Kenju zankoku monogatari

Like Kubrick’s the killing it’s a story of doomed fates, of a heist set up to fail. But this one is in a post war Japan. Their fates are guided by the ghostly grasp of America capital. A reckoning and a wonder of what happened for us to deserve this are we to be punished by the guiding hand for crimes of our country. A film about submission. The smirking irony of the final shootout taking place in an abandoned US army base. In the end it’s money blowing in the wind.

This was a solid if unremarkable heist movie where everything seems to go wrong.

Departing strongly from the sleek coolness associated with the rest of Nikkatsu's Jo Shishido flicks, Furukawa expertly directs the story of a brutal heist gone wrong in a world of brain damaged boxers, junkies, amputees, and perpetually broken alliances. No glamor, no honor, and certainly no victors.

Tautly paced. I actually thought it could've ended about 20 minutes earlier, with them coming out of the tunnel...without all the tacked-on mayhem at the end (which ran the body count up beyond Godzilla levels). A number of silly-looking vehicles in this one btw. Could they have come up with a better English title? (one can only hope)...

Emotional scenes don't work at all and a few plot points are contrived. A nonetheless entertaining heist movie, full of gunfights, explosions and betrayals, led by the charismatic Jô Shishido.

Very entertaining heist-gone-wrong flick that clips along so confidently as the double-crosses, stand-offs and shootouts pile up. How perfect is Joe Shishido for this kind of stuff, with those scowls and those absurd cheekbones? And the title really tickles me; it may be the MOST noir title ever. Cruel gun story indeed!

A really stunning heist-gone-wrong flick, very much in the vein of The Killing (right down to the racetrack setting) and The Asphalt Jungle. It's a blast. Furukawa keeps things cooking the whole time, loading the film with dramatic angles, exciting sequences, and double-crosses galore. My only beef would be that he's all too eager to blame Japan's problems on others. Besides this somewhat xenophobic subtext, however, I really enjoyed it.

Feels like an American Noir until the tumble of double-crosses and deaths at the end that serve the title.

A very aptly named movie. There are guns everywhere.

Another solid japanese noir which has been bundled together in Eclipse's excellent Nikkatsu Noir dvd set. It's a sort of remake of Kubrick's "The Killing" and closer in tone to american noir than e.g. Seijun Suzuki's films in Nikkatsu action series. Therefore Cruel Gun Story can be recommended to fans of traditional noir looking for something different while others may be a bit disappointed. Still, it's a quality job and Jô Shishido is the enbodiment of cool in the lead role.