Shinjuku Triad Society

Made after years of working almost entirely direct to video, this was Takashi Miike's first theatrical feature and his first for a major studio, as well as the opening of his Black Society trilogy. The three films are linked thematically rather than narratively, all concerned with outsiders in Japan's underworld and the violence they endure. At the center is Kiriya, a policeman born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father who describes himself as a war orphan, and who is consequently a loner. The triad boss he pursues deals in organ trafficking, weapons and prostitution, and the conflict turns personal when Kiriya's younger brother becomes the organization's lawyer, with the trail leading from the Shinjuku underworld to Taiwan. The film moves across three languages, Japanese, Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien, which reinforces its concern with identity. Its content is severe even for its moment, including an eye gouging, sexual violence and rape deployed as a police interrogation tactic, and critics noted Miike was pushing limits not only in violence but in portraying characters on both sides of the law as equally despicable. Time Out declared him the most distinctive new voice in the genre. Who it's for: Anyone curious about early Miike and the harder edge of Japanese crime cinema. Who it's not for: Absolutely not for viewers who cannot tolerate frequent, explicit sexual violence.