The legal drinking age in most countries around the globe is 18 years old; Brazil is among those nations. Japan, however, makes their young people wait until they turn 20 for the right to booze it up. Yet, in nonsensical fashion, when Akemi (singer-songwriter Masumi), the Japanese-born, Brazilian-raised heroine of Vicente Amorim’s “Yakuza Princess,” toasts in front of her late grandfather’s portrait, she follows American regulation and celebrates finally turning 21 as a major milestone. Such a seemingly trivial detail is indicative of the astounding incoherence and misguided international ambitions of this subpar action saga.
Gruesome dismemberment at a family party opens the film, adapted from the graphic novel “Samurai Shiro” by Danilo Beyruth. That incident in Osaka two decades prior landed Akemi and her grandfather in Sao Paolo — text on screen explains the South American city hosts the largest Japanese community outside of the island state. But while having Brazilian creators at the helm,...
Gruesome dismemberment at a family party opens the film, adapted from the graphic novel “Samurai Shiro” by Danilo Beyruth. That incident in Osaka two decades prior landed Akemi and her grandfather in Sao Paolo — text on screen explains the South American city hosts the largest Japanese community outside of the island state. But while having Brazilian creators at the helm,...
- 8/31/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
A young woman discovers she’s a crime family heiress in “Yakuza Princess,” a grimy action-thriller set in the neon-drenched streets of São Paulo’s Japanese district. Adapted from Danilo Beyruth’s graphic novel by Brazilian filmmaker Vicente Amorim (“Motorrad), “Yakuza” delivers stylish shootouts and eye-catching swordplay but lacks the dynamic characters and story-telling panache required to lift it into the top grade. Starring Japanese American singer Masumi in her first feature role, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as an amnesiac assassin, this well produced item still packs enough punch to satisfy undemanding action fans and should perform respectably when released in U.S. theaters and on VOD on Sept. 3.
Considering São Paulo is home to the world’s largest ethnic Japanese community outside Japan (an estimated 1.6 million people), it’s surprising how rarely the city’s Nikkei Burajiru-jin (Japanese Brazilians) have been granted leading character status in feature films. “Gaijin:...
Considering São Paulo is home to the world’s largest ethnic Japanese community outside Japan (an estimated 1.6 million people), it’s surprising how rarely the city’s Nikkei Burajiru-jin (Japanese Brazilians) have been granted leading character status in feature films. “Gaijin:...
- 8/30/2021
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
Based on the graphic novel, Samurai Shirô, by Danilo Beyrouth, Yakuza Princess is like a bloody, violent, no holds barred episode of NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? as the film follows a young woman on her journey to discover family truths. A film about loss, with themes of identity and belonging, and in a stylish, thrilling, and mysterious neo-noir package with strong elements from the jidaigeki genre and samurai history, Vicente Amorim’s Yakuza Princess treads in the footsteps of a dark legacy.
A home sits beneath the hills as a flag burns ahead. A family is met with bullets and steel, a dynasty of crime in Osaka is believed to be destroyed. But in present-day São Paulo, the family’s sole survivor embodies its fighting spirit as she trains in Kendo, a traditional Japanese martial art derived from the fighting methods of samurai. Akemi (singer-songwriter Masumi...
A home sits beneath the hills as a flag burns ahead. A family is met with bullets and steel, a dynasty of crime in Osaka is believed to be destroyed. But in present-day São Paulo, the family’s sole survivor embodies its fighting spirit as she trains in Kendo, a traditional Japanese martial art derived from the fighting methods of samurai. Akemi (singer-songwriter Masumi...
- 8/19/2021
- by Sara Clements
- DailyDead
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