Yozaburo Ito Movies
Yoichi Sai's prison film Doing Time stars Tsutomu Yamazaki as Hanawa, a man serving a sentence in a minimum-security prison. Life in the jail is rigid and organized, eventually leading all of Hanawa's cellmates to abandon their individuality. Hanawa lasts longer than the others, but a stint in solitary confinement leads him to the same emotional and psychological state as the others. Doing Time was screened at the Vancouver Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yozaburo Ito, Teruyuki Kagawa, (more)
One-time cartoonist, screenwriter, 'roman porno' director Takashi Ishii continues his famous film-noir series with Black Angel Vol. 2. The protagonist is Mayo, the Black Angel, a top hit-woman who belongs to a secret gang of murderers. Her latest assignment is to kill Yakazi, a powerful Yakuza (gangster) boss who is about to start a gang war. Mayo has her first try in a remote underground park but she is interrupted by Yamabe, Yakazi's bodyguard. Yamabe looks like the man who saved her when she was about to be raped as a teenager. However, Yamabe does not recognize her and shoots. He misses and hits a passerby, the husband of pregnant Suzu, who dies in his wife's arms. Mayo gets another urgent order to kill Yakazi, but her love for Yamabe is in the way. Meanwhile Yamabe is following Mayo and Suzu is following Yamabe to avenge her husband. The drama of the three characters is the film's focus, but the action scenes, as in the more action-oriented Volume 1, are as visually stunning as ever. Black Angel Vol. 2 had its international premiere at the 1999 International Film Festival in Rotterdam. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yuki Amami, Takeshi Yamato, (more)
