Is Akikazu Fujishima (Kôji Yakusho, contributing many a fine George C. Scott–worthy eruption) a dilapidated blackguard guilty of the triple homicide police are questioning him about? Or is he an on-the-ropes former cop about to embark on an ultraviolent journey through hell to save an estranged teenage daughter (and maybe even reheat his flat soufflé of a marriage)? Yakusho makes Harvey Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant look like Barney Fife as his vagabondage leads him to the ultimate realization that his rotten kid may be better off dead. Wildly edited and stylish to a fault, the only thing director Tetsuya Nakashima (Confessions) shows any respect for is ’70s exploitation movies, which, after positioning the youth of today as prime symbols of moral decay, is what his film rapidly assumes the form of. The jumbled chronology can get confusing (redundant intertitles and bearding time stamps are there to mock convention), but if you’re in the mood for a little upscale savagery, hop aboard! Japanese with English subtitles. (2014) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.