Rent Cruel Gun Story (1964)
3.7 of 5 from 48 ratings
1h 26min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Togawa (Joe Shishido) is released from prison early by his underworld bosses. They make him execute a daring heist on an armoured vehicle, knowing he has no choice but to do it, as he needs the money for his sister's surgery. With multiple partners and facets to the operation, much is at risk and all is never as it seems. A riff on Stanley Kubrick's 'The Killing' from Nikkatsu's 'Action' line, Takumi Furukawa directs this yakuza tale with every bit of the deftness found in classic American noir of the 1950s, featuring hard-boiled characters and enough twists to make your fedora spin.
- Actors:
- Jô Shishido, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio Kawaji, Yûji Odaka, Minako Katsuki, Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi, Hiroshi Kondô, Shôbun Inoue, Kôjirô Kusanagi, Saburô Hiromatsu, Yuzo Kiura, Zenji Yamada, Koichi Uenoyama, Kôtarô Sugie, Yasukiyo Umeno, Jun Miyazaki, Zenyu Kamoda, Junichi Yamanobe, Shuntarô Tamamura, Masaru Kamiyama
- Directors:
- Takumi Furukawa
- Producers:
- Hideo Sasai
- Writers:
- Haruhiko Ôyabu, Hisataka Kai
- Aka:
- Kenjû zankoku monogatari
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Countries:
- Japan
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 26/08/2024
- Run Time:
- 86 minutes
- Languages:
- Japanese LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.45:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Audio commentary by author and filmmaker Jasper Sharp (2024)
- New introduction by critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024, 21 mins)
- Visual essay by Japanese cinema expert Hayley Scanlon on Nikkatsu's noir films of the 1960s (2024, 12 mins)
- Archival interview with actor Joe Shishido (2006, 9 mins)
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Reviews (1) of Cruel Gun Story
Insane - Cruel Gun Story review by sb
FILM & REVIEW Superb, utterly demented Japanese heist movie. Sushido (who was in the equally insane Branded to Kill) plays Togawa a gangster sprung from jail early after killing a truck driver who paralysed his sister. The mobster who sprung him needs him to steal 120 million yen from an armoured car leaving a racetrack. We learn early on he intends to betray Togawa but the heist goes ahead albeit not in quite the way it was planned. Togawa has the money but a crew who can’t wait to betray their comrades but all becomes academic when the mobster send his henchman and a small army to retrieve the cash. What follows is double cross on triple cross with huge gunbattles and beatings as no is left sure who they can trust. The body count is off the scale as the film becomes more and more deranged - it may start as a riff on Kubrick’s The Killing but it becomes something else entirely by the end. An obvious major influence on both Tarantino and John Woo it has cult classic written all over it. - 5/5
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