Kamikaze Taxi

One of the discoveries of the 1995 London Film Festival (and let's face it, a 169-minute first film from a Japanese director is unlikely to get a proper theatrical release in Britain). This is a young, angry, combative movie about those endemically racist, sexist, and corrupt institutions, the yakuza and the government. Disillusioned by the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Tatsuo (Yakusho) turns against the mob to rip off a wealthy minister, but the heist goes wrong, and Tatsuo finds himself on the run - his days numbered - with only a Peruvian-Japanese taxi-driver and a young hooker to help him. A freewheeling original.