Boiling Point

Diffident, dreamy, dim-witted Masaki hasn't a lot going for him. Moreover, he habitually misreads a situation, so that when he hits out at a dissatisfied customer who's quite clearly a yakuza, he gets his boss into big trouble with the Mob. Fortunately, there's help in the form of his ex-yakuza pal Takashi, who takes on the hoods but who, after being beaten up, is forced to ask the hapless Masaki to go buy him a gun in Okinawa. There the boy falls in with the nastiest gangster of 'em all: the drunken, sadistic, conspicuously crazy Uehara, played by the film's writer/director Kitano. Ono's gormless protagonist and Kitano's charismatic but despicable psycho are particularly memorable comic creations. The funniest film to date from a key '90s film-maker.