KILLERS
Indonesia, 2014, 137 minutes, Colour.
Kazuki Kitamura, Oka Antara.
Directed by the Mo Brothers, Kimo Stamboel, Rimo Tjahjanto.
Killers is a grim and sometimes very gruesome film. It is a Japanese- Indonesian production, with filming both in Tokyo and Jakarta.
There are two tracks in the film, a focus on a Japanese man who is seen initially engaging in sex with a young woman whom he then tortures and murders, filming his actions, and putting them on his website. The second focus is on an Indonesian man, a journalist, who has been trying to write an exposé of a corrupt and wealthy man, who want to enter into politics.
The journalist is separated from his wife but has his daughter sometimes to stay with him. He also logs onto the Japanese man’s torture and snuff movie site, becoming excited, and strongly influenced, so that he decides to take revenge on the would-be politician, especially after being mugged by a taxi driver and his associate, struggling with them, getting the gun and killing them. The journalist starts to communicate with the Japanese man, in chat rooms, and then face-to-face.
The film pursues the journalist’s story, his separation from his wife, his anger at her life, love for his daughter, his wife’s friend. He visits the wealthy man’s lawyer, confronts him, finds that he has an abducted girl in his house and sets him on fire, filming this and posting it. He then goes to a hotel, confronts the wealthy man’s son and shoots him, fighting his way, rather more forcefully than might be expected, out of the hotel.
In the meantime, the Japanese man has selected more victims, says he is influenced by the death of his sister, imagines her, picks up a prostitute and murders her pimp, is interested in a flower shop proprietor whom he sees trying to push her autistic brother into the path of a car. He is pleased to put material on his site and for the Indonesian man to respond.
Ultimately, the Japanese man goes too far but decides to visit Jakarta, kills the journalist’s wife and films it, confronts the journalist, the wealthy man and the journalist’s blindfold daughter on the top storey of an unfinished building.
The film will be to gruesome for many sensibilities, but it takes its audience into the world of obsessive Internet use, the posting of violent, even snuff, material, and the consequences for people’s psyche – making the film something of a moral fable.
1. An Indonesian- Japanese coproduction? Life in Japan? Life in Indonesia?
2. Japanese settings, the apartment, the torture chamber, the flower shop, the streets, the clubs, prostitution?
3. Indonesian settings, the more affluent Jakarta, homes and apartments, hotels? Public meetings, the courts, newspapers? The finale in the unfinished building?
4. The musical score, atmospheric, the use of the classics, especially in the finale?
5. The film’s comment on the Internet, sites without censorship, access for all, visual communications, across countries?
6. The killings, the visual brutality, the touches of violence pornography, the snuff movies and their appearing on the Internet?
7. The Japanese story: the young man, sex, his mask, his torture chamber, filming, the violence towards the woman, his casual attitude? Her death? His posting the film on the Internet? His website? The Indonesian man watching? The further victims? His story about the death of his sister, his closeness to her, his madness and motivations? His mother, the death of his father? The other killings, random, the old man who admitted killing his family, taxi drivers…? His picking up women? The prostitute, the swerve on the road, returning her, her pimp, his accusations, going to the club, the cocaine, confronting the pimp, killing him? The disposal of bodies, acid in baths? The confrontation with the prostitute, accosting her, putting her in the boot of the car, his being challenged by the police, his excuses, parking? His torturing the prostitute, filming? The Indonesian man watching him during the filming, his calling out to save the woman? The man and seeing the woman and her autistic brother on the street, the attempted killing? His return, buying flowers, being friendly with the young woman, her interest, hearing his story? Her shock and disdain? Her brother? The man giving the boy a taser, his accosting a student? The sister, coming to the house, accusing the man, his turning the tables and talking about her attempts at killing her brother? The fact that he had the prostitute in the house, getting free, her cries? The woman and her helping to rescue the prostitute, using the taser? The Indonesian man watching and its desperate effect on him?
8. The Indonesian story: the journalist, his investigation of the corruption case and the divorce of Dharma, the speech by Dharma’s lawyer to the media, excusing him? Dharma, corrupt, entering politics? The journalist and the separation from his wife, her finding another man, love for his daughter, taking her to school, her staying with him? His watching the snuff site? Communicating with the Japanese man, typing their messages, face-to-face? His being intrigued? His visits to his wife, the family, his being criticised by his father? his wife and her new friend, his violence towards him? The fights, his being picked up by Dhama’s men, fighting back? His decision for revenge? Going to the lawyer, discovering the young girl chained in the bath, the interrogation, setting him on fire? Filming it? Posting it on the Internet? The information about the hotel, accosting Dhama’s son, shooting him? The elaborate pursuit, the escape through the hotel, out into the street? The men picking him up, his falling asleep, their attempting to rob him, the gun, the fight, his shooting them and escape?
9. The Japanese man arriving in Jakarta, killing the journalist’s wife, filming it? Going to the top of the building, Dharma and his presence, wanting vengeance for his son’s death? The journalist’s blindfolded daughter? The confrontations, the arguments, the plan, the pleas for mercy?
10. Dharma, his violence, bargaining, wanting to keep the girl, to marry her? His being killed?
11. Japanese man, the bullets in the gun again, the threats to the daughter? The Indonesian man attacking him, locked in an embrace, their both falling off the high storey building?
12. An impressive thriller, the snuff movies, availability on the Internet, this kind of addiction? Madness in violence? Serial killers? Audience response to the visual brutality of the killings? The film taking a moral tone?
