Kamikaze Taxi

Last updated
Kamikaze Taxi
Directed by Masato Harada
Written byMasato Harada
Produced byAkio Nanjo
Kazunori Okada
Narihiko Yoshida
Susumu Tanaka
Yoshinori Moniwa
Starring Kōji Yakusho
Kazuya Takahashi
Reiko Kataoka
Takeshi Caesar
Mickey Curtis
Taketoshi Naito
Edited byHirohide Abe
Music by Masahiro Kawasaki
Release date
  • April 25, 1995 (1995-04-25)(Japan)
Running time
134 minutes
CountryJapan

Kamikaze Taxi (stylized as KAMIKAZE TAXI in Japan) is a 1995 Japanese action and crime film by director Masato Harada. The film is about Tatsuo (Kazuya Takahashi), a gangster and pimp who sends out his only prostitute (Reiko Kataoka) to service a politician. When she returns beaten, Tatsuo's girlfriend complains but is killed by crime boss Animaru (Mickey Curtis). Tatsuo seeks revenge as he and his gang vandalize the politician's house and steal money. In retaliation, Tatsuo's bosses put a hit out on them. He flees, riding in the taxi driven by a Peruvian Japanese named Kantake (Kōji Yakusho). The film was shown at the 1995 London Film Festival and actor Mickey Curtis won the Kinema Junpo Award for best supporting actor in 1996 for his work in the film.

Contents

Production

The soundtrack for Kamikaze Taxi was composed by Masahiro Kawasaki, who used Peruvian pipes. To deal with the Peruvian-Japanese taxi driver character in the film, director Masato Harada had Kawasaki listen to tapes of Peruvian music to come up with a similar sound. [1]

Release

Kamikaze Taxi was released in Japan on April 25, 1995. [2] The film was shown at the 1995 London Film Festival. [3]

Reception

Mickey Curtis won the Kinema Junpo Award for best supporting actor in 1996 for his work in the film. [2] Time magazine stated that "the narrative is overly long (160 minutes) and lacks cohesion. But the film has an epic lunacy, a satiric darkness. Its neon-lit nightscapes and vivid brutality dance, shock--and leave the viewer both riveted and repulsed." [4] Variety also commented on the films length, noting "Though the film could easily lose a quarter of an hour from a self-indulgent sequence in a group-therapy clinic, there's actually very little slackness during the 170-minute running time." [5]

Cast

Notes

  1. ↑ Gatto, Robin. "Masato Harada". Midnight Eye. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "ＫＡＭＩＫＡＺＥ ＴＡＸＩ(邦画)". Kinema Junpo . Retrieved March 12, 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. ↑ "Kamikaze Taxi (1995)". Time Out . Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  4. ↑ Short, Stephen (November 16, 1998). "The Cab Ride From Hell". Time . Archived from the original on December 21, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  5. ↑ Elley, Derek (December 18, 1995). "Kamikaze Taxi". Variety . Retrieved March 12, 2012.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masato Harada</span> Japanese film director, critic, and actor

Masato Harada is a Japanese film director, film critic, and sometimes an actor; he is best known to foreign audiences as Omura in The Last Samurai and as Mr Mita in Fearless. In both his acting roles he portrayed the villain who wants Japan to westernize under the Meiji Restoration in the meantime trying to remove the old ways.

Moeyo Ken is a novel by Japanese author Ryōtarō Shiba. It dramatizes the life of Hijikata Toshizō, a member of the Shinsengumi, active in Japan during the bakumatsu.

<i>Blue Christmas</i> (film) 1978 film by Kihachi Okamoto

Blue Christmas, also known as Blood Type: Blue or The Blue Stigma, is a 1978 Japanese science fiction film by director Kihachi Okamoto. It deals with prejudice against UFO witnesses whose blood is turned blue by the encounter.

Sex & Fury is a 1973 Japanese action-thriller film directed by Norifumi Suzuki and starring Reiko Ike.

The Family is a 1973 novel by Toyoko Yamasaki. It has been adapted into a film in 1974 and then three times as a television series in 1974, 2007, and 2021.

Hush! is a Japanese film directed by Ryōsuke Hashiguchi, starring Seiichi Tanabe, Kazuya Takahashi and Reiko Kataoka, released in 2001.

<i>Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean</i> 2005 Japanese film

Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean, known in Japan as simply Lorelei, is a 2005 Japanese war drama film directed by Shinji Higuchi. In the film, the Imperial Japanese Navy save Tokyo from a third atomic bomb during World War II. The film was the highest-grossing film in Japan during the week of its release.

Spellbound is a 1999 Japanese film directed by Masato Harada.

<i>Bounce Ko Gals</i> 1997 Japanese film

Bounce Ko Gals is a 1997 Japanese crime drama film written and directed by Masato Harada. Its alternative English-language titles are Call Girls and Leaving.

Spy Sorge (スパイ・ゾルゲ) is a Japanese film directed by Masahiro Shinoda in 2003, about the Soviet spy Richard Sorge. Shinoda intended the film, a long and lavish production that had only modest critical and commercial success, as his final feature.

<i>47 Ronin</i> (1994 film) 1994 Japanese film

47 Ronin is a 1994 Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa. The film is another version of the Chūshingura, the story of the revenge of the forty-seven rōnin of Ako against Lord Kira.

<i>Beyond Outrage</i> 2012 Japanese yakuza film

Beyond Outrage is a 2012 Japanese yakuza film directed by Takeshi Kitano, starring Kitano, Toshiyuki Nishida, and Tomokazu Miura. It is a sequel to Kitano's 2010 film Outrage and is followed by the 2017 film Outrage Coda.

<i>Isoroku</i> (film) 2011 Japanese film

Isoroku is a 2011 Japanese biographical film about Isoroku Yamamoto. Other English home media titles of the film are The Admiral, and Admiral Yamamoto. English titles not used in home video releases are Yamamoto Isoroku, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet and Admiral Isoroku.

The 17th Yokohama Film Festival (第17回ヨコハマ映画祭) was held on 4 February 1996 in Kannai Hall, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.

<i>The Light Shines Only There</i> 2014 film

The Light Shines Only There is a 2014 Japanese drama film directed by Mipo O. It was selected as the Japanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

<i>Japans Longest Day</i> 1967 Japanese war film

Japan's Longest Day is a 1967 Japanese epic war film directed by Kihachi Okamoto. The subject of the majority of the movie is the period between noon on August 14, 1945, and noon on August 15, 1945, when Emperor Hirohito's decision to surrender to the Allies in World War II was broadcast to the Japanese people, and the attempted coup d'état to prevent that from happening. Film historian Joseph L. Anderson describes the film as "a meticulous reconstruction of the day Japan surrendered and thus ended the Pacific War.

The Japanese Movie Critics Awards are presented annually since 1991.

Imperial Navy is a 1981 Japanese war film directed by Shue Matsubayashi. The film is a retelling of the downfall of Japan's Imperial Navy during World War II.

<i>Casting Blossoms to the Sky</i> 2012 Japanese film

Casting Blossoms to the Sky is a 2012 Japanese drama film directed by Nobuhiko Ôbayashi.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.