I've been to Tokyo, and it is just like this...if 'this' is 'Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo'. Sion Sono's latest film is certainly an experience.

I first came across 'Tokyo Tribe', that is to say to strangely titled 'Tokyo Tribe 2', while in, erm, Tokyo. Bored, and looking for a new anime series to entertain, I searched my local 'Book Off' and came across something that looks like it might combine both anime and hip hop in a way that only 'Samurai Champloo' could do before it. On the cheap (for Japan), I purchased volumes 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the DVD collection, being that 3 and 6 were unavailable on that day. Being that I was in Japan, there was no need for English translations on these bad boys, so I could merely watch the interesting images and listen to the fat beats which were contained within.

Loosely, the plot centres around the Mushashino Saru gang, a group of fun-loving kids that hang out at a diner. But, being just one of twenty-three gangs in Tokyo, all representing their 'hood in their own unique way, they soon find their peaceful lives caught up in gang wars. It's 'The Warriors' in Japanese.

The anime of Santa Inoue's manga comes with GTA-style breakdowns of the characters, the gangs, the locations, the eateries involved in this semi-fictional Tokyo world. I like the anime (not that I understand it, wakarimashita?!), with the music and style; seriousness and comedy, but mainly the ending credits, which always need to deliver in an anime series. So, now comes the live-action version from bum-crampingly- long film director Sono: a man that might have one said that both Miike Takashi and Kitano Takeshi are both 'dead', but also might have not.

When turning a cartoon into a live-action, it's always interesting to the approach that will be taken. Sono certainly takes some interesting ones here. The first notable one is that this being a hip hop anime, 90% of what is said is 'rapped', with a combination of actors trying their best and some Japanese wordsmiths making up the cast. What starts off as interesting, soon starts to feel like a potentially irritating gimmick, before you settle into it and it becomes natural. After two hours of this, you will only want to speak in rap-form...in Japanese.

The second noticeable element is that of bling. Hip hop is always something that I feel is very anti-Japanese. Despite my love of both Japanese culture and hip hop, the loud, brash, bragging rights world of hip hop simply doesn't fit with that image of polite and respectful Japanese. But, being a man that regularly listens to Japanese ragga on vinyl, this cross-culture exists, and my Japanese hip hop collections is ever on the increase. But the US gangsta ethic feels a little strange in Japanese, with many of the gangs coming straight out of a comic book. But this is straight out of a comic book, and so some poetic license needs to be allowed here.

When watching characters in animated form, it is acceptable for them to be larger than life and somewhat unbelievable, but you're always unsure how to take them when they're actual humans. The sick and twisted characters certainly are that in Sono's 'Tokyo Tribe', and the gang colours come across as much hilarious as threatening.

Reality is not the name of the game here, with 'Tokyo Tribe' feeling very much like a game of 'GTA': not feeling in anyway based on real- life, but a dream world men wish they lived in, but would run from as soon as it was in their face. This is, therefore, pure silliness in a can...of film, the film's farcical conclusion in-line with the rest of the two hours.

There are good and bad elements in this film: The good include the rapping, which is interesting and gives the film a rhythm, though maybe not a linear plot. while the rappers in the cast can obviously hold their own, novices, like actor Shota Sometani take on a lot of rapping and while not blessed with talent can pull it off for the duration. There is certainly a lot of invention here as well, with creative set designs in-line with the manga and anime.

But with all that rapping and less-than-coherent plot, this is at times a little long and at times disjointed. But, much like Miike Takashi - a man he will inevitably be compared to - before him, Sono is a creative director that will keep churning them out, not dwelling too much on how films are received, working on what new and crazy things to do next...

Tokyo Tribe, never ever die...

You'll either find this mash up of gang violence, martial arts action and hip-hop musical (it is told almost entirely in rap verse), based on a popular Manga series ingenious or totally bonkers, but director Sion Sono delivers a movie that goes beyond the midnight-movie oddness of the plot, and has a knack of making the dumbest of ideas work. In a futuristic Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. When one of the gang leaders breaks the fragile peace, it triggers a brutal street war for supremacy. Featuring a cannibalistic yakuza boss and his son who has a room full of human furniture, a (computer-generated) tank rolling down the streets of Tokyo and bombing buildings, a lot of humour, and even a homage to Bruce Lee (not Kill Bill) in Game of Death, there's a lot to like in this movie even if the novelty of it all does start to wear a little thin after a while.

The costumes/movie set are quite breathtaking and songs are very catchy. Another eccentric movie by Sion even if it doesn't break any grounds. It's probably hard to watch again as the plot is extremely superficial and never takes itself seriously. Never knew Rap was a thing in Japan until I googled some of the actors from the movie that are actually real artists irl.