The Outer Way

Probably the most bizar and certainly the most ambigious 'moral drama' since Pasolini's Theorem, this is Mochizuki's finest film yet. The matchless Haku Ryu (in his best rôle since the gay hitman in Kitano Takeshi's Violent Cop plays Himuro, a cop fired by his superiors as a scapegoat for their involvement in sokaiya racketeering. This pale rider takes a train to nowhere - 'nowhere' in this case being a small town by the sea - where he very soon gets the measure of what makes the community tick: a miasma of bent politics, dodgy religion, internet porn, disorganised crime and a little marijuana cultivation on the side.Himuro befriends the mysterious Kuwata (butoh dance star Maro Akaji, also seen in Hayashi Kaizo's Mike Hama trilogy) who makes it his business to 'clean up the local garbage' and the self-hating Mika (Kanaya Amiko), who becomes his lover and eventually bears his child. He also weeds the yakuza patch and helps Kuwata to sort out the scumbag aspiring politician who is the centre of the local moral vacuum. But Himuro is not some strange avenging angel brought in to weigh the town in the balance and find it wanting; he has lived and breathed corruption itself, and is as vulnerable as anyone else to attack...Ripe for a delirium of interpretation, this story is told in images of staggering beauty and accompanied by an amazing 'world music' score. (Tony Rayns)