Gonin

A club owner about to go under, an ex-policeman who lost his job, an athlete in debt, a young man with nowhere to run, and an escort. Five men come together and decide to steal the local yakuza's money. The robbery roughly works and everything after it does not: the yakuza hire two contract killers and start hunting them down one at a time. Takashi Ishii's film is among the hardest examples of 1990s Japanese crime cinema. The city is permanently wet, neon-lit and empty; the violence is sudden and not aestheticised. The narrative does not conceal that all five men lost before they began. Takeshi Kitano plays one of the killers and, despite limited screen time, is the most unsettling figure in it. Koichi Sato and Masahiro Motoki are also in the cast. Who it's for: Viewers who like Japanese crime cinema, 1990s neo-noir, and hopeless heist narratives. Who it's not for: The violence is extreme and some scenes contain sexual violence. None of the characters gets out, and the film says so from the start.