In 2002, it was estimated that 70% of the land in Kabukichō was owned by foreign-born Japanese residents and their descendants. The "three most renowned overseas Chinese of Kabukicho" include the founder of Humax, Lin Yi-wen, who started his business with a cabaret Lin Tsai-wang, who built the Fūrin Kaikan and Lee Ho-chu, owner of the Tokyo Hotel Chinese restaurant. Kabuki-chō was quickly redeveloped after the war, mainly due to the efforts of the overseas Chinese in Japan who bought land left unused after the expos and greatly developed them. The Tokyu Cultural Hall (to the south, in Shibuya), Tokyu Milano-za movie theater, Tokyo Ice Skating Rink, and Shinjuku Koma Theater were all completed in 1956, cementing the area's reputation as an entertainment center. Although the theatre was cancelled due to financial problems, the name remained. As a result, Hideaki Ishikawa, a regional planner, dubbed the town Kabuki-chō, which was adopted on April 1, 1948. After the war, Kihei Suzuki from the Association of Readjustment and Reconstruction of Shinjuku worked with the major landowner, Mohei Minejima to draw up plans for Kiku-za, a kabuki theatre, in the area they believed that performers from the Kabuki-za theatre in Ginza would accept their invitation to perform at Kiku-za. ĭuring the war, a bombing raid on April 13, 1945, razed the area to the ground. Prior to World War II, the district was one of the areas open to foreign-born property owners (primarily from Taiwan and Korea), who mainly operated tsurekomi yado, predecessors to today's love hotels. In 1920, a girls' school was built there, and the surroundings were developed into a residential area. As the Yodobashi Purification Plant was built in 1893, the ponds were filled in. After the Meiji Period, the area became a duck sanctuary. A lengthy running time and derivative nature of the plot also work against this film, meaning that I didn't think much of it at all.Originally, the area was known as Tsunohazu ( 角筈) and was a swamp. Yamamoto fails to make her repulsive lead in the least bit likable and suffers because of that, while the excellent Eric Tsang is underused as the mob boss, appearing in all of three short scenes. Kaneshiro is a good actor, but his character isn't given a great deal to do here and comes across as a little staid. I found the last scene to be overlong and devoid of the badly needed emotion it sought to generate, but at least something's going on, unlike in the middle section. Then things pick up in the last half hour, with lots of action and shoot-outs and more twists and turns than in five regular Hollywood movies. The pacing slows down to a snail's crawl while this romance is explored, and the filmmakers do attempt to generate some suspense by keeping their character motivations murky, but it doesn't work very well. For the next hour we're treated to a lifeless romance with one of the most worthless female characters I've seen in a film. Unfortunately, Kaneshiro's character then meets a girl, and the whole film falls flat. The first half hour follows this type of plot with some stylish direction and another solid performance from Takeshi Kaneshiro, who once again delivers a 'quiet but cool' type character with emotions bubbling just under the surface. This Hong Kong/Japan co-production starts out as a traditional gangster thriller, as we meet our youthful hero and find himself caught between opposing sides: a violent criminal gang from Shanghai, who frequently employ torture and murder as their methods, and a lone gunman with psychotic tendencies. Reviewed by Leofwine_draca 4 / 10 Promising crime drama let down by a boring romance Meanwhile, Fu-Chun's girlfriend, Natsumi Sato turns up to sell something to Kenichi.-Lester Mak Yuan wants to get even and attempts to do so by using Kenichi. Things are calm, however, his former partner-in-crime, Fu-Chun, is rumored to have returned to Kabukicho, having fled years earlier after killing the number two to gangland boss, Yuan. His domain is in Kabukicho, a gangland controlled by various Shanghainese gangs intent on taking overall control. You can sell him anything except children's organs. Kenichi is a half-Japanese, half-Chinese man of the underworld.
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