Ley Lines(1999)

05/22/1999 (US)Drama, Thriller, Crime1h 45m

6.3

Overview

The story follows a trio of Japanese youths of Chinese descent who escape their semi-rural upbringing and relocate to Shinjuku, Tokyo, where they befriend a troubled Shanghai prostitute and fall foul of a local crime syndicate. Like many of Miike's works, the film examines the underbelly of respectable Japanese society and the problems of assimilation faced by non-ethnically Japanese people in Japan.

Takashi Miike

Director

Toshiki Kimura

Screenplay

Top Billed Cast

Kazuki Kitamura

Ryuichi

Dan Li

Anita

Michisuke Kashiwaya

Shunrei

Tomorowo Taguchi

Chan

Naoto Takenaka

Wong

Show Aikawa

Ikeda

Samy Pop

Barbie

Yukie Itou

Kaei Okina

Pimp

Takeshi Caesar

Ito Yozaburo

SM Man

Ryushi Mizukami

Fake Passport Shop

Ren Osugi

Vietnamese Motorbike Smuggler

Manzo Shinra

Shun Sugata

Detective

Atsushi Okuno

Yokota

Far-Long Oh

Kôji Tsukamoto

Passport Centre Officer

Tetsu Watanabe

Kondo

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Part of the Black Society Collection

After several years spent working almost exclusively in the direct-to-video world of V-cinema in Japan, Takashi Miike announced himself as a world-class filmmaking talent with this trio of thematically-connected, character-centric crime stories about violence, the underworld of Japanese society, families both real and surrogate, and the possibly hopeless task of finding one's place in the world. His first films made specifically for theatrical release, and his first for a major studio, the Black Society Trilogy was the beginning of Miike's mature career as a filmmaker and they remain among the prolific director's finest works.