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When Miyamoto comes out of prison after a 3-year-stretch for a diamond
heist, he has only one objective: to give the stones of same heist to Mihara,
his partner at that job who was crippled at this job, as a compensation for his
injuries. Even Oyane, Miyamoto's old boss, seems to agree to his idea & he
sets up a deal for the stones ...but from here on it goes wrong: When Miyamoto
& Mihara want to hand over the stones, a gang of masked robbers appears out
of nowhere (of course, they were originally hired by Oyane), but when they want
to get the diqamonds, Migara swallows them, & falls off a high building to
his death.
Everybody wants to get his hands on Mihara's corpse now, but then there's
also his sister Akiko (Mari Shiraki), who makes Oyane & his gang &
Miyamoto responsible for the death of her borther & won't let anybody near
the corpse (she doesn't know about the diamonds inside her brother's body,
though) - anybody but her friend Arita that is, who manages to get Akiko out of
the way long enough to cut Mihara's body open & take out the diamonds -
unbeknowest to anyone else.
The rest of the gangsters desperately try to get their hands on the body
before it is burned, even accompanying it in the hearse - but when detective
Watanabe, an old friend of Mihara, decides to go in the hearse as well, they
find it impossible to open the corpse without arousing suspicion ... &
Mihara burns.
End of story ? Of course not, as Miyamoto, when he tries to set Akiko, who
has taken to petty thieving & heavy drinking, straight, discovers that
Arita has the diamonds, manages to get the stones from him & convince Akiko
Arita is not all she thinks he is. Unfortunately, not only Miyamoto knows that
Arita has the stoness but also Oyane & his gang, & they pick the very
same moment to get the stones that Miyamoto has picked - & only because
Akiko is alert enough to hide the stones inside a shopwindow mannequin - which
Arita produces & sells as a way of livibng - just in time, can she keep the
stones from falling into the wrong hands ...
But due to a series of unfortunate events the mannequin is delivered off to
some custoer right away ...
But while Miyamoto makes every effort to get the mannequin back from its
rightful owner, Oyane & Arita try a rather different approach, as Oyane
kidnaps Akiko & tells Miyamoto he will only set her free in exchange for
the diamonds.
Miyamoto, who has intended to give the diamonds to Akiko anyways, agrees to
this, but knows of course that for the handover he has to go to Oyane's house,
the lion's den, as Oyane does not even intend to stick to the deal - letting
the girl & Miyamoto go - & it all ends in a massive shoot-out, not only
between Miyamoto & Oyane & his gang, but also Arita gets between the
lines when he gets too greedy, & he is shot dead by his associate Oyane
himself.
In the end, Miyamoto & Akiko are holed up in a coal cellar, where they
are supposed to be steamed out, but with luck they can shovel a way out for
Akiko, so she can get the police, before the place catches fire, & Miyamoto
can muster up just enough energy to shoot dead Oyane before breaking down from
exhaustion ...
Later, he wakes up in a hospital, heavily injured, & informed that he
will be sent back to prison ... but at least he seems to have set Akiko
straight.
& the diamonds, you might ask. They were destroyed in the burning coal
cellar ...
A macabre gangster-movie that is similar to American film noir in both style
& story (without being an outright copy), director Suzuki manages to tag a
few new twists onto the story - especially when the object of everyone's desire
is transformed from diamonds into a corpse, then a shopwindow mannequin - that
allow it to transcend genre conventions & be at the same time a great
genre-movie, a dark comedy & an original work of art - & a very
entertaining one at that.
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amazon.co.uk
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eThaiCD.com
find Underworld Beauty at adultvideouniverse.com
