Review: If you could combine the experimental, yet mature, styles of Shinya Tsukamoto and Seijun Suzuki you would undoubtedly gain a feel and understanding of the experimental style of director Sogo Ishii (GOJOE, ANGEL DUST). High in visual and musical content, DEAD END RUN is very reminiscent in style of Ishii’s previous film, ELECTRIC DRAGON: 80,000 V. The film is less than an hour in length and is composed of three stories that all catapult the viewer into the end of the story rather than the beginning. The three short films are as follows: “Last Song,” “Shadows,” and “Fly.” All of which bare appropriate titles to their respected stories by summing up the content included. The titles are the only clues that we are given because we are not given the luxury of a background story, character development, names, or even much dialogue in each of the three shorts. But do we really need it?

A good filmmaker can convince viewers that you don’t need these things, so long as you have the ability to tell a story without words. Sogo Ishii experiments with this and gives an all-around valiant effort, which in the end is successful in many ways. Ishii utilizes music, editing and photography to steer the film in the correct direction. Usually films are mainly carried by the acting and dialogue, which are practically non-existent in each of the three shorts. For example in “Last Song,” which stars actor/director Yusuke Iseya (Kakuto), we do not hear a spoken word for nearly ten minutes, which is one sixth of the films running time. The hyper kinetic photography helps relay the unspoken dialogue into a story by accurately depicting the chaotic and uncertain emotions that arise in the characters of each short. This worked really well.

The music of the film plays a very important and effective role. The soundtrack consists of everything from rock to jazz and beyond which helps the viewer understand how they are supposed to feel. Like I previously said, the photography depicts how the characters feel, but throughout the film the music is what helps guide us through the story with more understanding. Not only was the music great, but it was also a very useful tool for Ishii.

In the opening short, “Last Song,” we find Yuskuke Iseya’s character running through the streets, desperately trying to escape someone. He finally stops to rest in an alley were he meets a young woman. From there it became an eerie romance, which I felt was somewhat surreal and poetic in that non-linear way. Thankfully the introductory short was more than enough to grab my attention.

Sogo Ishii loyally cast Masatoshi Nagase and Tadanobu Asano in his next two shorts. Masatoshi Nagase’s character never spoke a word in “Shadows,” which seemed to be the weakest of the three films. This short in particular felt to drag on too much without any real composition whatsoever. Just like in “Last Dance” we find the main character running away from someone, looking back often in fear that his pursuer is gaining on him. The chase also ends in an alley where Nagase’s character has his final showdown with a man who changes his guise to become a mirror image of Nagase. “Shadows” seemed to primarily deal with the main character’s battle with his inner demons.