Scrap Heaven review

If David Fincher’s “Fight Club” extolled the virtues of the anti-establishment way of life with its unbridled machismo and nonstop assault on commercialism, Sang-Il Lee’s Scrap Heaven takes the road less poignant; the result being a movie that, while sufficiently entertaining as the arthouse equivalent of a popcorn flick, lacks the cleverness and clarity of intent that could have put it over the top.

In the film an ineffectual desk-working cop named Shingo (Ryo Kase) finds himself in the midst of a tense hostage situation when he’s busjacked along with free-spirt bathroom cleaner Tetsu (Joe Odagiri) and whimsical pharmacy worker Saki (Chiaki Kuriyama).  The gun-wielding passenger, played briefly but brilliantly by oft-underused Tetsushi Tanaka, is a politician’s secretary forced to take the fall for his boss’s mistake.

In an odd way this is the exact moment Shingo had been waiting for. Forced into desk work and kept out of the homicide division due to his timid personality and lack of initiative, he finally has the chance to prove himself and take charge in a dangerous situation. However, he just sits there dumbfounded as the gunman threatens to play Russian roulette with him and his fellow passengers. In fact, even when he blows a hole through Tetsu’s chest and slowly reloads his gun with bullets scattered on the floor Shingo just stares at him, frozen with fear as Saki scrambles to reclaim a false eye that had been jarred out during the bus’s sudden stop. Ultimately, the busjacker has to shoot himself to put an end to the chaos, but not before Saki shares a look of saddened disappointment with the completely useless Shingo.

Three months after the incident Shingo is still obsessing over his inability to act. He starts to notice every moment of inaction in his life, including all the young girls being forcefully recruited into sex trade work on his daily commute. Of course, instead of actually standing up to any of the thuggish meatheaded recruiters he just daydreams about what it would be like if he actually did.  Just then, someone else takes the initiative and picks the fight Shingo was content to theorize. It’s Tetsu, the same guy that was shot in the chest on that fateful bus trip.

After Shingo “saves” Tetsu by pretending to arrest him for assault, the two muse over just how useless Shingo was on that night. But instead of venting rage at the cop whose inability to move got him shot, Tetsu offers him something he’s never had: an imagination. The two start a revenge-for-hire business, advertising only through graffiti on the slummiest bathroom walls all over the city. Through their revenge missions Shingo actually seems to grow a spine, and Tetsu becomes his own personal Tyler Durden-esque mentor of anarchy.

Everything seems to be going well until they get to Shingo’s own revenge mission against his police station. Tetsu takes this one a few steps too far in the name of nihilism and things spiral way too out of control for Shingo to handle. Meanwhile, we discover that Saki has spent her time since the busjacking utilizing her knowledge of chemistry to become sort of the Martha Stewart of high explosives. It soon becomes clear that the busjacking has triggered a chain of events far more significant than Shingo’s futile attempt to get the proverbial bat off his shoulder.

I’m sure when most people read summaries of this movie; either on the internet or at their local video store, the part that jumps out at them is the whole “revenge-for-hire” aspect. Well, those scenes do deliver to a certain extent. They’re clever, fun, and well-shot. But they’re also pretty childish and ultimately pointless. Shingo never really changes through these missions, as much as he’d like to believe he has. He’s just following Tetsu’s lead and drawing confidence from his approval. Tetsu has no lofty goal for his brand of anarchy; he just enjoys forcing other people into chaos for his own whiny reasons. And as far as Saki goes, well, her character never really gets developed enough to know what her motivations are—other than the disfigured eye she never talks about.

This was a film that didn’t quite deliver on its potential to provide any sort of interesting message, but still offers a certain level of entertainment. Sang-il Lee is obviously a talented director with the undeniable ability to inject a certain level of “cool” into any scene. However, the script itself probably could have benefited from a bit more work to tie everything together in a way that incorporates every character instead of just focusing entirely on Shingo. That being said, you really can’t go wrong with any movie with this much star power. The cast makes the best with the material they were given and there’s enough slick production value to make this one worth a look for the sake of stylized entertainment. Just don’t expect too much beyond that.

Watch trailer

Availability: US distributor Tokyo Shock released "Scrap Heaven" on region 1 DVD with English subtitles on February 27, 2007. For full specs, see this link.

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