Rating: 
Summary: Kept me glued.
Review: A twisting story line and beautiful cinematography. Confused and confusing characters.Last shot will have you re-think the whole movie and explains the choppy, sometimes inconsistent, narrative and players. Something different. Loved it. Give it a shot.
Rating: 
Summary: A weak entry in the Kitano catalogue.
Review: After having seen Sonatine and Violent Cop, "Beat" Takeshi's painfully slow but sensually addictive works, I went after Boiling Point with much anticipation. The results were disappointment and impatience. The pacing's not much different from that of the two aforementioned works, except that this time Boiling Point doesn't sufficiently pay off the pain of sitting through a whole hour of plotlessness. Though the comic sequences of Boiling Point are as weird and delightful as the other two films, Boiling Point suffers from the absence of Kitano himself from about 2/3 of the film. Casting himself as a supporting character was a poor choice, the two baseball players about as colourless as protagonists can get. Also, Boiling Point expands on the misogyny (present in Sonatine and Violent Cop, but less overt and thus more bearable). For about 20 minutes Kitano's character is slapping a woman around, or screwing them in uncomfortable places, while they whimper and play the victim role to the max. Unpleasant. But the finger sequence is a hoot, beating any such trick in Pulp Fiction (and certainly in Quentin Tarantino's section of Four Rooms, a similar setup as here, executed with less than a per centage of the elegant two shots in the sequence here in Boiling Point). It is in moments like this that you understand the influence Kitano has had on Tarantino's tone. Boiling Point, however, is still weak by Kitano's standards, bogged down by irritating characters and sexism.
Rating:
Summary: A weak entry in the Kitano catalogue.
Review: After having seen Sonatine and Violent Cop, "Beat" Takeshi's painfully slow but sensually addictive works, I went after Boiling Point with much anticipation. The results were disappointment and impatience. The pacing's not much different from that of the two aforementioned works, except that this time Boiling Point doesn't sufficiently pay off the pain of sitting through a whole hour of plotlessness. Though the comic sequences of Boiling Point are as weird and delightful as the other two films, Boiling Point suffers from the absence of Kitano himself from about 2/3 of the film. Casting himself as a supporting character was a poor choice, the two baseball players about as colourless as protagonists can get. Also, Boiling Point expands on the misogyny (present in Sonatine and Violent Cop, but less overt and thus more bearable). For about 20 minutes Kitano's character is slapping a woman around, or screwing them in uncomfortable places, while they whimper and play the victim role to the max. Unpleasant. But the finger sequence is a hoot, beating any such trick in Pulp Fiction (and certainly in Quentin Tarantino's section of Four Rooms, a similar setup as here, executed with less than a per centage of the elegant two shots in the sequence here in Boiling Point). It is in moments like this that you understand the influence Kitano has had on Tarantino's tone. Boiling Point, however, is still weak by Kitano's standards, bogged down by irritating characters and sexism.
Rating:
Summary: A weak entry in the Kitano catalogue.
Review: After having seen Sonatine and Violent Cop, "Beat" Takeshi's painfully slow but sensually addictive works, I went after Boiling Point with much anticipation. The results were disappointment and impatience. The pacing's not much different from that of the two aforementioned works, except that this time Boiling Point doesn't sufficiently pay off the pain of sitting through a whole hour of plotlessness. Though the comic sequences of Boiling Point are as weird and delightful as the other two films, Boiling Point suffers from the absence of Kitano himself from about 2/3 of the film. Casting himself as a supporting character was a poor choice, the two baseball players about as colourless as protagonists can get. Also, Boiling Point expands on the misogyny (present in Sonatine and Violent Cop, but less overt and thus more bearable). For about 20 minutes Kitano's character is slapping a woman around, or screwing them in uncomfortable places, while they whimper and play the victim role to the max. Unpleasant. But the finger sequence is a hoot, beating any such trick in Pulp Fiction (and certainly in Quentin Tarantino's section of Four Rooms, a similar setup as here, executed with less than a per centage of the elegant two shots in the sequence here in Boiling Point). It is in moments like this that you understand the influence Kitano has had on Tarantino's tone. Boiling Point, however, is still weak by Kitano's standards, bogged down by irritating characters and sexism.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Boiling Point is less of a plot driven movie than the summaries indicate... the best way to describe it would be the thick gauze wrap around a severed finger of a plot. A sort of pseudo-revenge epic that contains less gun-fu than the cover would seem to indicate, and about the equivalent of fifteen minutes of plot from a typical action flick. It composes itself with oddball jokes and deadpans, and the moments loosely organized around the plot and their cast of characters, most of whom fall into descriptions ranging from "eccentricly normal", "psychopathically eccentric", and "stereotyped". If you're familiar with Kitano's penchant oddball gags and Jarmusch-like deadpans, airiness, and genre inversions, you know what to expect here, if you're just looking for a fast paced gangster or action movie, look elsewhere (and please stop writing 1 star reviews). I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Boiling Point is less of a plot driven movie than the summaries indicate... the best way to describe it would be the thick gauze wrap around a severed finger of a plot. A sort of pseudo-revenge epic that contains less gun-fu than the cover would seem to indicate, and about the equivalent of fifteen minutes of plot from a typical action flick. It composes itself with oddball jokes and deadpans, and the moments loosely organized around the plot and their cast of characters, most of whom fall into descriptions ranging from "eccentricly normal", "psychopathically eccentric", and "stereotyped". If you're familiar with Kitano's penchant oddball gags and Jarmusch-like deadpans, airiness, and genre inversions, you know what to expect here, if you're just looking for a fast paced gangster or action movie, look elsewhere (and please stop writing 1 star reviews). I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: JUST DON'T PLAY BY THE RULES !
Review: BOILING POINT is the second movie shot in 1990 of the japanese writer-director Takeshi -Beat- Kitano. This DVD, apart of the widescreeen version of the movie, offers english subtitles, a trailer which is absolutely stunning, the filmography of Kitano and...nothing else. Meager. BOILING POINT defies our usual analytic technique because the director simply doesn't play by the rules. The movie is satyric in its description of the world of the japanese yakuzas and their archaeological codes, funny with its visual gags and the well-known elliptic Kitano style, arty, in the positive meaning of the word, when Takeshi -Uehara- Kitano experiments an incredible flash-forward in his car, disturbing as Uehara's girl is slapped numerous times without any obvious reasons by the angry mobster. The plot of BOILING POINT develops these structural options in a metaphorical way. The young secretive hero is fond of the baseball game and, one day, he does have the opportunity to give to his team a superb victory. But, seconds before the end of his run, he passes in front of one of his teammates and is disqualified : he too doesn't play by the rules. I liked a lot this movie even if, in my opinion, the screenplay is far more interesting than the images themselves. But this weakness is often common in the first movies of writers/directors. So let's be patient. A DVD zone No Respect.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good movie...
Review: I am a big fan of Japanese and Hong Kong movies. This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I actually stopped watching it after an hour (if you find scenes of someone walking silently for two minutes interesting this is for you!) Try "Made in Hong Kong" instead - an excellent film.
Rating:
Summary: Off-Beat-Street: Kitano Hits a Homer
Review: If Godard had been Japanese... The first part of this film takes a comedic look at an amateur baseball team; the middle deals with local Yakuza gansters; and the final section goes into deep left field, a journey to Okinawa in search of a hand-gun with the help of a psychopath played by director "Beat"Takeshi Kitano. As irrevent as it sounds, everything ties together by the film's end. A great film to look at if you dug "Sonatine"('93) or any of the early Godard films. Also peep Kitano's "Violent Cop"('90) and his latest "Kikijuro"(sic)('99).
Rating: 
Summary: Beat's Whimsy Needs A Sophisticated Viewer
Review: If you follow Takeshi Kitano closely, you shouldn't be confused by his sorties into whimsy. Instead, you should watch closely for his thematic, keenly felt, celebration of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and madness in the human void. I strongly disagree with other reviewers and find "Boiling Point" to be an intellectually strong work that seeks to wreak change from the viewer. Many criticize the film's "slow beginning." On the contrary, I think the opening sequence produces an emotional tone, allowing the viewer to harmonize with the film's principal character, Masaki. All that follows happens to the viewer as it happens to him, bringing one to an understanding of Masaki's final actions. Good film involves the viewer, and you will find yourself thoroughly involved in Kitano's "Boiling Point." It is a must have.
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