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is a 1997 Japanese film directed by
Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over one hundred theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films run through a variety of different genres, and range from violent an ...
, completely set and filmed in
Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
, Taiwan. Although the movie contains a fair amount of controversial material, the overall theme of the movie concerns the unlikely relationships formed between a hitman and his girlfriend / hooker and son. This movie is the second part of the ''Black Society'' trilogy.


Plot

The film begins with the main character, Yuuji, being fired from his yakuza syndicate. Soon he finds work for another boss solely as a pay-per-hit assassin, killing members of other syndicates. His life starts to become more complicated when an ex-girlfriend or hooker drops his son off at his house. His son, who is mute, begins to follow him, where the boy watches him shoot a man who is having lunch with his wife and infant son. Afterward, the boy follows Yuuji to a whorehouse where he waits outside. While waiting, he eats food from the garbage and befriends a puppy who is chained in the alley. The prostitute (Lilly) and Yuuji develop a live-in relationship (possibly by contract with her procurer). Things get much more complicated when the brother of Yuuji's recent victim, a lawyer, approaches his brother's yakuza syndicate to request heading the revenge attack on Yuuji. Circumstances revolving around one of his contract killings force the three of them to flee, taking temporary refuge on a beach. While there, Lilly teaches Yuuji's son to read and write his name, 'Chen'. The mark's brother discovers the relationship between Lilly and Yuuji and augments her website to offer a reward for anyone with information about her. Yuuji, his son, and Lilly are on the way out of town when Yuuji calls his new boss to get a passport. Yuuji's new boss knows about the reward and calls the mark's brother, despite the fact that he hired Yuuji. Yuuji can tell by the sound of his boss's voice that he has been betrayed, so he leaves their current location and seek refuge at the apartment of one of Lilly's friends: a trans woman named Sandy. While browsing her website on her friend's computer, Lilly discovers the reward offering on her website, informs Yuuji and the two begin to wonder where her friend, Sandy, went to. They spot her outside, waiting nervously downstairs and realize she has turned them in for money. Yuuji sends Lilly and his son together to a train station and gets revenge on his boss - splitting them up; but before they can make it there they are captured by the lawyer (the mark's brother) and Lilly is killed. Yuuji faces off with the lawyer, but gets knocked out due to a distraction by Chen after pumping a few bullets into Yuuji - which makes him appear dead. As Yuuji and Chen rejoice, an old acquaintance, a low quality and comical hitman, appears and kills Yuuji. After the hitman leaves, the lawyer reawakens and gives Chen a short speech, telling him if he wanted to seek revenge in the future, that he will be waiting.


Cast


Release

The film was released on 28 June 1997.


Reception

''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' described the film as a "relatively subdued effort" from Miike, whose plot was "Stretched somewhat thin over 95 minutes". The review noted "moments of melancholy lyricism, but Miike is rigorously unsentimental in his approach to the father/son relationship - which barely figures until the closing scenes."


Notes


External links

* {{Takashi Miike 1990s Japanese-language films 1997 films Yakuza films Films directed by Takashi Miike Films set in Taipei Triad films 1990s Japanese films 1990s Hong Kong films