Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Hazard (2005)

1/27/2022

Hazard (2005) - Sono's little-seen New York crime ride

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Crime Drama of the Year + Bet New York Movie of the Year

Violence and chaos are promised on this poster for Sion Sono's Hazard

A girly Japanese voice introduces three Japanese friends, who run around New York with guns and a drug-pushing ice cream truck in sheer ecstasy over their freedom in the big foreign land. But, alas, - nothing lasts forever.

Hazard is written by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Hole in the Sky/Sora no ana (2001)) and co-writer/director Sion Sono (A Man's Flower Road/Otoko no hanamichi (1987)).

I enjoyed the over-dramatic, almost theatrical youth weltschmerz, which runs like a current through this Sono picture, although at times it goes overboard and becomes pompous pretentiousness, (as when a Walt Whitman quote is shouted aloud by one character.) - I enjoyed it also despite its provocative nature with transgressive, homicidal characters, who we somehow root for nonetheless. The style of Hazard has a poetic edge to it, and its photography (by Hiro'o Yanagida (Cobalt Blue/Gunjô: Ai ga shizunda umi no iro (2009)) is admirable.

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Here is a 10-minute behind the scenes look at the production of the film in New York

Cost: Reportedly 300k $

Box office: In excess of 13k $

= Uncertain, - but undoubtedly a box office disaster (returned 0.04 times its cost)

[Hazard premiered 5 November (Sapporo Film Festival, Japan) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in Japan and New York. The film's only recorded gross is 13k $ from South Korea. Its only other market for a general release was Japan, where its gross may have been too negligible/embarrassing for the filmmakers to decide to declare it. If on par with South Korea the final gross would still only give a deplorable 0.08 times return. Sono has reportedly himself said that he dislikes the film and thinks it the least of his works. Sono returned with Prescription Police/Jikô keisatsu (2006, miniseries) and theatrically with Exte: Hair Extensions/Ekusute (2007). Joe Odagiri (Platonic Sex/Puratonikku sekusu (2001)), who plays Shin, returned in Shinsengumi!! Hijikata Toshizô saigo no ichi-nichi (2006, TV movie) and theatrically in Suite Dreams/Uchôten hoteru (2006). 740 IMDb users have given Hazard a 6.8/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Hazard?

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Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

1/27/2022

Hazard (2005) - Sono's little-seen New York crime ride

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