Dogs

  • 78'
  • Japan
  • 1998
Nagasaki could easily have taken the Miike route in the 1990s, churning out four or five direct-to-video features a year and trying to give them some 'edge', but he chose instead to look for ways to move his own agenda forward. This `hard-boiled love story' (co-written by Nakajima Goro, his collaborator on The Enchantment) was his first digitally-shot feature, and it's a flawless combination of motifs from vintage film noir with the theme first explored in The Drive: a tough woman dragging a weaker man deeper and deeper into crime. Woman cop Miki is chasing a wanted man (another cameo from Tsukamoto Shinya) when she stumbles on a crashed car and sees the driver, Koichi, ignite spilled petrol to kill himself and his passenger. She drags Koichi to safety, but the passenger dies. Miki says nothing to challenge the inquest finding of `accidental death', and when she visits Koichi in hospital he begins to understand that her complicity in his crime implies a sexual invitation. But a gumshoe (played by novelist Hosaka Kazushi) has photos of the crash, and the only way to stall his blackmail is to kill him, the first of several murders... Did I mention that it's shot in lustrous black-and-white? (TR)
  • 78'
  • Japan
  • 1998
Director
Nagasaki Shunichi
Country of production
Japan
Year
1998
Festival Edition
IFFR 1999
Length
78'
Medium
Betacam SP PAL
Original title
Doggusu
Language
Japanese
Producers
Koichi Omiya, Sugimoto Nobuaki, Izuta Homoko, Omiya Visual Image Production
Sales
Bitters End Inc.
Screenplay
Nagasaki Shunichi
Cast
Tsukamoto Shinya, Mizushima Kaori
Director
Nagasaki Shunichi
Country of production
Japan
Year
1998
Festival Edition
IFFR 1999
Length
78'
Medium
Betacam SP PAL
Original title
Doggusu
Language
Japanese
Producers
Koichi Omiya, Sugimoto Nobuaki, Izuta Homoko, Omiya Visual Image Production
Sales
Bitters End Inc.
Screenplay
Nagasaki Shunichi
Cast
Tsukamoto Shinya, Mizushima Kaori