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Two suggestions of films that I enjoyed but you might not be aware of:
(1) No More Comics! (1986) Pop star Yuya Uchida plays a paparazzi journalist who doggedly chases celebrities around. The movie focuses on the world of Japanese showbiz journalism, which is pretty interesting, but then turns out to be about a real case in the 1980s where the yakuza broke into the apartment of a dishonest businessman and murdered him as film crews from a dozen TV stations blithely flimed it. This stylish 80s flick co-stars Beat Takeshi.
(2) Concrete (2004) Based on the true story of the murder of Junko Furuta, this horrific movie gives a fairly factual account of the incidents surrounding the 41-day kidnapping, repeated rape, torture, and ultimate murder of a 16-year old high school student at the hands of several young boys of roughly the same age. The film focuses on the leader of the gang of juvenile delinquent boys, as he progress from dropping out of high school, to becoming a budding yakuza, to petty crime, and to serial rape, before finally setting his sights on victimizing a single young girl. The girl was victimized in the house of one of the boy's parents, and that they turned a blind eye to the atrocity going on under their own roof adds to the outrage of the crime. The movie takes pains to show how the incident was facilitated by the boy's broken home and the parasitic structure of the Japanese mafia that lent the young punks its name to be used to terrorize people. At the same time, it makes no excuses for their actions. Overall, the movie has a very stark and real quality to it. Not for the feint of heart!
Neither of these films have been published with subtitles, but are available around the Internet with subs.
_________________ "Where life had no value, death, sometimes had its price. That is why the bounty killers appeared."
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