The Most Terrible Time in My Life

Kaizo Hayashi's 1994 Japanese film follows Maiku Hama, a private detective in Yokohama. His office sits above a cinema and his cases are small and bring in no money. A Taiwanese waiter asks him to find his missing brother. The job soon turns into a reckoning between two gangs; the narrative follows the detective form but does so as open homage to an older cinema. The film was shot in black and white and carries the look of Japanese detective pictures of the sixties. Masatoshi Nagase leads, and Joe Shishido, an actor from that period, appears. This is the first of three films. Who it's for: those who like Japanese detective films and genre play. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a serious crime film; this one plays with its own form.