Rating: 
Summary: One of the MOST CYNICAL thrillers ever made
Review: ...And that could be a good thing, depending on your taste. Honestly, I have seldom seen a film which takes such a desolate and mean take on its characters. Perhaps Jim Thompson/Stephen Frears' THE GRIFTERS comes closest. For this reason, however, GONIN has a certain reputation among connoisseurs of Asian action cinema. Although not exactly a work of art, it is a wrenching, bloody and highly efficient thriller with surprisingly well-developed characters. Nezu Jinpachi's ex-cop-gone-to-seed is particularly good (Nezu played the second son in Kurosawa's King Lear adaptation, RAN), and it is actually very moving when he becomes a hollow shell of a man after his daugher and wife are brutally killed. (Yes, it's THAT KIND of movie, don't expect Hollywood just-desserts logic in this one!) However, the primary attraction for this film is "Beat" Kitano Takeshi's hitman, one of the scariest gangsters ever put on film, who at one point rapes his half-brother "apprentice" following a successful hit. Yahh! He is like a character from a horror fiction by John Shirley or Ramsay Campbell, a demonic scourge. As for violence, I cannot honestly say it is any worse here than in HANNIBAL or SEVEN, but it does have unsettling quality, a little different from the stylized, choreographed violence of a typical action film. Now, I saw this film originally in Japanese only, and then on the Hong Kong-produced Ocean Shores DVD (All codes). Even though the latter is ostensibly English-subtitled, I do not recommend it. The "English" subtitles are the bizarrely truncated, impossible-to-read kind stuck beneath the Chinese subtitles, which the fans of Hong Kong cinema should be familiar with. It makes hash out of the Japanese dialogues; in particular, from subtitles you cannot make heads or tails out of the romantic relationship between the young gigolo and the nightclub owner. (the gay angle mentioned in the other gentleman's review) Wait until a new DVD edition is released with at least serviceable English subtitles, unless you know Japanese well enough to understand the movie dialogues.
Rating:
Summary: Gonin
Review: An odd and unusual film to say the least... But a good one nonetheless. Some people will likely be turned off by this film due to the violence, and the surreal & gloomy feel which rarely lets up. I happen to like that sort of thing, so it worked out pretty well for me. This film actually reminded me a lot of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (vise versa actually), with their great film noir like feel. Reading some of the other reviews, I saw that a few people said they were turned off by the 'homoerotic nature' of the film. The movie has a few 'not-so-straight' (Amazon won't let me use the G-word :) characters (including Takeshi, who is excellent!), but it's nothing I would label as 'homoerotic'. I'm as straight as they get and the film didn't bother me any... It's nothing anyone hasn't seen before in Pulp Fiction or The Crying Game. Anyway, Gonin is a great film which I do recommend... Though some of you may want to rent it first :).
Rating:
Summary: Gonin
Review: An odd and unusual film to say the least... But a good one nonetheless. Some people will likely be turned off by this film due to the violence, and the surreal & gloomy feel which rarely lets up. I happen to like that sort of thing, so it worked out pretty well for me. This film actually reminded me a lot of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (vise versa actually), with their great film noir like feel. Reading some of the other reviews, I saw that a few people said they were turned off by the 'homoerotic nature' of the film. The movie has a few 'not-so-straight' (Amazon won't let me use the G-word :) characters (including Takeshi, who is excellent!), but it's nothing I would label as 'homoerotic'. I'm as straight as they get and the film didn't bother me any... It's nothing anyone hasn't seen before in Pulp Fiction or The Crying Game. Anyway, Gonin is a great film which I do recommend... Though some of you may want to rent it first :).
Rating: 
Summary: Gonin, Japan's "Reservoir Dogs"
Review: Easily in my top 10 list of all time favorite movies. Along the lines of Reservoir Dogs, there is a team of 5 (Gonin translates to "5 People") who steal a grip of money from a yakuza office at gunpoint. Although they get away, the yakuza find out who did it and hire a hitman to try and kill them all, Beat Takeshi.
Beat Takeshi is one of my favorites and have seen most of his movies after the Beats, never seen a Beat yet. He is kind of like Japan's DeNero, and he made this film work. My favorite line out of the movie is where Beat shots a few rounds from his .38 missing his target, and hitting some other people, chases the mark and fires his 6th round again missing, hands the gun to his partner and says "Dame da, kono teppo" (this gun is useless) as if it couldn't be his aim (the subtitle says "It's useless" losing the meaning to think they are just giving up chasing him). Another classic Takeshi scene is where he goes out into the pouring rain to shoot 2 of the 5 wearing just some house slippers and holding an umbrela too small to cover himself. TRIVIA: The patch on Takeshi's eye is real, recieved during an accident causing permanant damage.
There are times when this movie dips a little heavy into the artistry aspect of movie making, and only a few times, so it seems like the director made some mistakes, but he was just trying to cause a certain mood, which he does effectively. This is a very violent movie, and quite disturbing for even hardened action movie watchers, but if you are in the market for a good story and better fimography, this is one to keep.
Rating: 
Summary: A talented director gone bad
Review: Gonin is a homoerotic picture masquerading as a heist film. The heist means very little in the scope of the picture, since director Ishii seems preoccupied with homoerotic themes, phallic symbols, and sadomasochism. In writer/director Ishii's world, men senselessly beats each other and uses other methods of violence as a thinly-guised excuse to express their repressed homosexual desires towards other men. I suppose it is a great movie for sociologists fascinated with the link between male aggression and dormant male eroticism. Unfortunately, I do not care for either topic, and find the movie to be incredibly stupid and lacking in common sense. I am also turned off by the Japanese version of nonchalant violence, where men shoots each other while showing as much emotion as a Buddy Lee the doll. The most disppointing thing about Gonin is that director Ishii is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and there are bursts of brilliant cinematography and mise-en-scene that is just inspiring.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but hopelessly brutal film.
Review: I viewed the Japanese print of this DVD. It is a good film of it's type (Japan's long-running Yakuza genre; analogous to the US Gangster/Mafia genre). It is stylishly filmed and well executed (no pun intended), but it is an awfully brutal movie. The film is devoid of any sense of hope for the protagonists. The story concerns 5 down-and-out guys, victims of the collaps of Japan's "bubble" economy of the early 1990's (this bit of character motivation is not explained particularly well, but I guess if you were from Japan, you'd know all about it anyway), who decide to rob the local Yakuza. They manage to pull off the job, but the Yakuza send two hitmen after them. They manage to find all 5 men and kill them AND the people close to them. There really is no question about whether the men will be caught, but rather when and how many times they will be shot. The interesting thing about this movie is the inclusion of homosexual overtones to such a testosterone-fueled picture (one of the 5 thieves is a cross-dresser and the two hitmen are gay). However, the idea never really plays into the film (except to add one more disturbing scene to an already unsettling film) and ends up looking like it was included only to make the audience even more uneasy. The movie looks good, if a bit too dark (most of the movie takes place at night), but is filled with the flashing neon lights, inky blue-black hues and heavy rains of a noire film. Surprisingly, the camera work is realatively mundane for this sort of film. All in all, a good movie for people interested in the Japanese Yakuza genre, but it's graphic violence, relentless brutality and cruelty may be off-putting to some viewers.
Rating:
Summary: 5 Star Movie! Cruddy Presentation
Review: It's the crack of a metal baseball bat to the cranium for Leo Films! Rough reel ends, poor sound, burned on subs and a not-so-good translation to boot! It's too bad because this is a such a great movie - worth seeing even in this sorry state. The tacky packaging tries to pass it off as a Beat Takeshi film (He DOES steal his few scenes), but this is actually a terrific ensemble piece featuring a number of Japan's most talented actors. It's nothing if not a Takashi Ishii film. If you don't know who Takashi Ishii is, that's a real pity - because his thriller technique puts most American practitioners to purple-faced shame. All the elements are here: black water, red blood, Nami getting the kind of attention nobody wants . . . Ishii has been criticized for making essentially the same movie over and over. But he's sooo good at it. Even his more restrained films ("Shindemo ii") will tie your guts up into painful knots as you wait for the inevetable worst to happen. Which isn't to say there's no humor. Ishii started out as a manga author - and his films display a strong graphic style and visual polish. They are also a lot more dark, and sometimes brutal, than most American thrillers would dare to be - not to mention more well acted, directed, written and better looking. (American thrillers seem loath to present anything that might be too upsetting for their evidently soft-headed audience. God-forbid anyone should get a "thrill," or walk out feeling less than perfectly safe and secure. Furthermore, the Japanese [Europeans, &tc.] still shoot movies for a wide aspect ratio - whereas even widescreen American movies are shot to be cropped later.) "Gonin" seems to take place in a disturbingly sleek noir-noir night world that gives perfect visual expression to the characters' doom. It's a wicked, engrossing, artful and almost comically sinister entertainment. ALMOST.
Rating:
Summary: Neon Gangster Thriller
Review: This is a remarkable and unique Japanese anit-Yakuza movie. An old story really (are there any new stories) about 5 desperate men who decide to rob the local Yakuza to solve their personal-financial problems and subsequently suffer the consequences. Told in a flashy, neon lit visual style and shot in semi darkness on slimy urban streets, there is no breathing room in this exciting thriller, no quiet time for reflection or contemplation, it's flat out action start to finish. Wow. It moves with the relentless momentum of classical tragedy and once the ball is rolling we just have to wait and witness the carnage and inevitable outcome. The violence is graphic and effective on a personal level. Filled with actors who are familiar from the Japanese cinema, the legendary Beat Takeshi has a supporting but pivitol role as an assassin involved in a brutal sado-masochistic relationship with his assassin-partner dispatched to off the tragic heroes (the five of the title). You've never seen Beat Takeshi like this before. Written and directed by Takashi Ishii, the man responsible for the script of Evil Dead Trap, this movie is mature, complex and effective on a human level in ways that Evil Dead Trap is not. Check it out, you won't be disappointed. This is a unique take on a familiar story as we follow the lives of five men, trapped in lives of not so quiet desperation. Tragic and passionate, this is a movie you won't soon forget. The white subtitles of this Hong Kong import are less than perfect and the truncated, shorthand translation leaves much to be desired. Even so, check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Neon Gangster Thriller
Review: This is a remarkable and unique Japanese anit-Yakuza movie. An old story really (are there any new stories) about 5 desperate men who decide to rob the local Yakuza to solve their personal-financial problems and subsequently suffer the consequences. Told in a flashy, neon lit visual style and shot in semi darkness on slimy urban streets, there is no breathing room in this exciting thriller, no quiet time for reflection or contemplation, it's flat out action start to finish. Wow. It moves with the relentless momentum of classical tragedy and once the ball is rolling we just have to wait and witness the carnage and inevitable outcome. The violence is graphic and effective on a personal level. Filled with actors who are familiar from the Japanese cinema, the legendary Beat Takeshi has a supporting but pivitol role as an assassin involved in a brutal sado-masochistic relationship with his assassin-partner dispatched to off the tragic heroes (the five of the title). You've never seen Beat Takeshi like this before. Written and directed by Takashi Ishii, the man responsible for the script of Evil Dead Trap, this movie is mature, complex and effective on a human level in ways that Evil Dead Trap is not. Check it out, you won't be disappointed. This is a unique take on a familiar story as we follow the lives of five men, trapped in lives of not so quiet desperation. Tragic and passionate, this is a movie you won't soon forget. The white subtitles of this Hong Kong import are less than perfect and the truncated, shorthand translation leaves much to be desired. Even so, check it out.
Rating:
Summary: This IS REALLY GAY!!
Review: This movie is perfect for all you bisexual guys out there. If you get turned on by homerotic films, this is for you. But me, like most people am not bisexual. I do not recomend this to most people. I bought this crap in chinatown, thinking WOW! A Beat Takeshi movie $5. I am a fan so I had to buy it. Little did I know it turned out to be a little bit too far out for me. My advice don't get it. I have since, given this movie to a bisexual guy next door. Instead get Violent Cop or Fireworks.
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