Shinjuku Triad Society

Director: Takashi Miike

1995 / 100min / DCP

A little-seen standout in Miike’s dauntingly vast filmography, Shinjuku Triad Society was the first theatrical release that the director—who’d begun his career in DTV action—made, shot on 35mm, the inaugural work in his “Black Society” trilogy (with Rainy Dog and Ley Lines), and the movie that, with its seedy cast of cold-blooded killers, explosions of startlingly savage violence, and directorial razzle-dazzle, announced the arrival of the Miike that we know and love. (Well, some of us.) Take detective Kippei Shiina, a Chinese Triad gang in Tokyo led by homosexual psychopath Tomorowo Taguchi, some local yakuza working uneasily with the foreigners in illegal organ traffic, add a dizzying array of oddball secondary characters, shake lightly, and enjoy the carnage.

Distributor: AGFA

Part of Tokyo 199X