Sumagurâ: Omae no mirai o hakobe (2011)

This live-action film adaptation of Shohei Manabe's Smuggler manga is not to be missed! Ryosuke Kinuta is a failed actor with big time debts. His loan shark scores him a gig smuggling dead ... See full summary »

Director:

Katsuhito Ishii

Writers:

Shôhei Manabe (comic "Sumagurâ"), Katsuhito Ishii (screenplay)

Stars:

Satoshi Tsumabuki, Masatoshi Nagase, Yasuko Matsuyuki

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Satoshi Tsumabuki	...	Kinuta Ryôsuke
Masatoshi Nagase	...	Joe
Yasuko Matsuyuki	...	Yuki Yamaoka
Hikari Mitsushima	...	Tanuma Chiharu
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tsuyoshi Abe	...	Bukutadashi Kabashi
Masanobu Andô	...	Spine
Tatsuya Gashûin	...	Jijii
Hitoshi Kiyokawa	...	Takahashi Yoshiharu
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	Kenji Nishio
Shôta Matsuda	...	Cop #2
Yoshiyuki Morishita	...	Shop Employee
Ren Osugi	...	Cop #1 (as Ren Ôsugi)
Yôhachi Shimada	...	Tanuma
Masahiro Takashima	...	Kawashima Seiji
Ryushin Tei	...	Naizô (as Ryûshin Tei)

Storyline

This live-action film adaptation of Shohei Manabe's Smuggler manga is not to be missed! Ryosuke Kinuta is a failed actor with big time debts. His loan shark scores him a gig smuggling dead bodies struck down by gangland hits, but getting caught in the middle of a violent mob war could prove hazardous to his health.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook [Japan] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese Mandarin

Release Date:

22 October 2011 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Smuggler

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$636,243

Company Credits

Production Co:

Django Film, Grasshoppa, Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

Ai o kurae
Performed by Superfly

User Reviews

Vivid V-Cinema styled potpourri

Smuggler is a live action movie based upon a Japanese manga series by Manabe Shohei that stands out with an eclectic genre mixture and a fusion of extremes that is quite particular for Japanese cinema.

The movie follows three main plots that complement one another. The most detailed one focuses on an indepted former young actor who accepts to work with a tough man that could be his father and a weird elder that could easily be his grandfather. They work for an organized crime syndicate and clean up crime scenes, dispose of the victims' bodies or transport prisoners from one place to another. The second story line revolves around two pitiless extravagant contract killers who get betrayed by a partner and end up being the hunted instead of the hunters. The third story line tells the story of a woman who is married to the boss of a Yakuza clan who decides to betray the family in order to become more powerful. The three story lines get intertwined rather quickly and the viewer follows them from three different perspectives.

Just like many other live action movies, Smuggler is a quite vivid genre mixture. It could be categorized as a coming-of-age drama as it follows a young man dealing with constant failure who desperately tries to hold on to his dreams. It's also an action film with slasher elements as the two contract killers are quite pitiless as they are working with both passion and precision. The torture scenes in the last third of the film are quite tough to watch, so don't watch this with your kids. Smuggler is also a black comedy, including many absurd scenes with strange situation comedy and weird dialogs, for example when the trio who is transporting the bodies of yet another massacre gets controled by the police. In a certain way, Smuggler is also a thriller as one tries to figure out who backstabs whom and especially who orders the different murders.

The movie has quite a few shifts in tone but its vivid weirdness actually keeps it together and reminds of Japanese V-Cinema of the nineties and early millennium. The protagonist is depicted as a naive loser, becomes a lowly estimated criminal meandering between cleverness and clumsiness and ends up being tortured and torturing in a very graphic way. This character development exemplifies this vivid movie perfectly.

Obviously, this type of cinema isn't for everyone but those familiar with Japanese cinema will definitely like smuggler. The story is so complex and rich that one could easily watch this movie on several occasions. It's an energizing ride that keeps getting better and better. It's difficult to give it a higher rating because the movie is all over the place but I enjoyed watching it and would definitely recommend it to those who like directors like Miike Takashi or even Quentin Tarantino.