Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Markus Pausch Two thirds of the movie are filled with grotesque humorous scenes, whereas at end the tone of the movie changes completely and you get a dead serious message delivered. But the good news are: this somehow works. This is brilliant movie and it got to me form the first scenes. I only wished that the two parts where stronger connected. Was there any indication in the first two thirds, that the movie has the subject: "is self defense justified?". No. It was all about palm reading, laughing endlessly and drunk dancing/shooting. I watched the movie now four times, because I can't get enough of the bar scenes. The laughing sequence is the best since Laurel and Hardy's "Fra Diavolo."

Armand A strange puzzle. Mixture of kafkaesque atmosphere, pieces of black humor, slices of Japanese mythology, pacifist thesis. Ambiguous thriller about fall of a waste world, about normal existence like masks collection, about innocence like result of inactivity. A surrealistic funeral and explosion of corpse. The life broken decent limits and every gesture is a trap. Madness, Oriental Erinyes,an quaint fortune teller, a fascinating woman and Yakuza. Stupid murder and beginning of nightmare.A salary man in a hotel room.Monday morning. Reconstruction of last hours step by step. The sin like oil stain. Fascination, stupefaction, fear, negation of facts. Cobweb of memories. Slow suffocation.Palsy. The resignation.Traces of Sydney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon", Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill", Stone's "Natural Born Killers",David Cronenberg's "Spider", Ingmar Bergman's " Tystnaden". But important is only the Japanese recipes.In fact, subtle exploration of Dostoievskyan sin, exploration of unavoidable failure, impossibility of escape. New page of Old Greek moral lesson.

lost-in-limbo Well, I was getting myself ready to watch Brian De Palma's "Body Double" and when I pressed the play button to my surprise I wasn't watching "Body Double". I had I got the blank tapes mixed up (because they were unlabeled) and on screen was "Monday". To lazy to get up and change, I thought I might as well stick with it since I've been meaning to get around to it anyway.A young salary man wakes up rather confusedly on a Monday morning in a hotel room. He slowly begins to remember what had happened over the weekend - where he attended a funeral, had some drinks with some mafia figures, danced around with one of their girls and finally in a drunken state of mind he murders some petty crooks. This last act has caused a real stir amongst the media with it being discussed on TV and the police have surrounded the building ready to take him into custody."Monday" is my second viewing of a Sabu (Japanese director / writer Hiroyuki Tanaka) film and it was another pleasant surprise, just like "Drive" (2002) was. Three things I have come to notice about his work is that his pieces are highly original, the odd sense of humour is darkly downbeat and there's an expressive message on life. This black comedy / thriller just feeds off it's cynical statement on the influence of guns in society and the power it asserts on people. It questions the morality about justice - even if you're are on the laws side and shoot someone that doesn't mean you're not a murderer. Really, are you any better because you have a badge? Even alcoholism gets a spray at. The violence is raw, but from glorified. The tense moment involving a swat team toys around this question. We even get a quick taste of the media's involvement too that really portrays the differing perception on both sides of the coin. But these serious thoughts play out more in a dreamy vibe because of all the kooky situations that occurred, strange folk he encounters and the quirky dialogue we hear. It's a more a spur-of-the-moment build up with the infectious story unfolding in non-linear narrative. That's because half the film is spent with the protagonist putting the blurry pieces together of what had happened over the weekend. Just like the main character you would like to see how this clouded chain of events eventuated and we feel every minute of his misfortunes. Shin'ichi Tsutsumi as Koichi Takagi, the salary man who gets drunk, while carrying around shotgun is superb in demonstrating flexibility in his emotions and it's hard not to feel for the guy. Director Sabu leisurely paces the film with many comic ideas, dim humour, icy scenes mixed with suspense, provocative camera shots and a spanking rock / dance soundtrack. In the end I guess you could say that was one rough weekend just waiting for the consequences (Monday) to come along.A very glum and low-key black comedy that boldly throws up some thought-provoking scenarios in a satisfying manner.

rogierr Although it has some dumb humour, it is an appealing thriller about a man who is confused about what's going on and gets even more confused (Kafka?). Another director would have been nice for this movie, because Tanaka probably doesn't really know how to get the actors to perform authentic in this apparently not so cheap film that needs good acting to get the black humour across. Unfortunately the acting turns out to be horrible (except Shinichi Tsutsumi), but the cinematography (Kazuhiko Sato) and the structure of the story are entertaining enough to keep you interested. Monday felt like Desperado (Rodriguez, 1995) for a while and then the mystery took over with some off-beat cinematic experiments that I appreciated very much. It ultimately didn't satisfy completely though, because of the forced finale of the story and nothing really stands out. I'm not going to spoil anything further, because somehow this curio is well worth watching.