Takashi Ishi's visually stylish The Black Angel is a fascinating cross between Japanese gangster film and Jacobean revenge tragedy. Sent away to the US after the slaughter of her parents by rivals led by her half-sister Chaiko, Ikko (Riona Hazuki) returns determined to reclaim her yakuza kingdom. Ikko is obsessed with childish memories of Mayo the hitwoman, the original Black Angel, entrusted with getting her out of the country. The intervening 14 years have been hard on Mayo--being the Black Angel is tough on the nerves--and she is hired to kill Ikko, not realising... they have met before. This is a tragic film in which three strong women are destined to destroy each other through the trickery of male betrayal; from the beginning, as a child is smuggled away and a mother told the infant is dead, it is clear that we are in a land of myth, with no happy endings. A night time Tokyo of bright lights and dark shadows, of dead-end corridors and escalators that lead you only to your death, is provided as a moody backdrop. Takashi's inventive set pieces of mood and action include a shootout in a strip club set to Verdi's Requiem. On the DVD: The Black Angel is presented on disc in widescreen, while the moody, atmospheric score is done full justice by the Dolby Digital soundtrack. The only special features are filmographies and biographies, production stills and the theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney [show more]
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