Plastic City - 蕩寇

Plastic City (蕩寇) is a 2008 film out of Hong Kong. The film stars Odagiri Joe, Anthony Wong, and Crystal Huang. The whole movie is based in Brazil.

The movie starts in the past where Yuda, played by Anthony Wong, rescues Kirin, played by Joe Odagiri. Fast forward 20-30 years to the present. Yuda is now the king of piracy in San Paulo and runs the whole market of Brazil and surrounding regions. Kirin has been brought up by Yuda and has joined the family business. Someone with a new idea enters the turf. A turf war starts.

The movie was quite gritty and had very few asian people. Much of the film was in either Mandarin or Portuguese. As I was watching, City of Gods seems to flash through my thoughts over and over. A HK film with triad themes based in Brazil. Refreshing and depressing at the same time.

Shinobi: Heart Under Blade - 忍

Shinobi: Heart Under Blade (忍) is a 2005 Japanese film starring Yukie Nakama and Joe Odagiri. The movie is based on two warring ninja clans. A anime by the name of Basilisk is based on the same story.

Two ninja clans have been traditionally in conflict with each other for hundreds of years. The current Shogun feels threaten by them and devises a plan to eliminate them. A tournament is set up where the leader of each clan selects five ninjas and the surviving ninja(s) and their clan are the winners. There's a plot twist! Joe is the leader the Koga clan and Yukie is the leader of the Iga clan. But they are secretly in love with each other! In the meantime, before Joe and Yukie can make sense of everything, the other 8 ninjas are already battling and killing each other.

I thought this was a pretty entertaining film and was intrigued by the different styles each ninja processes. With each new ninja's introduction, I was looking forward to seeing their skill. Although I was not to happy with the ending.

You can buy it on Amazon or rent it on Netflix.