Rent The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994)
3.6 of 5 from 47 ratings
1h 32min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Detective Maiku "Mike" Hama (Masatoshi Nagase) navigates the Yokohoma underworld with razor sharp threads, Belmondo cool and two-fisted, street savvy. But when he comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter at a local mah-jongg parlor, the unflappable Hama has no idea what he's in for. Though seemingly a luckless immigrant teetering on the threshold of Yokohoma's gutter, Homa's Taiwanese client holds the secret to a ferocious gangland revenge triangle that soon has bullets, fists and severed fingers flying. Hama's plunge into a dizzyingly escalating, brutally violent multi-ethnic gang war ultimately snares him in a web of revenge and deceit that spans continents and severs bloodlines. Things aren't what they seem in director Kaizo Hayashi's glorious black and white widescreen valentine to French New Wave, American Film Noir and Japanese gangster flicks. Though a hard-boiled P.I. in the Spillane mold, Hama is really all heart and as likely to trip over his kid sister's apron strings as trip up a two-faced gangster. Once he's out of his movie theater office and on the case, Hama becomes a punching bag for everyone from the corrupt cops to Yakuza thugs and even his detective mentor (Seijun Suzuki regular Shishido Jo). 'Though the Most Terrible Day in My Life' begins as a meticulous and sly parody of all things Noir, it is "at heart a work of infectious, unironic affection". Hayashi's shadowy retro gloss and self-made hero decorate a very real portrait of shifting allegiances in a modern Japan of ebbing compassion and a modern Asia with vanishing borders. - Actors:
- Masatoshi Nagase, Shirô Sano, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Yang Haitin, Te-Chien Hou, Akaji Maro, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Jô Shishido, Haruko Wanibuchi, Kaho Minami, Mika Ohmine, Housei Kondo, Masako Miyaji, Kenji Anan, Zen Kajiwara, Hiro Arai, Chien Hsiu, Yuan-Chi Lu, Noriko Sengoku, Kao-Hsiung Wu
- Directors:
- Kaizô Hayashi
- Producers:
- Kaizô Hayashi, Shunsuke Koga, Wei-Yen Yu
- Writers:
- Kaizô Hayashi, Daisuke Tengan
- Aka:
- Waga jinsei saiaku no toki
- Genres:
- Drama, Thrillers
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 27/10/2025
- Run Time:
- 95 minutes
- Languages:
- Japanese
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.35:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Director Kaizo Hayashi interview
- Producer Shunsuke Koga interview
- Jasper Sharp feature audio commentary
- Trailer
