Smuggler aka Sumagurâ: Omae no mirai o hakobe
Written by Katsuhito Ishii, Masatoshi Yamaguchi and Kensuke Yamamoto, based on the manga Sumagurâ by Shôhei Manabe
Directed by Katsuhito Ishii
Japan 2011 Fantasia imdb
The writers and director of Smuggler clearly watched Ichi the Killer a lot – A Lot – as kids. It’s all there: the yakuza setting, the gang war, the eccentric characters, the torture, the weird unsettling pacing, the killer who feels like he infiltrated the film from some other cinematic universe.
The difference is that nothing works as well as Ichi. Every time the film quotes Ichi, we are reminded that this film isn’t quite as good as the original. The eccentricities come across as forced, the pacing feels like a car repeatedly back-firing rather than a dangerous roller-coaster, the killer just seems out of place rather than being transgressive, and the torture becomes irritating rather than unsettling.
Written by Katsuhito Ishii, Masatoshi Yamaguchi and Kensuke Yamamoto, based on the manga Sumagurâ by Shôhei Manabe
Directed by Katsuhito Ishii
Japan 2011 Fantasia imdb
The writers and director of Smuggler clearly watched Ichi the Killer a lot – A Lot – as kids. It’s all there: the yakuza setting, the gang war, the eccentric characters, the torture, the weird unsettling pacing, the killer who feels like he infiltrated the film from some other cinematic universe.
The difference is that nothing works as well as Ichi. Every time the film quotes Ichi, we are reminded that this film isn’t quite as good as the original. The eccentricities come across as forced, the pacing feels like a car repeatedly back-firing rather than a dangerous roller-coaster, the killer just seems out of place rather than being transgressive, and the torture becomes irritating rather than unsettling.
- 8/5/2012
- by Michael Ryan
- SoundOnSight
The Taste of Tea und Funky Forest director Katsuhito Ishii takes on Shohei Manabe’s 2000 manga Smuggler:
Synopsis:
A failed actor named Ryosuke (Satoshi Tsumabuki) takes a part-time job at a pachinko parlor. After racking up a huge debt, he’s forced to take a smuggling job from a yakuza company chief (Yasuko Matsuyuki) who offers him 50,000 yen per successful delivery.
Unfortunately for Ryosuke, the reason for this big payout is that his new job actually entails disposing of corpses in the middle an escalating gang war, and making even the slightest mistake could prove deadly.
[via Nippon Cinema & Twitch]...
Synopsis:
A failed actor named Ryosuke (Satoshi Tsumabuki) takes a part-time job at a pachinko parlor. After racking up a huge debt, he’s forced to take a smuggling job from a yakuza company chief (Yasuko Matsuyuki) who offers him 50,000 yen per successful delivery.
Unfortunately for Ryosuke, the reason for this big payout is that his new job actually entails disposing of corpses in the middle an escalating gang war, and making even the slightest mistake could prove deadly.
[via Nippon Cinema & Twitch]...
- 4/29/2011
- by Ulrik
- Affenheimtheater
Ladies and gentlemen, one of the world's great cinematic madmen is coming back to the big screen.It has been three years since Katsuhito Ishii last directed a feature - he released both Sorasoi and My Darling Of The Mountains in 2008 - which is far too long to go without a new picture from the director of the brilliant The Taste Of Tea and Funky Forest.Based on a manga by Shohei Manabe, Smuggler looks to be quite clearly Ishii's most commercially minded project to date. But, made for mass consumption or not, and made with the backing of a big studio or not, Ishii is who he is and it looks as though there are still plenty of signature touches scattered throughout this one. Here;s...
- 4/29/2011
- Screen Anarchy
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