Description: Cast: Takeshi Kitano, Suzuki Kyoka, Odagiri Joe, Arai Hirofumi, Yoichi Sai Yoichi Sai's latest exploration of the plight of Japan's Korean immigrant community, Blood and Bones was one of the most lauded films of 2004 on its home turf, riding high on most critics' top ten lists and racking up nominations at the Japan Academy Awards. Not the slightest factor in this success was the overwhelming central performance by Takeshi Kitano as the short-fused, anti-social brute Shunpei Kim, a real-life figure who arrived in Osaka by boat from Korea in 1923 as a teenager. Based on the novel by Kim's son Sogiru Yang, Blood and Bones portrays his reign of terror over one of the city's many immigrant communities, extending from his reappearance in the area after a mysterious absence during World War II, up to his sudden return to what is then North Korea in the early 1980s, as a grey-haired old codger. |