Sleepless Town (1998)
Director: Lee Chi-Ngai
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Gang war melodrama (adapted from a pulp novel and directed by a Hong Kong émigré), designed to capitalise on Taiwanese-Japanese actor Kaneshiro's sudden rise to megastardom in Japan. He plays Liu Kenichi, a mixed-race fence for stolen goods in Kabuki-cho, the red light area of Shinjuku. With only a seriously untrustworthy femme fatale on his back, he finds himself given three days to track down a psychotic loner wanted by the city's Shanghai triads. This had the potential to be a Chinese riposte to Shinjuku Triad Society, albeit without the ultraviolence and gay sex, but it fails for two reasons. One, it's ridiculously complicated: too many factions and betrayals, an absurd quadruple-cross climax. Two, it's too goddam tame: all sleek noir style and no bad-attitude grit. Seijun Suzuki (present in a cameo) did it all much, much better 25 years earlier.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Lee Chi-Ngai
Producer: Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, Masato Hara
Cast: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Mirai Yamamoto, Eric Tsang, Seijun Suzuki, Lang Sihung, Tomoro Taguchi, Kippei Shiina full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 122 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Jackson's This Is It: review
Kenny Ortega's posthumous concert film is a rousing eulogy for one of pop's great enigmas
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
Lone Scherfig talks 'An Education'
Danish director Lone Scherfig was an unlikely choice for a very English affair like 'An Education'. Cath Clarke meets her
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations












What do you think?
Post your review now