Ladies and gentlemen, one of the world's great cinematic madmen is coming back to the big screen.It has been three years since Katsuhito Ishii last directed a feature - he released both Sorasoi and My Darling Of The Mountains in 2008 - which is far too long to go without a new picture from the director of the brilliant The Taste Of Tea and Funky Forest.
Based on a manga by Shohei Manabe, Smuggler looks to be quite clearly Ishii's most commercially minded project to date. But, made for mass consumption or not, and made with the backing of a big studio or not, Ishii is who he is and it looks as though there are still plenty of signature touches scattered throughout this one. Here;s how Booklist described the source manga:
A thirty second teaser has just been added to the official site for the film, which you can take a look at below.After his acting career fails, Kinuta is left drifting and disconnected. When a confrontation in an arcade turns bad, he ends up in debt. To earn the money, he takes a job with Jo, cleaning up murder scenes. To his surprise, he makes friends with Jo, but the cruelty of the underworld in which they work shocks him--and inevitably challenges him to find the strength to take a different path.
Katsuhito Ishii is making a Smuggler movie?! Hell yes! Shohei Manabe's work holds a special place in my heart since his books are the first manga I ever read. It would've been interesting to see what Ishii could've done with his Dead End series. Anyway, I'm excited to see what Ishii can do with the material. It's good to see him back on the scene.