Centering on a young drifter almost casually drawn into violence--a crime drama about a boy and a man equally ill-equipped for criminal life and straight society. Neither wants to be a Yakuza, but normal life presents problems.
Direction
Aoyama's detached, almost documentary violence
Acting
Osawa's hollow-eyed drift through disaster
Director
Shinji Aoyama
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of 1990s 'slacker yakuza' wave reflecting Japan's post-bubble economic despair and youth without futures.
Shinji Aoyama later won Cannes' FIPRESCI Prize for 'Eureka' (2000), completing an unofficial trilogy with this and 'Helpless' (1996).
JP
