Review of Cruel Gun Story

While Cruel Gun Story might not be very well known (even in its native Japan), it is arguably one of the most enthralling noir films I've seen yet and shows how countries other than America could partake in this genre. Like any good noir, it features a lot of killing, double crosses, guns, money, and an ironic ending that somehow gets you feeling sympathetic for the bad guy. While few characters in this movie are genuinely good people, the film is centered around a Yakuza (Japanese mafia) member named Togawa (Jo Shishido), who has been imprisoned for taking vengeance on a driver who crippled his sister forever. A mob boss named Matsumoto arranges for Togawa to be released, and once he's free, he starts getting his boys together for a big heist. The problem is, none of the people in Togawa's company trust him (or even each other), and the double crossing starts almost instantly. Their actual objective is to divert an armored car driving from a racetrack onto a deserted road so they can kill its guards and rob it. The vehicle is transporting 120 million yen worth of horse race bets. Togawa and his men succeed in diverting the car, and Togawa himself uses a rifle borrowed from his friend Takizawa to snipe the cops riding motorcycles escorting the vehicle. After securing the armored car, they load it (drivers still inside) into the back of a larger truck and drive to an abandoned garage. Once there, they attempt to vent carbon monoxide into the truck in order to smoke the cops out of it, which works, but one of Togawa's thugs is shot in the process. The cops show up and try to raid the garage, but since Togawa is an experienced gunman, what follows is a bloodbath. Using the keys from one of the dead cops, the money is retrieved from the armored car, but Togawa finds out that Matsumoto intends for him to die so that he doesn't receive his cut. While most of the other gangsters are killed, Togawa makes his escape through a sewer, but leaves the money behind. After being rescued, he makes his way to Takizawa's bar to find out what to do next. Through some means, Togawa is able to capture Matsumoto's son and tries to use him as bait to get Matsumoto to surrender the money. The latter and Togawa reach an agreement and promise to meet by a bridge at nighttime to trade. Togawa warns if not all the money is accounted for, he will kill his son. When the night arrives, Togawa's men (but not himself) meet Matsumoto's representative to complete the barter, but gunmen shoot at Togawa's men from the bridge and all are killed. With no choice left but to retrieve the cash himself, Togawa tracks down Matsumoto, shoots him, and takes the money back to Takizawa's place. Takizawa says how his friend has a passport to Brazil waiting for Togawa, and his sister will be sent there in about a year. Some time later, a thug working for Matsumoto sneaks into Takizawa's bar and shoots him after he learns he has secured Togawa's exile. Togawa reenters the bar, barely manages to kill the guy, and then tries to check on his friend. Takizawa mistakes him for the criminal and shoots him. Having no need for all the money he stole now, Togawa spills gasoline all over the bar and burns himself to death. I didn't think it was possible for a movie of this length to be so complicated, but there it is. I don't feel it's a bad movie, but it contains so many betrayals, characters popping up out of nowhere, and other things that explaining its story is a little bit of an exercise in futility. People in the film betray each other constantly, and are then betrayed themselves. Still, I haven't ever seen a movie focused on the yakuza yet, so I thought this was a fairly good place to begin. Japan is definitely a great setting for something like this. Badly damaged and depressing looking from its mauling in World War 2 just years earlier, the shadows and other dark visuals we associate with noir seem to come naturally here. There's also tons of firearms and gunfights, and Shishido is on the same level as someone like George Raft when it comes to toughness. He's gotten far in the criminal underworld simply because he doesn't trust anyone, and it's so much fun seeing him come out alive of (almost) every single confrontation, no matter how deadly they are. The movie's story itself also bears an uncanny resemblance to Kubrick's The Killing, as both films involve a band of criminals trying to steal money from a racetrack, betrayals, and a deeply ironic conclusion. This movie's plot may be somewhat chaotic, and there's more corpses than the end of Macbeth by the time it's over, but for a foreign crime movie, I wouldn't call it bad. It does at least show how even if criminals go unpunished by the police, they will eventually be punished by their own kind.