Smuggler

A Grasshoppa! and Django Film production. (Worldwide sales: SDP, Tokyo, japan.) Created by Hideaki Endo, Masatoshi Yamaguchi, Kazuto Takida, Akira Yamamoto. Directed, edited by Katsuhito Ishii. Script, Ishii, Masatoshi Yamaguchi, Kensuke Yamamoto, in line with the graphic novel by Shohei Manabe.With: Satoshi Tsumabuki, Masatoshi Nagase, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Tsuyoshi Abe, Hikari Mitsushima, Masanobu Ando, Tatsuya Gashuin, Yohachi Shimada, Kanji Tsuda, Ryushin Tei, Fumiyo Kohinata, Masahiro Takashima, Hitoshi Kiyokawa.In some way at the same time entertainingly crazy along with a little underwhelming, manga adaptation "Smuggler" mingles yakuza melodrama, grotesquerie, the near-fantastical, black comedy, hyperstylized action and much more right into a goulash which will most likely enthrall some fans but leave others cold. Latest in the ever-unpredictable Katsuhito Ishii ("Shark Skin Guy and Peach Stylish Girl," "Party 7," "The Flavour of Tea") is really a exclusively Japanese genre mash-up destined for home-format appreciation through the usual suspects wherever it proves too out-there for theatrical distribs. Attracted from Shohei Manabe's 2000 graphic novel, and repping possibly the best live-action link up to now with Ishii's periodic anime work, pic includes a "Dick Tracy"-worthy gallery well over-the-top criminal types surrounding one timid, naturally panicked regular guy. That might be Kinuta (Satoshi Tsumabuki), a unsuccessful would-be actor who's stupidly become themself in hock towards the wrong people. To create good on his debt, he's forced right into a job as ride-along flunky with hard-boiled quiet type Joe (Masatoshi Nagase) and crass, clownish Masako (Tatsuya Gashuin), who locate and transport questionable products without any questions requested. They get in the center of a convoluted crime war including Japanese and Chinese procedures one boss and the minions are wiped out in the start, and also the spoils from the planned drug exchange are spirited away. The hired causes immediately responsible are outre hitmen Vertebre (a damaged, inked, platinum-haired Masanobu Ando) and Viscera (lengthy-haired, shades-putting on Ryushin Tei), almost supernaturally invincible assassins who also are actually quarrelsome longtime enthusiasts. It falls to the more earthbound lead trio to apprehend this duo and produce these phones individuals anxious to exact revenge. Double-crossings abound, however, and also the fateful trip ultimately puts guileless Kinuta in to the clutches of sadistic interrogator "Mad Dog" Kamashima (Masahiro Takashima). Others around the playing area include Mrs. Tanuma (Hikari Mitsushima), femme-fatale widow from the slain boss Yamaoka (Yasuko Matsuyuki), a allegedly neutral banker together with her own murky agenda and many more funhouse-exaggerated archetypes. Helmer draws a variety of performance styles from the starry cast of music performer-stars, veteran screen thesps, ex-teen idols, etc., variably apt for Keystone Kops, Sergio Leone, film noir, superheroics and Tarantino-esque actioners, in addition to their counterparts throughout Japanese genre cinema. Credited onscreen as storyboarder in addition to editor and co-scenarist, Ishii devotes maximum focus on flashy yet intimate action setpieces that frequently push slo-mo f/x to "Matrix"-like extremes of physical impossibility. Very possible, however, would be the agonies Kinuta suffers at Mad Dog's hands, inside a torture interlude which will get carried away too lengthy for a lot of. Chameleonic in tone, deliberately drab in production design, "Smuggler" is a number of individually vivid episodes that never quite gel right into a whole. The outcomes are nearly always stimulating, sometimes memorable, but missing a throughline of emotional engagement, they are able to bore slightly even while they dazzle. It is a movie that feels inorganically created and performed being an summation on most current Japanese cult-cinema tropes. Whilst not spectacular in scale, tech and elements of design are considered towards the last witty detail.Camera (color), Hiroshi Machida music, Toshio Nakagawa production designer, Yuji Tsuzuki costume designer, Kuko Utsunomiya seem (Dolby Digital), Kohichi Mori. Examined at Toronto Film Festival (Night time Madness), Sept. 10, 2011. Running time: 114 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com