How Long Is “Smuggler”?

Eccentric Japanese director Katsuhito Ishii (A Taste of Tea, Funky Forest: First Contact) takes us on a wild ride through the Japanese underworld in this darkly comic, visually dazzling tale of a failed actor who goes to extraordinary lengths to pay off an unjust Yakuza debt. Down on his luck Kinuta (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is gambling away his last quarters in a dingy casino when he's suddenly approached with a lucrative opportunity. But it's more of a trap than a chance to get rich, and as a result Kinuta is forced to become a smuggler for the Yakuza. Apprenticing under tough talking driver Joe (Masatoshi Nagase), Kinuta joins in transporting the remains of a murdered Yakuza boss. But the job won't be easy, because their cargo's sadistic right-hand man Kawashima (Masahiro Takashima) is out for blood, and won't rest until his boss' killer has been avenged. That killer is Vertebrae (Masanobu Ando), a legendary assassin who can defeat a room of heavily-armed men with nothing but a pair of nunchucks, and whose loyal partner Viscera is never far behind. When Kinuta comes into contact with some of the most violent men in the Yakuza underworld, he discovers a side of himself that he never knew existed, and learns that his acting skills may not be as dull as he once thought. Co-starring Yasuko Matsuyuki and Hikari Mitsushima, Smuggler was adapted from the cult manga from author Shohei Manabe.