(1995) Directed by Takashi Ishii
Starring Koichi Sato, Masahiro Motoki, Jinpachi Nezu, Takeshi Kitano

Bandai (Koichi Sato), the owner of a night club, owes money to the yakuza loan sharks who took over the bank that was handling his loan.  Revenues from the club can't cover his debts and he becomes desperate.  He devises a plan to rob the yakuza and use their own money to pay off the debt.  Realizing he can't do it alone, he puts together a team composed of gay gangster Mitsuya (Masahiro Motoki), ex-cop Hizu (Jinpachi Nezu), unemployed businessman Ogiwara (Naoto Takenaka in a delightfully psychotic role) and a young pimp Jimmy (Kippei Shiina).  The robbery goes off smoothly but the group hadn't anticipated that the yakuza would hire a pair of hitmen (one of which is played by Kitano) to track them down.  Scrambling for their lives, they begin to die one by one until Mitsuya and Bandai decide to leave town for good.  When Bandai is gunned down, Mitsuya and Hizu decide to end it once and for all by going back to the scene of the crime and confronting the yakuza  boss.  Gonin is a violent, dark film that really needs to be seen on the big screen for full effect.  While the heist is merely a convenient plot device and the gangsters are your standard evil-doers, the characters of the hapless band of robbers are very intriguing.  Naoto Takenaka shines as Ogiwara, the down-and-out white collar professional who ends up committing the most heinous act imaginable.  Jinpachi Nezu manages to do a good job with the ex-cop role, Hizu, a role which could have played out like a bad Clint Eastwood performance but ends up holding the film together.  The emotional connection that Hizu has with his wife and daughter shows us a side of the character that we wouldn't ordinarily see in the average shoot 'em up.  Takeshi Kitano's role is minimal but he manages to look as cool as ever, and as always, its the little touches that make his performance so compelling.  The bandage that he wears over his right eye throughout the film gives him a demented look that brings the character to life.  Gonin could have gone either way.  It could have taken the easy road and just been a straight up action movie with character becoming lost in all the explosions.  Or, it could have gone the other way and shown us something new and interesting.  I think Ishii has definitely shown us something new and interesting: that genre films can still be original.

Tim