IMDb RATING
6.7/10
2.7K
YOUR RATING
Five men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.Five men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.Five men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Takeshi Kitano
- Ichiro Kyoya
- (as Beat Takeshi)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTakeshi Kitano's eye patch was real; before filming, he made a serious accident with his motorcycle and resulted an injury at his eye.
- Alternate versionsJapanese Laserdisc contains the 119 min. Director's Cut of the movie, approx. 10 Minutes longer than the international version. Additional scenes show more character development as well as some extra shots of violent scenes. Somehow interesting, this version omits the ending of the movie, when the killer and the last one left of the "Gonin" die in their seats at the bus while the bus driver and the small group of young women enters the bus and they all drive away with the two unrecognized dead men. This cut seems to be made because the full length ending wouldn't have fit on the second side of this laserdisc.
- ConnectionsFollowed by Gonin 2 (1996)
- SoundtracksAkai hana
Written by Masafumi Matsubara and Masato Sugimoto
Performed by Naomi Chiaki
Courtesy by Teichiku Records
Featured review
The first Takashi Ishii movie I watched was his excellent rape/revenge thriller 'Freezer', but his reputation as an exciting director with a lot of potential mainly rests on his yakuza movies, of which 'Gonin' is perhaps the best known. This is a really impressive movie, very dark, strange and violent. The bare bones of the plot - a group of guys decide to rob some gangsters, the gangsters vow revenge - is one that we have seen many, many times before in American movies, but Ishii manages to put a fresh spin on it, with unusual characters, and consistently original direction. I was fascinated from beginning to end. The ensemble cast are all excellent, but the most memorable performances are by Naoto Takenaka (who later appeared in 'Freezer', and Tsukamoto's astonishing 'Tokyo Fist'), who plays the unhinged salaryman Ogiwara, and cult figure Beat Takeshi, who plays Kyoya, the ruthless eyepatched hitman. Takeshi steals every scene he is in, and plays one of the nastiest characters of his career, only really topped by the psycho he played in his own 'Boiling Point'. 'Gonin' is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys doomed caper films, a genre that has its fair share of classics from 'Bob Le Flambeur' and 'The Killing' to 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'The Usual Suspects'. Add 'Gonin' to the list of those crime classics. Yes, it's that good!
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content