Livestonth
I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Cissy Évelyne
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Leofwine_draca
This Hong Kong/Japan co-production starts out as a traditional gangster thriller, as we meet our youthful hero and find himself caught between opposing sides: a violent criminal gang from Shanghai, who frequently employ torture and murder as their methods, and a lone gunman with psychotic tendencies. The first half hour follows this type of plot with some stylish direction and another solid performance from Takeshi Kaneshiro, who once again delivers a 'quiet but cool' type character with emotions bubbling just under the surface.Unfortunately, Kaneshiro's character then meets a girl, and the whole film falls flat. For the next hour we're treated to a lifeless romance with one of the most worthless female characters I've seen in a film. The pacing slows down to a snail's crawl while this romance is explored, and the filmmakers do attempt to generate some suspense by keeping their character motivations murky, but it doesn't work very well. Then things pick up in the last half hour, with lots of action and shoot-outs and more twists and turns than in five regular Hollywood movies. I found the last scene to be overlong and devoid of the badly needed emotion it sought to generate, but at least something's going on, unlike in the middle section.Kaneshiro is a good actor, but his character isn't given a great deal to do here and comes across as a little staid. Yamamoto fails to make her repulsive lead in the least bit likable and suffers because of that, while the excellent Eric Tsang is underused as the mob boss, appearing in all of three short scenes. A lengthy running time and derivative nature of the plot also work against this film, meaning that I didn't think much of it at all.
ellew24
I was pleasantly surprised by Fuyajo. Seamy, seedy, with some of the most evocative steady-cam work I have seen in a while. The opening scene, especially, where the camera follows Kaneshiro's character Kenichi through the back-alleys of Kubuchiko, while the soundtrack wails ethereally is quite something. TK gives a solid performance, as usual, while Yamamoto is more-or-less convincing as the morally suspect Natsumi. I did feel, however, that she committed what seems to be a common on-screen faux-pas in Japanese and Taiwanese films particularly, of allowing her character to segue from the believable into the I'm-a-raving-hysterical-banshee-of-a-woman who will (case in point) throw myself out of a moving car if the man I *love* tells me I'm not to be trusted ... kind of stretches the whole verisimilitude thing a bit too far. Other than that, however, and a plot that could have benefited from a tad more exposition, a good film - stunning to look at (snaps to the cinematographer) and engaging to watch.
xcver
As usual for an asian movie the cinematography is superb, but that's not all. Teenie idol's Takeshi Kaneshiro's acting is subtle and very good. The movie draws a fine picture of the turmoil in underground Tokyo Shinjuku where the Chinese and Korean control the market. Violence is not overexaggerated as asian movies sometimes tend to and the soundtrack is more thematically linked as usual in this kind of movies.All in all a fine movie worth watching.
kutuhead
A surprisingly good movie. Excellent cinematography and music supplemented by interesting story line made this movie a refreshing watch for an Asian produced film. Takeshi Kaneshiro gave a good outing in this movie but other supporting cast were equally excellent. The mixture of Mandarin/Fukien and Japanese language used gave this film a more realistic portrayal of Tokyo Chinatown. The only letdown are the gunfire scenes. Except for the shotgun, the other pistols looked kind of fake!
