Junko (Sho Aikawa), a young yakuza in the service of Yoshikawa (Toru Minegishi), just wants to look cool. Then he meets Yumeko (Chikako Aoyama), a runaway sex machine slash narcoleptic who loves guns and stealing cars. They meet when she steals Yoshikawa’s car and soon moves in with him.

Yet duty soon calls. When a member of his crime family is killed by a high-ranking member of the Kazama Family, he’s called on to get revenge. Can he handle it? Well, he always dreamed of being a gangster. Actually being one is an entirely different thing.

This was such a success that Neo Chinpira 2: Zoom Goes the Bullet came out a year later. Director Banmei Takahashi also made Door, and writer Takuya Nishioka wrote Mermaid Legend. They bring to you a world where young people who grew up idolizing cool-looking gangsters in Yakuza films suddenly discover that they have to fill unfillable shoes and do impossible things. A winner.

Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet is just one of the movies in the Arrow Video V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal set. The set includes a newly filmed introduction by Japanese film critic Masak Tanioka, an interview with writer-director Banmei Takahashi and a trailer. You can get this from MVD.