2014 · musical · action · hip-hop

Tokyo Tribe

Directed by Sion Sono · 1h 56m · 2014

In an alternate Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. Merra, leader of the Wu-Ronz tribe of Bukuro, joins forces with heavy-hitting gangster Buppa of Buppa Town. With Buppa's support, Merra aims to initiate a gang war between the Wu-Ronz and the Musashino Saru, and in a confrontation between the two attempts to kill Kai of the Musashino Saru. The inadvertent murder of Kai's friend Tera (a Musashino Saru member beloved by all Tribes since before their formation) leads to the joining of forces between all of the Tribes in an all-out war against Merra and Buppa.

Our read: Tokyo Tribe (2014) reads as a neutral, breathless, surreal musical · action · hip-hop entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.