Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

After saving the life of his cell mate Kiyoshi (Tadanobu Asano) in a Japanese prison, Nick (Jared Leto) is repaid by being given a second chance at life within one of the biggest crime families in Osaka.

My favourite thing is that they cast someone who didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. He wasn’t the ‘obvious’ outsider. No blonde hair, not overly broad and no strong accent.

The Japanese prison was a strong starting point to this movie and gave protagonist Nick a chance to get a makeover and become the walking metaphor of a ‘Fresh Start.’ However pretty much after that is where I got lost, and had to wade my way through blind confusion for a third of the movie.

Don’t get me wrong, I was following events, but the movie focused so much on what was happening right in front of us – Nick becoming part of the Japanese organized crime circuit (Yakuza) – that it completely neglected to inform us of the bigger picture. Sure there were men in tailored suits and something to do with territories, but even right now I couldn’t tell you why it really had anything to do with Nick or what purpose he served.

Yes Jared Leto is a cinematographers dream come true with those haunting cheekbones, jet black hair and ice blue eyes, but it would have been nice to shift focus from the outsider to, well – the inside.

I figured going in that Nick’s role as the newbie would be to give the audience an induction to the Yakuza… but he didn’t. He didn’t question anything and nothing was explained to him. That left us alone in the dark quickly working to put together the pieces of the story whilst keeping up with the subtitles – Like. Come on. Help a girl out!

I was on the fence about how much we knew about Nick’s life prior to ending up in a Japanese prison in the 50’s. Basically we know nothing. Some things were easy enough to assume – but others – not so much. I longed for a cryptic phone call or a photo he always carried or… well anything to make me like the walking shell of a man that was Nick.

A slow burning, gritty and well shot piece that missed out on exposing the audience to the culture it appropriated for cinematic purposes.