gilli

Characters are unidimensional. Kitano spends quite some time displaying his own paintings (in the movie they are the paintings made by the paralyzed cop), which I liked, but occupy far more movie time than they were entitled to. Most of the movie is simply boring. Some moments of shock here and there. Some gratuitous violence. A primary and questionable morality pervading it all.

This one has a farmer, his wife and her ex-lover. And a case full of money. It is not particularly memorable, but has pace, good acting, and a gorgeous Debra Paget. What else could you ask for?

This is such a wonderful film I recover my faith in the human race just to remember it. But I also lose my faith in my own perceptiveness, since I didn't notice its greatness until watching it for the second time. I clearly see it at two different levels. First, as a straightforward gangster story, and it works perfectly well as such, with endless brilliant scenes and the cutest dialogue you could imagine. Secondly, in a deeper, more philosophical level, it is a reflection on such themes as personal ethics, chance, destiny, and one's command over one's own life. There is a clue to this in the final dialogue between Byrne's and Finney's characters. A truly complex and superior movie.