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This year’s Big Bad Film Fest was a rousing success, and I am wrapping up my coverage of the third annual event that has featured nothing but solid action entertainment. The new Japanese crime thriller Isolated from director Hiroyuki Tsuj and famed action director Koichi Sakamoto was the most intriguing entry this year as I knew absolutely nothing about it. The Yakuza have been portrayed countless times in cinema and now we get the opportunity to actually root for the bad guys in a noirish style assault on the senses that features relentless and bloody action design and a serious and respectable body count from Sakamoto and a no holds barred anti-hero in star Yoshiki Yamaguchi.
Can he come through in the clutch? And who was behind the set up?
The narrative may seem a little abstract at first and the way that Tsuj handles the storyline from a script penned by Keiichiro Murata reminded me of famed Hollywood director Guy Ritchie as nothing is as it seems and the flow of the story is anything but ordinary and simple with the story going back and forth between the present and the past. This doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the viewing, but you will have to pay attention and use your brain a little more than most action movies. For those that watch from opening credits to close, you will be rewarded with some of the best and hyper-kinetic martial arts choreography to ever hit the screen. From what I’ve learned by online research of the film, this is merely one part of a long running series of Yakuza crime thrillers but I’m glad to say that it works as a standalone effort at the same time.
The general gist of the plot involves Yuto Tamura (Yamaguchi) who is a lieutenant on the infamous Kyowa group which is one of the largest Yakuza families in play. Trouble arises when Tamura’s second in command Renji Himuro (also known as the captain) is kidnapped without a trace forcing Tamura to execute a daring seek and rescue mission. What unfolds is a Die Hard style battle royale where Tamura and must navigate an abandoned warehouse filled with countless, faceless adversaries looking to exterminate the Yakuza soldier with unforgiving extreme prejudice. The pacing is frenetic and non-stop with our beleaguered anti-hero slicing and shooting his way through a gauntlet of foes with some expertly choreographed Gun Fu and swordplay courtesy of Sakamoto.
Like I mentioned, the narrative is unusual, and the film literally hits the ground running and never lets up until the final credit roll. The story is fractured at first, but the pieces begin to fall into place eventually with all things coming to a head in the finale. I won’t spoil anything but there is a wave of deception, betrayal and shadowy dealings to be had making the audience’s head spin a little as you try to catch up. There is almost no exposition at first and from what I hear, this film is but one cog in a series of Yakuza films telling a bigger story.
Tsuj deploys a variety of visual methods to entice the audience, and we go from color to black and white frequently throughout and one cool aspect of the visual aesthetic is that when the movie goes full on B&W, the blood that sprays from each victim in the film’s ramped up battles still illuminates a red mist making for a more violent and eye popping sight. This truly makes Isolated stand out from the usual Japanese crime thrillers and with that, this film rises to the top.
In the lead as Tamura, Yoshiki Yamaguchi delivers a slick and polished performance. He is the very embodiment of the anti-hero in the sense that even though we know he is a bad man who has done bad things, we still root for him as he descends on the warehouse and clears the mechanism before transitioning to all out killing machine. Tamura is just plain cool and he oozes gravitas and charisma to spare as he basically is the Energizer bunny who just keeps going and going in a series of scraps that includes guns, knives, swords, fists and feet. He moves like a savage ballerina and brings a heavy dose of kick ass throughout and as he grows weary from each and every altercation, the stakes go up and up.
When action fans see that Koichi Sakamoto is involved in creating the bloody, limb separating action design, then they know they are in for the real deal. Best known for Drive starring Mark Dacascos and the underground fight flick Broken Path, Sakamoto is the finest in the bizz and he never disappoints. Responsible for a storied decades long career, Sakamoto has honed his visceral and bloody craft to the point where his action sequence are brutal and beautiful balletic dances of death. Each fight is more extreme than the last and it literally never ends leaving the audience just as exhausted as our lead but in the best way possible. The choreography is sleek, stylish, and bombastic and even though there are countless showdowns, you will still want more and will relish all the chaos and damage that is involved. This is essentially action for the sake of action but in the best way possible. A live action adaptation of a video game that bruises its way to a catastrophic finish line. The film is a blood splattered playground for Sakamoto and his dream team of stunt pros to do what they do best.
Overall, Isolated is a rare gem that demands to be seen by the most serious hardcore action fan. We root for the bad guys and are entertained by a non-stop barrage of bloodletting fight choreography that is unrivaled. The movie moves at a rapid-fire pace, and it never lets up until the end. Yoshiki Yamaguchi is the ultimate bad ass, and he owns the screen when he is on it from a physical and emotional standpoint. Koichi Sakamoto’s action design is a feverish and eclectic merging of empty-handed combat, bladed weaponry warfare and the kitchen sink thrown in for good measure. Basically, it’s strap in and hold on tight because this one’s a fast moving bogey that never lets up.
This is stripped down, lean and mean martial arts bad assery at its finest and it exceeds well above its means. The movie throws it back to the heyday of Asian action cinema and never asks for forgiveness.
VERDICT: 4 Out of 5 Stars
Get ready to root for the bad guy as Isolated is a bombastic and dizzying crime thriller with feverish, non-stop action design from the master of martial arts action cinema Koichi Sakamoto!
Be on the lookout for Isolated and add it to your action film arsenal when you can!
