An astonishingly violent film, but with highly compelling acting and screenplay, and the nice concept of ‘Gun-Kyoto’.
Very heavily influenced by 1984, all emotions have been banned (this ban being implemented by the use of drugs), as have art, music, and so on, and it is the jobs of the clerics to enforce it. The clerics are highly trained martial artists, who have statistically analysed gun battles to work out the sequence of moves which minimises their chances of being shot while maximising their chances of shooting their opponents. It also apparantly extends to punching and the use of swords.
My favorite part of the film is when our protagonist (a cleric who has escaped from the drugs) enters a room at the end to confront the arch-baddie. 15 clerics appear from being pillars bearing swords, the arch-baddie looks highly smug, and our protagonst dispatches all of them without breaking a sweat. The camera switches to the baddie as the last cleric falls, and his smug smile drifts into realisation that he’s in big trouble…
So I did enjoy it, but it was essentially a film about violence (and bloody violence at that), which is never my favourite type of film.
Seen at Ster Century, Leeds.