Week 12 (Sept 6 – 12) – Japanese V- Cinema: V-Cinema is shorthand for the Japanese direct-to-video wave of the 90s and 00s. These movies were often produced by major studios on very low budgets, but they allowed the filmmakers a great deal of creative freedom as long as they could deliver the “exploitable elements.” This proved to be a great training ground for young directors like Takeshi Miike, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hideo Nakata and more.
Directed by Soichiro Komatsu, Heartbreaker: With Love from a Bullet (Hātubureikā: Dangan Yori Ai o Komete) breaks from the gritty, conventional crime standards of Japanese V-Cinema. Instead, you get a stylish, MTV-influenced dance-action movie fueled by a unique all-musician cast. Yes, just as Streets of Fire influenced anime like Bubblegum Crisis and Megazone 23, its funky dance steps run through this film.
Kyohei (rock musician Diamond Yukai) is a suave, red-jacket-wearing private detective connected to the disco scene. His routine life is upended when a frantic phone call drags him into a high-stakes conspiracy involving stolen master bootleg tapes, hidden diamonds and a reckoning with his old life in West City. Kyohei is forced to confront a past he left behind a decade prior—including an old flame named Lady M (Anna Banana) and a former best friend, Ryu (Masayuki Deguchi), who stayed behind.
It features prominent ’90s Japanese musicians, singers and pop/rock personalities while blending elements of early ’90s hip-hop culture, dance sequences and vibrant fashion. It all plays out like an extended, high-concept music video mixed with lighthearted detective scenes. It balances slick action beats with plenty of physical comedy and charmingly fallible characters.
If Arrow Video makes another V-Cinema Essentials, this has to be on it!
You can watch this on YouTube.
