Synopsis: The film opens in a surrealistic mountain setting as a young, determined Toshiko (Sie Kohinata), executes a daring escape from her sexually abusive, obsessive and oppressive, lunatic uncle Sonezaki (Yohachi Shimada). Speeding away down the road, she notices a man running hastily through... The film opens in a surrealistic mountain setting as a young, determined Toshiko (Sie Kohinata), executes a daring escape from her sexually abusive, obsessive and oppressive, lunatic uncle Sonezaki (Yohachi Shimada). Speeding away down the road, she notices a man running hastily through the woods, clad in nothing but underwear. Distracted, she does not notice the car from which he is running...until she collides with it head-on. Flash back to before the accident: Samehada (Tadanobu Asano), the virile robin-hood-esque nemesis of the Yakuza, is interrupted from a hot, chaotic menage-a-trois by a team of professional hitmen hellbent on recovering their stolen loot and wiping him out in the process. After Samehada is saved by the collision, he thinks fast, jumps behind the wheel and speeds off with Toshiko, unconscious, riding beside him. Uncle Sonezaki, realizing Toshiko’s disappearance, hires the gun-crazed mercenary Yamada (Tatsuya Gasyuin) to hunt down and return her. The Yakuza gang, headed up by crimelord Sawada (Susumu Terashima), continues on a restless pursuit for Samehada and thier stolen money. What ensues is a wacky chase that transports the audience into the comically violent and tragically hip world of bizarre characters. From the "knife expert" whose personality is that of a straight-laced nine-to-fiver to the spoiled mafia brat best described as a fashion victim; from a self-described "hitman" with no history of a hit to the icy, mob-queen that converses with silence and cigarettes, this ensemble ranks high among those from such films as TRUE ROMANCE and RESEVOIR DOGS . Turning the classical getaway story on it’s ear, director Katsuhito Ishii brings a fresh new look to a classical cinema genre. -- © Kino International [More]