Smuggler suffers from poor scriptwriting as it is hard to tell whose story is being featured for the viewer. The failed actor Kinuta, Vertebrae the assassin, the truck driver, or even the yakuza wife Ms. Tanuma could each make a good protagonist. But not all four at the expense of a coherent story line and finale.
Kinuta's intro is so brief that the advertised plot line "failed actor deep in debt" is hard to sense. A mobile phone ad campaign, not in the film at all, showing Kinuta going through failed casting calls sounds like the prelude that might have helped. Ishii has one or two brief flashbacks that make Kinuta appear like a failed singer instead of an actor (even the set looks like a night club); were it not for English subtitles that should not be needed at all to get this idea across.
The first yakuza scenes, supposedly scripted for comedy effects, elicited a few very short chuckles at the Hawaii International Film Festival showing I attended. After that the HIFF audience, who seemed mostly there anticipating the all star cast, sat in complete silence. They left as the credits were rolling.
The ramen meal breaks and the night truck driving scenes could have been the making of a well-rounded portrayal of Kinuta, but Ishii devotes as much time to these scenes as can be seen in the film trailer! And indeed these scenes are edited like TV commercial breaks in the middle of the feature story. He zips through them to make time for the very extended violence he is aiming for. The very final scene is set in an incongruous setting for ending the tale of a failed actor. Ishii is credited as Writer, Director, Editor, and Storyboarder of this film. I suppose that is why successful films have an expert in each.I have seen the cast in many other films and this one is near their collective bottom.
