Sleepless Town (JAPAN 1998)


	Sleepless Town		Return to Pan-Asia Review Archive
	Year:	1998	Takeshi Kaneshiro and Mirai Yamamoto
	Director:	Lee Chi-Ngai
	Cast:	Takeshi Kaneshiro, Mirai Yamamoto (San Boon Mei Loi), Eric Tsang Chi-Wai, Sihung Lung, Kathy Chow Hoi-Mei
	The Skinny:	Set in Japan, this entertaining crime thriller from former UFO director Lee Chi-Ngai makes good use of its gorgeous location and star Takeshi Kaneshiro.
	Review by Kozo:	Sleepless Town isn't really a Hong Kong film, but since it features a largely HK crew it makes the cut. Lee Chi-Ngai directed this modern noir set in Japan. Takeshi Kaneshiro stars as Kenichi Lau, a Chinese-Japanese half-breed who makes a living trafficking in stolen goods. Three days before Chinese New Year, he finds himself in the midst of a brewing gang war among the various Chinese gangs. The players are too hard to list without a detailed scorecard, but among them are such HK luminaries as Eric Tsang and Kathy Chow. Also, Ang Lee fave Lung Si-Hung shows up as Yang, Kenichi’s adopted father. Kenichi is charged with finding his old partner, who was responsible for killing the right-hand man of crime boss Yuan (Eric Tsang). Meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Natsumi (Mirai Yamamoto of Jackie Chan’s Who Am I) shows up in Kenichi’s life proffering a rare item for sale. Can she be trusted? Despite the excellent production values and thoughtful storytelling, this is basically just a standard crime thriller. It accomplishes nothing more than entertainment, albeit good entertainment. Kaneshiro is the perfect choice for this role due to his fluency in Mandarin and Japanese. He carries himself well, but it’s a difficult part. He’s not able to use his abundant charm with Kenichi, who’s as brooding and intense as they come. Mirai Yamamoto fares better, giving some emotional ambiguity to her character. Helping matters are the cinematography and production design, which are both excellent. However, this is a step down for Lee Chi-Ngai, who can’t inject his pet themes into Sleepless Town unlike his previous films Lost and Found, and Dr. Mack. That’s what happens when you direct-for-hire, but he’s still an excellent director. This is a compromise, but not a bad one. (Kozo 1998)
	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 0 NTSC Ocean Shores Video Widescreen Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks Removable English and Chinese Subtitles
		image courtesy of Ocean Shores Licensing Ltd.
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