Last Updated on September 30, 2020 by rob
One day Hideyoshi Date (Katsunori Takahashi), a debt-ridden, suicidal 30-something discovers a runaway kid named Densuke Aikawa (Roi Hayashi) in the back of his car. Densuke turns out to be fleeing an overbearing father but when Hideyoshi realises the kid’s parents are loaded he hatches an impromptu kidnap scheme and demands a huge ransom for the boy’s return. Unknown to him however Densuke’s father is a feared Yakuza mobster whose men are hot on Hideyoshi’s trail.
A most charming road movie with a smartly written script that sells the familiar notion of two strangers thrown together in unusual circumstances who discover in each other the freedom denied them in their own lives. Densuke turns out to be running away because of his cold father, while Hideyoshi is a desperate ex-con quite literally at the end of his rope. Both actors are terrific in their roles with little Roi Hayashi as Densuke particularly impressive because his performance so determinedly avoids any hint of sentimentality. It’s funny too. The scene where Densuke struggles to get the one word out that accurately describes his father’s job in front of a horrified Hideyoshi who suddenly realises just who he’s blackmailing is an absolute scream. As the desperate and out of his depth abductor Takahashi remains a likeable lead because we sense all along he doesn’t really mean the kid any harm although flashbacks to Hideyoshi’s time in jail, in which his older cellmate advises him that in child abduction cases always kill the kid, chillingly remind us what’s at stake here.
Director Hideo Sakaki gets the balance of humour and drama just right (the ransom payoff is an amusing riff on the bullet train sequence from Kurosawa’s High and Low) and a pivotal third act scene over the phone between Hideyoshi and Densuke’s mother (a quietly scene stealing performance by Yukiko Ehara) in which she asks her son’s abductor what the two have been up to – and gets the kind of reply you’d hope to hear from any doting father who’s spent a day with his son – not only exemplifies the story’s theme but proves really touching to see. It all looks like a happy ending but can Hideyoshi avoid the wrath of Densuke’s determinedly unforgiving mobster father and his black suited goons? With the assistance of a shrewd and sly cop who’s also on their trail director Sakaki doesn’t disappoint on that score either. In short, this is a little gem.
