The dame in question is Natsumi Sato (Mirai Yamamoto), who is running from the one person Keniichi needs to find if he wants to save his skin. And, as with any decent noir genre story, thatвЂ™s right about when in walks the dame. Mob boss Yuan is still out for blood over an unanswered murder of some unnamed subordinate for which KeniichiвЂ™s pal (played wonderfully and with some momentary poignancy by Kippei Shiina) is responsible, and expects Kenichi to turn his friend over or take the fall in his place. As the film opens, life looks to be veering towards the guard rails with the return of KenichiвЂ™s old partner to Tokyo. Kenichi slides smoothly through this political/social quagmire with the ease of a born and bred player whose survival has come to rely on the very thing that ostracises him вЂ“ his mixed blood. The Chinatown backstreets of Kabuki-cho are a hot pot of cultural groups, all vying for their share of economic territory, none of it legal.

The culturally diverse cast and crew вЂ“ Takeshi Kaneshiro as Keniichi Ryuu, a half blood Japanese Taiwanese, Eric Tsang as Cantonese crime lord Yuan and Lung Si-Hung as KenichiвЂ™s adopted father and Taiwanese mob boss just to name a few вЂ“ almost literally reflect the filmвЂ™s premise. A modern film noir, with all the squalor and seediness that the pleasure district of Tokyo вЂ“ the infamous Kabuki-cho вЂ“ can bring to bear, Sleepless Town is a dark, moody thriller of ambitious proportions.

Sleepless town 1998 full movie