Alicia I love this movie so much

PodBill Just what I expected

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

geoffrey zhong Neither rules nor plots can be followed in Seijun SUZUKI's cult Pistol Opera. Each scene was imbued with the director's ornate and stunning visual styles. We can meet with whimsical professional killers speaking awkward dialogs or baffling monologues, and cartoonized gunfights represented through voluptuous choreography or Japanese theatricality. This visually coherent work has proved to us his cynicism as well as versatility in successfully combining both various aesthetic elements and anarchical themes that were prevalent in his masterpieces Branded to kill or Fighting elegy during the 1960s. It will be a bit difficult to enjoy such lushful art collection, but also a great challenge to observe how this interesting old man are toying with our mind with his audacious and maddening experimentation .

Harry T. Yung With nothing operatic about it (not even in the context of "soap opera"), this movie is better depicted in its Chinese title "New Branded To Kill", as it is sort of a remake or sequel of director SUZUKI Seijun's acclaimed cult classic "Branded To Kill" (1967), a female version of the original.The plot, if it can be called that, is suited even better to a video game. 35-year-old (at the time the movie was made) ESUMI Makiko, whom some called the "coolest Japanese actress", plays "Strayed cat", the no. 3 of the top ten assassins in the organization. The story, again if you can call it that, is not unlike what you see in a squash or tennis club ladder, where you are constantly after the ones above you and challenged by the ones below. Obviously, a set up such as this cannot go without the usual identity mystery.80-year-old director Suzuki shows that he hasn't lost his touch. Sometimes comic-strip-like, sometime surreal, sensual, stylised, colourful (literally), absurd, Pistol Opera is everything you would expect of a cult movie. And it doesn't even have CGI, relying just on what the camera can do. But in terms of the sheer elegance of pistol poses, this one has yet to measure up to director Johnny To's "The Mission" (1999). But then the comparison may not be fair as these two movies really belong to two different genres.One critic describes Pistol Opera as "like a dream David Lynch has after watching too many John Woo movies" - not totally accurate, but certainly creative

NateManD Director Seijun Suzuki is one of the Japanese pulp directors that was a huge influence on Tarentino. So, film students take note! Viewing Suzuki's films you'll see its influence on "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill". Suzuki is best known for his film "Branded to Kill" "Pistol Opera" is the sequel made almost 34 years after "Branded to Kill". This time the story concerns a female assassin, Stray Cat. Stray Cat longs to move up the ladder in the criminal underworld since she is number 3. She has to kill her opponents including 100 eyes, in order to take his place and be the number 1 assassin. What makes the film interesting is the fact that among all the shootouts and stabbings, there is not one drop of blood. The film becomes a highly surreal head trip, chock full of bright visual eye candy. The film's last 15 minute showdown becomes so bizarre, it almost reminded me of Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain"(1973). At times "Pistol Opera" moves very slow, like a live action play. But it still was very entertaining! If your a fan of directors such as Quinten Tarantino, John Woo, Tekashi Miike and Alejandro Jodorowsky; you should check out this film.

Michael Zeleny (zeleny) This long-awaited sequel to the 1967 Koroshi no rakuin (Branded to Kill) replaces the redoubtable Jo Shishido as Number 3 with Makiko Esumi, an actress of the same vintage as the original film, seen to good advantage as a very different type in Maboroshi no hikari (1995). As in the original, her character Miyuki Minazuki, nicknamed "Stray Cat", is a stylish contract killer striving to attain top ranking among her peers in the most natural and conclusive fashion imaginable. As in Suzuki's splendid yet seldom seen Zigeunerweisen (1980), the 2001 film deftly alternates between cryptic narrative constructions in the manner of David Lynch and dreamlike compositions reminiscent of Alejandro Jodorowsky at his best. I urge every fan of these directors to see it at any cost.