''Gonin'' ( ja, ゴニン (５人) or, in some English-language editions, ''The Five'') is a

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combi ...

directed by Takashi Ishii and starring

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

, Kōichi Satō and Masahiro Motoki. This was the first film Kitano starred in after his 1994 motorcycle accident. The eyepatch the character wears was because his right eye was still leaking fluids.

Summary

Bandai (Sato) is a disco owner whose business, following the collapse of Japan's bubble economy, is slowly disintegrating, and who owes debts he cannot possibly pay to the local

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

. His solution is to rob the gangsters, for which purpose he assembles a team consisting of other casualties of the economic

downturn In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

—including a gay hustler (Motoki) who frequents his club, a down-on-his-luck ex-cop (Jinpachi Nezu), an unbalanced

salaryman In Japan, a is a salaried worker. In Japanese popular culture, this is embodied by a white-collar worker who shows overriding loyalty and commitment to the corporation where he works. Salarymen are expected to work long hours, to put in addit ...

(

Naoto Takenaka is a Japanese actor, comedian, singer, and director from Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, affiliated with From First Production. He is married to idol singer and actress Midori Kinouchi. He is also known as the voice of Samuel L. Jac ...

), and a Thai

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

(Kippei Shiina). The hastily planned

heist A heist is a robbery or burglary, especially from an institution such as a bank or museum. Heist may also refer to: Places *Heist, Germany, a municipality in Schleswig-Holstein *Heist-aan-Zee, West Flanders, Belgium *Heist-op-den-Berg, Antwerp, ...

goes off awkwardly, and the Yakuza start tracking down the conspirators, hiring a team of hitmen (Kitano and Kazuya Kimura) to take out the thieves.

Cast

* Kōichi Satō as Mikihiko Bandai * Masahiro Motoki as Junichi Mitsuya * Jinpachi Nezu as Kaname Hizu * Kippei Shiina as Jimmy *

as Shohei Ogiwara * Megumi Yokoyama as Nammy * Eiko Nagashima as Saki *

Maiko Kawakami is a Swedish-born Japanese actress who has starred in numerous movies and TV serials. She is a graduate of Keio University through distance education. Biography Maiko debuted on an NHK drama titled ''Kizuna''. In 1980, she starred in the sec ...

as Hostess at Pinky * Hideo Murota as Shikine * Kazuya Kimura as Kazuma Shibata *

Shingo Tsurumi is a Japanese actor. Career Shingo Tsurumi has appeared in the films such as Katsuhito Ishii's '' Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl'', Hideo Nakata's '' L: Change the World'', and Tak Sakaguchi's '' Yakuza Weapon''. Filmography Films * '' T ...

as Shigeru Hisamatsu * Toshiyuki Nagashima as Yasumasa Ogoshi *

as Ichiro Kyoya

References

External links

* * *
Gonin
' at the Japanese Movie Database 1995 films 1995 crime drama films 1995 crime thriller films 1990s heist films Films directed by Takashi Ishii Japanese crime drama films Japanese crime thriller films 1990s Japanese-language films Japanese heist films Yakuza films 1990s Japanese films {{1990s-Japan-film-stub