Part One of the Maiku Hama Private Eye Trilogy
Detective Maiku “Mike” Hama (Masatoshi Nagase; Mystery Train) navigates the Yokohama underworld with razor sharp threads, Belmondo cool and two-fisted street savvy. But when he comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter at a local mah-jongg parlor, the unflappable Hama has no idea what he’s in for. Though seemingly a luckless immigrant teetering on the threshold of Yokohama’s gutter, Hama’s Taiwanese client holds the secret to a ferocious gangland revenge triangle that soon has bullets, fists and severed fingers flying. Hama’s plunge into a dizzyingly escalating, brutally violent multiethnic gang war ultimately snares him in a web of revenge and deceit that spans continents and severs bloodlines.

Things aren’t what they seem in director Kaizo Hayashi’s glorious black and white widescreen valentine to French New Wave, American Film Noir and Japanese gangster flicks. Though a hard-boiled P.I. in the Spillane mold, Hama is really all heart and as likely to trip over his kid sister’s apron strings as trip up a two-faced gangster. Once he’s out of his movie theater office and on the case, Hama becomes a punching bag for everyone from corrupt cops to Yakuza thugs and even his detective mentor (Seijun Suzuki regular Shishido Jo).

Though The Most Terrible Time in my Life begins as a meticulous and sly parody of all things Noir, it is “at heart a work of infectious, unironic affection.” (The Village Voice). Hayashi’s shadowy retro gloss and self-made hero decorate a very real portrait of shifting allegiances in a modern Japan of ebbing compassion and a modern Asia with vanishing borders.

Waga jinsei saiaku no toki.1994.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 32 min
Size: 	2.31 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x434 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.282
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch FLAC @ 572 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/8AC225DC52795DD/Waga_jinsei_saiaku_no_toki.1994.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kaizô Hayashi – Waga jinsei saiaku no toki AKA The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1993) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

For sixty years, the group of detectives known as “Detective Office 5” have raised the bar for detective work. The agents of Detective Office 5 are a group of stellar detectives lead by the genius code breaker Detective 507. When an unknown client enlists 507 to crack his most difficult programming code yet, the detective embarks for Shanghai where he crosses paths with a sniper, an informant, the head of the Blue-Dragon Mafia, and beautiful singer on the run, Meilan. As 507 stumbles deeper into a twisted quagmire of intrigue he discovers the sad truth behind the mystery.

The Code.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2h 4mn
Size: 	1.49 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	720x392 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	1 516 Kbps
BPP: 	0.224
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/F85DAD2D9481C4D/The_Code.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kaizô Hayashi – The Code: Angou AKA The Code (2008) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Through philosophical and science themed imagination, Emile questions everything as a teenager in pre WWII Japan. As an adult, Emile is living in post WWII Japan. He is an unpopular author and an alcoholic who lives in poverty. Yet his imagination is still intact.

	
Miroku.2013.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 26 min
Size: 	1.33 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	720x480 ~> 853x480
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.241
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/A537F4AD3E91A1B/Miroku.2013.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:Chinese

The post Kaizô Hayashi – Miroku (2013) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
An aging silent film actress hires a private eye and his wacky but helpful assistant to track down her missing daughter, Bellflower. The two follow a succession of bizarre, obscure clues, until they track down the location of the kidnappers and the daughter.

This is the most impossibly beautiful film I’ve ever seen, a mediation on loss, longing, beauty and time. Using old film techniques, humor, Dadaism, and glorious black and white cinematography, it is also a fanciful homage to early silent cinema in Japan. Especially the Benshi, the silent film narrators. This was a tradition in Russia and Poland as well, a narrator or actor would read the inter-titles of a silent film, adding commentary and at times their own political bent to a feature. This was popular throughout silent cinema’s reign, and particularly relevant in industrial or agrarian communities with lower literacy rates. Shunsui Matsuda, a Benshi who traveled throughout coal mining regions of post-war Japan where shortages made re-runs of silent films popular entertainment, appears in Hayashi’s film. (Mr. Matsuda is also to be lauded for his work preserving old films, many prints he acquired by searching in thrift shops and restoring them. His excellent book, “The Benshi: Japanese Silent Film Narrators”, details both his work and the Benshi tradition.) In many ways comparable to Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s “Once Upon a Time Cinema”, though without the political commentary, Hayashi’s work creates a complete magical world combining both the past and the present. Now if only I could get a copy on DVD. [an IMDb user]

1.15GB | 1h 20mn | 702×526 | mkv

http://nitroflare.com/view/7330243387CA079/Yume_miruyoni_nemuritai.mkv

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Kaizô Hayashi – Yume miruyoni nemuritai AKA To Sleep so as to Dream (1986) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
The 3 Part of the Maiku Hama Triology is the best and probably darkest of all the films. In fact, this episode is more of a horror-like thriller reminiscent of a Takashi Miike film. “The Trap,” which is the final film of the trilogy was preceded by the more semi-comical episodes of “The Most Terrible Time In My Life,” and then followed by “Stairway To The Distant Past,” and finally concluding with this film, “The Trap.” In the previous episodes of the trilogy, Maiku Hama (Masatoshi Nagase) is not the aloof private detective he was originally portrayed as; but a much more intelligent and calm detective.

1.53GB | 1:46:59 | 608×256 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/71933859E18505B/Maiku_Hama_III.part1.rar https://nitro.download/view/C1EB690E1CF4545/Maiku_Hama_III.part2.rar

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English idx/sub

The post Kaizo Hayashi – Wana AKA The Trap [+Extras] (1996) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Stairway to the Distant Past is the second film in the Mike Hama Private Investigator Trilogy. If you’ve seen part one The Most Terrible Time in My Life you must seek this out to find out how all your favourite characters are getting on. The films themes are age and family as Mikes mother “Dynamite Sexy Lilly” returns to Yokohama with her strip act many years after deserting Mike and his sister Akane. She reveals who Mikes father is and he sets out to find him. This films DoP deserves an Oscar as the picture is stunningly shot – it reminded me most of the Cinema du Look of Luc Besson and Leos Carax.

1.26GB | 1:40:11 | 624×272 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/D7A4CE0F065FB61/Harukana_jidai_no_kaidan_o.avi
https://nitro.download/view/058047D4B13BF60/Harukana_jidai_no_kaidan_o.idx
https://nitro.download/view/73204DB5DEB5F71/Harukana_jidai_no_kaidan_o.sub
https://nitroflare.com/view/7758DA2AA3CD6EB/trailer.avi
https://nitroflare.com/view/DABF7B4DEC2BB0A/trailer.idx
https://nitroflare.com/view/4028E1FDF92BABB/trailer.sub

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English idx/sub

The post Kaizo Hayashi – Harukana jidai no kaidan o AKA The Stairway To The Distant Past [+Extras] (1995) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Review:
Mahjong (1996) is in many ways Yang’s greatest Satire, but has, at the same time, the beating pulse of a real dramatic story. In plays on the perception of Taiwan by foreign entities, urban locales, love, father/son relationships, and of course, themes of business & greed that Yang most vehemently loathes. The story is told through a variety of different viewpoints, but we are centered on a small gang of friends/hustlers, apparently led by Red Fish (Tang Congsheng), and consisting of Luen-Luen (Ke Yulun), a gentle-hearted translator, Hong Kong (Chen Chang of Crouching Tiger fame), a ladies man who is able to charm his way into any woman’s pants, and Little Buddha (the same actor who played “Cat” in Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day), a fake Feng-Shui expert who is used in the gang’s various scams. A French woman named Marthe (Virginie Ledoyen) – Yang plays very craftily on the similarity of the name ‘Marthe’ with ‘Matra’, the defunct subway system in Taiwan that is milking the city of its funds – comes to urban Taipei looking for her “lover”, a British man named Marcus. The plot eventually shows us Marthe’s eventual relationship with Red Fish’s gang (and Luen-Luen), but also reveals a variety of interesting narrative twists and turns concerning Red Fish and Hong Kong.

The performances in this piece are great, and Yang really seemed to get a lot out of his actors. A lot of critics complained that the acting from the foreign thesps were inferior, but their performances weren’t bad at all, and added a diverse and invigorating “global” flavor to an otherwise “Asian”/Taiwanese film. There is a great quote at the end made by the actor who plays Marcus, where he reflects on how Taiwan will be the height of “western civilization”, a political and philosophical reflection on Yang’s part. Also, Nien-Jen Wu (he played NJ, the lead, in Yang’s Yi-Yi) has a nice turn as a ruthless Taiwanese gangster/hit-man – you really begin to see the breadth of Nien-Jen’s skill as an actor: he’s really talented.

In addition, Ke Yulun (who made a guest appearance in Yi-Yi as the military-uniform-clad “Soldier” who Lily cheats on) puts out a great performance as a tortured interpretor, drawn by love to Marthe. Tang Congsheng (he’s also in Yi-Yi, in a blue-shirt at the N.Y. Bagel Cafe) is also fantastic, and seems to be, in more ways that one, Yang’s vehicle in expressing rage against financial/capitalist-driven greed.

The final violent outbreak by Tang Congsheng’s character Red Fish is beautifully executed, and Yang could not use violence in a more perfect way. It is a great moment of cinema and is perhaps the most pure, honest, cathartic and emotionally-intense venting of range I have seen in any film of recent memory (or ever, for that matter).

Well, in addition, there are many nice city shots of the bustling urban Taipei, excellent humour (the part where Angela’s trio of women, wanting to “share” Hong Kong and paralleling Hong Kong’s gang in wanting to share another, previous girl is hilarious), finely-executed suspense camera-work, and some crackling dialogue. The dialogue, as sharp and satirically-witty as it is, is perhaps what I most admire about the piece. It constructs the film with a structure that is at once a strong narrative-driven story and a scathingly brilliant satire. This work may be hard-to-find and a very, very rare piece (as most of Yang’s works are), but if you’re able to get your hands on it, you will not be disappointed. I hope it is able to live on as a classic piece in its own right, because it is definitely one of the major works of Yang’s oeuvre.

Ma.jiang.1996.576p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-KG.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2 h 0 min
Size: 	4.46 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x552 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	4 616 kb/s
BPP: 	0.341
Audio
#1:  	Multiple languages 5.1ch AC-3 @ 640 kb/s (Criterion Collection USA Blu-ray (2025))

https://nitro.download/view/1CEE86B512ABE14/Ma.jiang.1996.576p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-KG.mkv

Language(s):Mandarin, Min Nan, English
Subtitles:English

The post Edward Yang – Mahjong aka Couples (1996) first appeared on Cinema of the World.