After the success of
‘Another Lonely Hitman’, Rokuro Mochizuki again wanted to take the Yakuza movie by storm. This time
‘Onibi – The Fire from Within’ is a much more slick affair, getting a great acting turn from 70’s icon Yoshio Harada (recently viewed in
‘Azumi’ and
‘9 Souls’) in the fish out of water role of the hitman released from prison.
Harada plays Noriyuki Kunihiro, a hitman who has just served 27 years in prison for doing a few jobs. He is now back on the streets and in keeping in the traditions he is offered a new job and money for his incarceration. He does not accept this and asks for his former rival’s camera, a nod to the video in the previous movie. He does accept a job as a chauffer and ends up getting into a fix that his old talents come in handy.
As a reward for this service he is taken to a bar where the women are at his disposal, he prefers the sultry piano player, Hideyuki Sakata (Ko Kitamura), and asks for her companionship. This he gets and this also starts a new beginning for Kunihiro. The movie is surrounded with classical music and Kunihiro can be seen holding a book or two throughout, these clever nods are to his past life in prison, the books being his only comfort and friend for 27 years and the only music allowed inside the prison walls are the classical tunes that make him feel at ease.
Just like in Mochizuki’s previous movie, this character has problems settling back in and is not quite in tune with the gangsters of today. And like that movie too it takes the role of a young woman to show him what it is like to live again with disastrous results.
Not all is, as it seems with Sakata, she creates a tale to enlist the help of Kunihiro to solve it for her, be her strong arm as it were. What she does not say is that the person in question happens to be a crime boss’s brother. I guess the road to hell is filled with good intensions.
It is hard to pin point why 'Onibi' works so well with such a familiar tale to tell, but it does and it seems to glide on the screen. If ‘Onibi’ does not make Mochizuki the next big thing in the current wave of Japanese crime movies hitting the West, like Miike and Kitano before him, then nothing will.
The director is again interviewed in a Q & A session in which he reflects on shooting the movie, in what appears to be in the middle of an E Coli epidemic in Osaka which made some scenes somewhat more difficult. Brief written bios and filmographies are given for the director and four of his mains. Also included is an excellent audio commentary comes from Midnight Eye man Tom Mes, the author of the fantastic
‘Agitator, the cinema of Takashi Miike’ (from Fab Press).
'Onibi – The Fire Within' is out to own now and available via
Amazon in the US and as of yet no UK release date has been given.
You can read more about the DVD in our
database.
USA
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