Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In a turn of events we decided to take a trip to the island of Japan as a theme. What kind of theme could we pluck out of cinema from the land of the rising sun? Would it be films of the samurai? Lightning fast martial arts? How about slow boil romances where everyone acts like they’re taking ketamine off screen? You shall have to see now.
First up is Yakuza Apocalypse[2015]. It’s about an apocalypse of yakuza. We start in a small town where the head of the yakuza chapter is a vampire. He gets killed by a gun wielding cosplayer and an angry otaku. But his head bites Kageyama, the second in command, and turns him into a vampire as well. And it only goes off the rails from there.
Weltall then has Outrage[2010]. Where’s the outrage? It’s Japan and there’s Yakuza. Of course there’s factions and regional gangs around Kanto that are under the umbrella of the syndicate boss except for one troublesome gang. Like any good corporation, they grab some lower level enforcer to go do the job with minimal staffing and funding. Really it makes mafia feel like a regular office job but with guns.
Lastly Tim has Hana-Bi(1997). It’s about a cop who’s wife has cancer and she’s terminal. He goes to visit her in the hospital on a stake out and all hell breaks loose while he’s not present. He leaves the force after one of his partner dies and the other is crippled. He then decides to rob a bank to help set the widow of the one partner up for life, help the paraplegic former partner get art supplies, and then take his dying wife on a nice trip.
