narra-note 1).

At the same time, Neri persuades her boss, Mr. Takagi (Katsuhisa Namase), to employher money-thirsty younger brother Jo (Ryosuke Yamada). Yet, little does she know that he is already engaged in more dangerous work for the Yakuza. 

Bad Lands is a thriller narrative that consists of two halves. The first hour is utilized to introduce the necessary anchor-points, i.e. the parties interested in or involved with Neri, to establish the structure that organizes the subsequent bursting forth of the more action-driven and tension-fuelled second half.   

What sets Harada’s thriller somewhat apart from the rest is the fact that his narrative is firmly rooted within societal reality – the fellowship villages in the rundown Nishinari district offer audiences a bleak glance at poverty within Japanese society – and that, besides delivering thrills and twists for the spectator to enjoy, the story is utilized to critique certain relational dynamics (Narra-note 1).   

Bad Lands can, essentially, be viewed as a tragedy of a stable relational structure being radically disturbed by the sudden bursting forth of a foreign element, i.e. a subject that does not (want to) fit. What causes such tragic disturbance is, as Harada reveals, a subjective fixation that violates any kind of relational dynamic: the seductive intoxication of money. Behind the imaginary agreeableness by which Jo interacts with his sister and others lies a logic animated by a twisted capitalistic and materialistic promise – other subjects are but a means to acquire capital. He has no qualms to ruin a symbolic structure to try to get hold of that precious object that seems to promise to solve all problems.  

It is important to contrast Jo’s short-term capitalistic fixation with Neri’s relationship with the object of money. While Neri turned to Takagi for protection and entered the swindling business to earn money, she fully inscribes herself into its symbolic system and invests in this minimal relational network. As opposed to Jo, Neri’s goal is not money as such, but a dream that can be attained by gathering lots of cash – coins and bill are merely a means to escape a certain subjective reality, a traumatic past that does not stop from echoing (Narra-note 2).

The traumatic past Neri tries to escape is intrinsically linked with her statement that ‘dicks are the root of all evil’. What Neri underlines is that male subjects narcissistically intoxicated by the deceptive phallus and the fantasy of being desirable can ravage female subjects and cause real traumatic injuries (Narra-note 3). While some women can fully assume the sexual-object-position of phallic support reserved for them by this narcissistic fantasy of power and desirability, the radical erasure of one’s subjectivity is a too heavy burden for others.

To bring the narrative of Bad Lands visually to life, Harada fluidly plays with dynamism and visual rhythm. The opening of Harada’s narrative might be quite static with only some dynamism thrown here and there to add some compositional variety, Harada relies more and more on dynamism as the narrative progresses.

The dynamism Harada utilizes heavily in his composition is a tracking one. He carefully follows and emphasize the movement of his characters, for example to stage how the organisation and its members work together to extract money from their often-ignorant targets. Within this fluidly flowing visual fabric, the sudden insertion of a static moment succeeds in underlining the expression of certain signifiers. Harada’s sporadic use of shaky framing in his composition, on the other hand, aims to fleetingly reverberate that the story and its characters are grounded in reality. While the story is fictive, the fleeting visual tremble is there to remind us that a certain truth about the Japanese societal field is nevertheless laid bare.  

Yet, Harada’s energetic and dramatic dynamism does come at a slight narrative cost (Music-note 1). As imagery often quickly concatenates – keeping the visual rhythm high, the spectator ends up feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the succession of signifiers. While it is not difficult to grasp the main structure of Bad Lands – all the involved parties that play a role in the dramatic denouement are introduced well, the fast visual pace sometimes robs the spectator the time to fully digest every enunciation and revelation and grasp the more subtle fleeting points of the narrative with full confidence.

What makes Bad Lands ultimately a satisfying experience is the narrative structure – the rhythm that structure the two halves of Neri’s story. By slowing the narrative down as all the threats position themselves around Neri and Jo – the tension ebbs and flows slowly, Harada succeeds in frustrating the spectator and, thus, raise his anticipation. While calmly exploring the period of silence – i.e. Neri and Jo finding a way to access the cash – before the storm breaks out could have deflated the whole finale, Harada delivers a resolution that, despite its subdued nature, fully satisfies the raised anticipation of the spectator.

Bad Lands might not be a thriller that dazzles the spectator with explosive action and dramatic violence, but the incredibly well-crafted narrative structure, fuelled by Sakura Ando’s extremely satisfying performance, ensures that the spectator remains engaged from start and finish and leaves the screen fully satisfied. Harada’s latest is, in other words, well worth a watch and an easy recommendation to anyone who loves Japanese cinema.  

Notes

Narra-note 1: Besides touching upon the presence of poverty within Japanese society, Bad Lands also shows that certain socially embedded and publicly funded institutions are but a facade to cover up more illegal practices, like swindling. Moreover, the narrative also underlines how for certain criminals go to establish temporary illegal gambling dens and avoid the general ban on on gambling within the Japanese society.

Narra-note 2: Yet,after the murder happens, one can discern a similar logic in Neri’s acts and signifiers. The other is reduced to a tool, an object, to ensure her survival.

One can, in fact, argue that Neri’s whole logic turns around ensuring her survival. Every act, every signifier, every relationship, every dream is animated by the throbbing demand to evade the cruelty of the Other – i.e. the dicks.  

This revelation about Neri ultimately leads to a different question: Can Jo leave the chains of his short-sighted materialistic logic and perform an act within the societal field that is linked to a subject rather than an object like money?

Narra-note 3: Goya is a character who is fully infatuated with his phallic position – something his presence oozes out. He does not love another as a subject, but love himself through the female other. The female subject is but an object to be sexually and physically exploited to support his own phantasmatic position of desirability.

Music-note 1: Music is utilized to heighten the dramatic nature of the narrative’s unfolding.