Crying Freeman | |
---|---|
![]() International theatrical poster | |
Directed by | Christophe Gans |
Screenplay by | Christophe Gans Thierry Cazals |
Based on | Crying Freeman by Kazuo Koike Ryoichi Ikegami |
Produced by | Samuel Hadida Brian Yuzna |
Starring | Mark Dacascos Julie Condra Rae Dawn Chong Byron Mann Masaya Kato Yoko Shimada Mako Tchéky Karyo |
Cinematography | Thomas Burstyn |
Edited by | Christopher Roth David Wu |
Music by | Patrick O'Hearn |
Production companies | Davis Films Ozla Pictures Yuzna Films August Entertainment Toei Video Company Fuji Television Tohokushinsha Film Corporation Crying Freeman Productions |
Distributed by | Metropolitan Filmexport (France) Toei Company (Japan) Pathé (International) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
Countries | France Canada Japan |
Languages | English Japanese Mandarin |
Budget | $9 million [1] |
Box office | 627,579 tickets (France) [2] |
Crying Freeman is a 1995 action film, based on the manga of the same name by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami. [3] It is directed and co-written by Christophe Gans in his solo directorial debut and stars Mark Dacascos in the title role, a brainwashed assassin for a Triad secret society, who sheds a tear for every victim he kills. Tchéky Karyo, Julie Condra, Byron Mann, Masaya Kato, Yoko Shimada, and Mako play supporting roles.
The film was an international co-production between France, Canada, and Japan, and was filmed on location in British Columbia in October 1994. Despite being heavily promoted by Viz Media in Animerica magazine and reprints of the Crying Freeman graphic novel, the film was not released in the United States until November 2018 on Amazon Prime Video. [4]
While painting the landscape on a hill in San Francisco, a young woman named Emu O'Hara witnesses the murder of a Japanese Yakuza member. She notices that while the assassin stands emotionless in front of her, his eyes begin to shed tears. The assassin introduces himself to Emu as "Yo".
Days later, after Emu returns to her home in Vancouver, British Columbia, Shido Shimazaki makes his appearance at the local police precinct, announcing a war between his clan, the Hakushin Society, and the "Sons of the Dragons" - a Chinese Triad that ordered the assassination of Shimazaki's son in San Francisco. Interpol detective Netah explains that the Sons of the Dragons are descendants of 108 Buddhist monks who rebelled against the Manchu reign in China centuries ago, and that the "Freeman" is their bringer of death. Shimazaki then tells everyone that Emu is the Freeman's next target, as she was the only witness to his son's assassination, and the assassin's code is that a person who is given Freeman's name becomes his next kill. However, shortly after their meeting is adjourned, Shimazaki and his bodyguards are ambushed outside the precinct by a masked Freeman and his assistant Koh. After dispatching the bodyguards and disabling the nearby police officers, Freeman successfully kills Shimazaki before running off. During his escape, he passes by Emu, who recognizes his eyes through his mask. As Freeman and Koh flee the scene, Emu utters Yo's name to the surprise of Detective Forge, who is assigned to protect her.
Later that night, Emu is interrogated by Netah and Forge over Freeman's identity. Due to a lack of evidence, she is shortly released and escorted back to her mansion. As Netah scouts the mansion's perimeters, he discovers that Forge is knocked unconscious and he encounters Ryuji and Kimie Hanada, who are out to claim the Freeman's head and take over the Hakushin Society. Inside the mansion, Emu discovers that Yo is in her room and begins to accept her fate. However, instead of killing her, Yo makes love to her before members of Ryuji and his gang break in. Yo kills the thugs and wounds Ryuji, but Emu is shot in the process. Against his own code, Yo brings Emu to the nearest hospital. After she recovers, Emu leaves the hospital, tailed by Netah and Forge; however, their car is rammed by a tractor-trailer driven by a Yakuza, and Forge is killed in the ensuing crash and explosion.
Emu travels to Japan and reunites with Yo, who tells her about his origins. Years ago, he was Yo Hinomura, a renowned pottery sculptor who stumbled upon a roll of negatives during his exhibit in New York City. Yo developed the photos in his hotel bathroom, revealing the torture and execution of a man wearing dragon tattoos similar to what he would eventually wear. Before leaving his hotel, he was drugged and abducted by the Sons of the Dragons, who implanted subliminal messages into his mind using acupuncture techniques. During his first mission, where he killed Mafia boss Antonio Rossi, he began to shed tears; hence his name Crying Freeman.
Yo is notified by Koh that Ryuji's gang have attacked a soya factory in Shanghai that was protected by the Sons of the Dragons. As retribution, Yo and Koh travel to Shimazaki's funeral outside Tokyo to kill Ryuji and wipe out the clan. During the funeral, while having sex inside a closet, Kimie reveals to Netah that the Shimazakis were set up by the Hanadas to be assassinated so they could take over the clan. Yo and Koh wipe out the clan, but as Koh prepares to kill Yo for treason, Ryuji guns him down before the entire complex blows up and kills him.
Yo returns to his home, where he prepares the area to self-destruct and arms himself to battle Netah and Kimie, along with her henchmen. Despite being wounded by Netah, Yo kills the henchmen and defeats Netah and Kimie - the latter by stabbing her near the heart. Kimie gives Yo her word of honor that in exchange for saving her life, he and Emu won't be pursued. While Yo and Emu leave the premises, Netah prepares to shoot them from behind, only to be killed by Kimie. Yo and Emu are last seen riding a speedboat into the sunset.
Producer Brian Yuzna came across the manga Crying Freeman while negotiating with various Japanese companies for possible rights to manga that could be adapted to features. He thought the series would lend itself well to adaptation not only because of the storyline, but because the series had a very "cinematic" quality in its drawing style that would lend itself well to adaptation. [1] The film draws primarily upon the "Portrait of a Killer" arc.
Yuzna then contacted producer Samuel Hadida, with whom he had worked on Necronomicon , and as Hadida was already a fan of the manga and helped to get the project in motion. [1] The duo met with Taka Ichise, president of Ozla Pictures in Tokyo, who had also previously collaborated with the two on Necronomicon. [1] Christophe Gans was hired as director on the basis of the strength of Gans' segment The Drowned from Necronomicon [1] As the film was independently financed, the production experienced delays in receiving the budget with the promised budget of US$15 million reduced to US$9 million which truncated the shooting schedule. [1] Principal photography took place in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, and completed December 1994. [1]
Roger Avary was an uncredited script doctor. [8]
Mark Dacascos and his co-star Julie Condra met on the set of this film, and later married in 1998.
Reviews for the film have been mixed. Leonard Klady of Variety wrote a favorable review of the film, citing it as "one of the few of the recent batch of comic-book adaptations that works, Crying Freeman has the potential to ring up the type of big numbers that would warrant a franchise. It's hoped that those involved with the first will still be aboard." [5] Jake Hamilton of Empire magazine gave the film two out of five stars, commenting: "Adapted from Kazuo Koike's ace comic book, Crying Freeman can claim absolute perfection with its faithfulness to the original text. The script is identical in all but speech bubbles, the acting is paper thin and the action very colourful. There's plenty of occult talk by leather-clad blokes to up the cult appeal, and the nudity should prevent the audience from nodding off, but this $15 million kung fu fantasy really should have been better." [9] Kung-Fu Cult Cinema gave the film a score of 3.5 out of 5, citing that it "is very well worth its weight in action." [10] Beyond Hollywood, however, commented on their review that the acting was sub-par and the film's subplot of Yo's relationship with Emu is "not the best story in the world. It's really rather, well, stupid." [11]
Domu is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsuhiro Otomo. Similar to his work Akira, the story centers on an old man and a child possessing extrasensory powers. It was serialized between 1980 and 1981 in Futabasha's Action Deluxe, with the chapters collected and published as a tankōbon in 1983. The main inspiration for Domu came partly from an apartment complex Otomo lived in when he first moved to Tokyo, and partly from a news report he heard about a rash of suicides that occurred at a separate apartment.
Branded to Kill is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe Shishido, Koji Nanbara, Annu Mari and Mariko Ogawa. The story follows contract killer Goro Hanada as he is recruited by a mysterious woman named Misako for a seemingly impossible mission. When the mission fails, he is hunted by the phantom Number One Killer, whose methods threaten his life and sanity.
Mark Alan Dacascos is an American actor, martial artist, and television personality. A 4th-degree black belt in Wun Hop Kuen Do, he is known for his roles in action films, including as Louis Stevens in Only the Strong, the title role in Crying Freeman, Mani in Brotherhood of the Wolf, Ling in Cradle 2 the Grave, Sharish in Nomad, and as Zero in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
Richard Dragon is the alias of two characters appearing in media published by DC Comics. Although both incarnations differ in alignment, they are both portrayed as accomplished martial artists with connections to the League of Assassins.
Lady Shiva is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was co-created by Dennis O'Neil and Ric Estrada, and first appeared in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #5. Over time, she has become more closely associated with Batman and related characters, both as an enemy and an ally. She is a Chinese/Japanese martial arts grandmaster and one of the most skilled combatants in the DC Universe. She is an assassin-for-hire who specializes in killing her targets with her bare hands, and is the mother of Cassandra Cain, aka Batgirl.
Sukeban Deka is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shinji Wada. It was serialized in Hana to Yume from 1975 to 1982 and collected into 22 volumes. Sukeban Deka has been adapted into three live-action television series, an original video animation (OVA) series, and three feature films, the last of which was released as Yo-Yo Girl Cop in 2006. It has also inspired four spin-off manga: Sukeban Deka If (スケバン刑事if), a short story collection published in 2004, and Toki o Kakeru Sukeban Deka (時をかけるスケバン刑事), Re: Sukeban Deka (Re:スケバン刑事), and Sukeban Deka Pretend, three ongoing series that premiered in Monthly Princess in 2021.
Tchéky Karyo is a Turkish-French actor and musician. Beginning his career as an actor on stage in classical and contemporary works, he began to work as a character actor in films in the 1980s. He has acted in numerous films by Hollywood and French directors, including Luc Besson. He was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance in the 1982 film La Balance.
Kiss of the Dragon is a 2001 French-American action film directed by Chris Nahon, written and produced by French filmmaker Luc Besson, and starring an international cast of Jet Li, Bridget Fonda, and Tchéky Karyo. It follows a Chinese intelligence agent who is sent to Paris to apprehend a Chinese mob boss, only to be framed of murders and enlists a prostitute to help him prove his innocence.
Nightwalker — The Midnight Detective is a late night anime TV series created by Ayana Itsuki that is adapted from a PC-9801 game of the same name.
Byron Mann is a Hong Kong-American actor of film and television. His best-known roles include Ryu in Street Fighter, Silver Lion in The Man with the Iron Fists, Wing Chau in The Big Short, Admiral Augusto Nguyen on The Expanse, Chang on Hell on Wheels, Yao Fei on Arrow, and Uncle Six in the Netflix series Wu Assassins.
Crying Freeman is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. Crying Freeman follows a Japanese assassin hypnotized and trained by the Chinese mafia to serve as its agent and covered in a vast and complex dragon tattoo. A quiet but complicated killer, Freeman reflexively sheds tears after every killing as a sign of regret.
Steve Bulen is an American voice actor. He has been doing voices for many animated films and television shows for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Hanna-Barbera as well several video games and anime titles such as Doomed Megalopolis, Giant Robo, Outlaw Star, Street Fighter II V and Rave Master.
Idaten Jump is a Japanese manga series created by Toshihiro Fujiwara. It was serialized in Kodansha's Comic BomBom. The manga tells the story about a boy named Sho Yamato who loves mountain biking. It was adapted into a 52-episode anime series produced by Aniplex, TV Tokyo, Trans Arts and Production I.G and directed by Takayuki Hamana, with Fumihiko Shimo writing the scripts, Miyako Yatsu designing the characters and Yasuharu Takanashi composing the music. It aired from October 1, 2005, to September 30, 2006. A toyline was also made by Tomy.
Mōryō no Hako is a Japanese novel by Natsuhiko Kyogoku. It is the second novel in the Kyōgokudō series that began with Summer of the Ubume. The novel has been turned into a live action feature film, a manga, an anime television series, and a stage musical.
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a 2010 Chinese-Hong Kong action-adventure gong'an film directed and produced by Tsui Hark, which stars Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Li Bingbing, Deng Chao and Tony Leung. Hong Kong movie-star Sammo Hung takes the role as the action director for the film.
The Dragon from Russia is a 1990 Hong Kong martial arts action film directed by Clarence Fok and based on the Japanese manga Crying Freeman and written by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami, and also produced by Dean Shek, and starring Sam Hui, Maggie Cheung, Nina Li Chi, Carrie Ng, Loletta Lee and guest starring Shek in his second-to-last film appearance before retiring from acting in two years later.
Assassin's Creed: Brahman is a graphic novel published by UbiWorkshop in October 2013. Set in the Assassin's Creed universe, it tells the story of Arbaaz Mir, a member of the Indian Brotherhood of Assassins during the 19th century, who fights the increasing influence and occupation of the East India Company while also clashing with the Assassins' longtime enemies, the Templar Order. The framing story, set in 2013, follows programmer Jot Soora, who becomes caught in the Assassin-Templar conflict when his fiancée, Monima Das, is revealed to be a descendant of Arbaaz possessing genetic memories that can help both the Assassins and Templars locate a powerful artifact.
No Tears for the Dead is a 2014 South Korean action film written and directed by Lee Jeong-beom. The film revolves around a professional hitman who is conflicted about killing his last target.
Luck Stealer is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Kazu. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Jump Square from November 2007 to January 2012, with its chapters collected in ten tankōbon volumes.
Peanuts is a 1996 Japanese action-comedy film directed by Takashi Miike.