A Weapon in My Heart

When Aoyama Shinji was well on his way to becoming a festival favourite with disturbing dramas such as Helpless and Eureka, he also made this unusually exciting action film. He brings the genre back to its core, from the fleeing duo and the archetypal title to the firefights, martial arts duels and countless chase scenes.

But he also saw this rare foray into V-Cinema (his only other direct-to-video film was a sex comedy) as an opportunity to experiment. Amidst all the genre clichés, Aoyama still finds enough room for inventive surrealistic elements, such as police officers operating from an antique shop and a melancholic hitman who lets his victims escape. The intriguing non-linear narrative and cinematic references seem to come from completely different genres, such as horror and Hitchcockian thrillers.