Matt Cooper Films

Gonin (1995) by Takashi Ishii

Five men attempt to escape the brutal vengeance of the Yakuza after stealing 100 million yen from them. Club owner Bandai (Koichi Sato) is in debt to the Yakuza who come to his club to harrass him. He recruits knife-weidling fraudster Mitsuya (Masahiro Motoki), ex-detective Hizu (Jinpachi Nezu), violent tearaway Jimmy (Kippei Shiina), and an unemployed salaryman (Naoto Takenaka), all of whom either have monetary worries or a vendetta against the Yakuza, in a daring raid on the offices of the group. Following their heist, the Yakuza hire two hitmen, played by Takeshi Kitano and Kazuya Kimura, to find the men responsible.

Written and directed by Takashi Ishii, “Gonin” is a stylish crime thriller with a great cast of central characters. The slight backstories give us enough to sympathise with them, through their planned robbery and the merciless hunting of them that follows. This group of anti-heroes all have their own peculiarities and the film lets us see the psychological turmoil they are going through. The early part of the film takes its time to establish their circumstances, which makes the final third even more thrilling as we watch their attempts to escape the hitmen that have been assigned to kill them. The film’s oppressive noir atmosphere is perfectly encapsulated in the various night-scenes and shootouts in the pouring rain. This is a world that is awash with violence, drugs, avaricious mobsters, and brutal repercussions and the superb score by Goro Yasukawa underlines the tensions and tragedy of those involved.

“Gonin” presents the image of a deeply depressing world, where no deed goes unpunished. The senseless violence drives home the point that any involvement with the criminal underworld is likely to end poorly, whatever your intentions. Violence begets violence and the cycle continues. The film also forefronts homosexuality, with both the protagonists and antagonists, which nods to the idea that heroes and villains are distinguished only by their actions. The final shot of the film also highlights this duality in man and we are left to wonder what will become of a world in which violence is permitted to flourish.

Matt Cooper Films

KIBA: The Fangs of Fiction (2021) by Daihachi Yoshida

Set in the cut-throat world of publishing, KIBA follows young editor Megumi Takano (Mayu Matsuoka) as she tries to futher her career in the industry. Following the death of the Kupo publishing house CEO Iba, control of the company passes to Tomatsu (Koichi Sato), a businessman with his eye on the bottom line. Tomatsu threatens the continuance of “Kunpu Review”, their flagship literary magazine, instead putting his focus on “Trinity”, a pop-culture lite magazine focussed on celebrity and new talent, headed by Teruya Hayami (Yo Oizumi). As “Trinity” begins to score a number of coups, attracting new and established authors to write for them, tensions rise between the two publications. All the while, some at “Kunpu” are sceptical as to Tomatsu’s intentions for the corporation.

“KIBA: The Fangs of Fiction”, directed by Daihachi Yoshida and based on the novel by Takeshi Shiota, plays out like a political thriller set in a publishing house. The staggering cast of characters makes it difficult early on to establish exactly what everyone does, or what their intentions are, but this ambiguity plays to the mystery and anxiety surrounding the continuous back-stabbing and skullduggery amongst some of the key players. The central focus is on Megumi, whose bright optimism about what can be achieved through literature and publishing stands in stark contrast to the cynicism of her superiors. The film throws in so may side-plots, with a famous author Kamukura who has been missing for 20 years, an respected author Nikaido (Jun Kunimura) who Megumi wishes to modernise for a new audience, a young model Saki Jojima (Elaiza Ikeda) who habours a secret talent for prose, Megumi’s father (Shinya Tsukamoto) who runs a struggling bookstore, and more. In a way the story itself is like a magazine with a collection of short stories woven together with the same cast of characters. There is humour, tragedy, crime, and deciet, all tied up in a stylish package. The one weakness of this approach is that what appears to be the central plot, indeed the titular KIBA project, is essentially revealed and wrapped up in short order, without the audience really having time to comprehend what it was all about or feel any sort of concern regarding it.

With so much going on it can be hard to draw out any one thematic thread that ties things together. But throughout there is an emphasis on the importance of literature and publishing. Megumi is committed to bringing new talent to a wider audience, and genuinely interested in great writing. We also see through the case of Saki Jojima how words can impact the real world, and how publishers don’t simply reflect the world but influence it, both in what they choose to print and what they choose to hide. With it’s large cast of characters and many divergent plot lines, “KIBA: The Fangs of Fiction” has a lot to enjoy and provides a fun look at the magazine industry.