Assi is story-wise probably the best film Anubhav Sinha has made thus far because, as Baradwaj Rangan in his review says, he constantly subverts our expectations about what the film is about. When we think it will be a grandstanding courtroom drama where a woman lawyer snatches justice from a biased system for her assaulted client, it goes in another, more interesting direction. It looks at the vicious spiral of violence and retaliatory violence, and how in celebrating an act of vigilante justice, the original victim is no longer a factor.
Of course, Anubhav the storyteller is often tripped over by Anubhav the writer of clunky portentous dialog and his need to virtue signal. To no fault of these terrific actors, Mohd Zeeshan Ayub's sensitive husband and Taapsee Pannu's firebrand lawyer are less credible people than idealizations of the script. Where the film is saved is in the introduction of Kumud Mishra's character - I won't spoil it with any further description, but in both the writing and Mishra's committed performance (including an amazing body transformation that makes you see the actor in a different light), a new dimension is added to what could have been a cliched Pink 2 kind of story. Sinha as director also breaks the fourth wall with periodic reminders that a rape crime takes place at least every 20 min in this country (Adding up to the title's eighty in a day, and that's counting only the reported ones).
All things considered, Assi's core is IMO strong enough to make an impact - the climax is beautifully written in terms of how it again restores focus on the person who was originally violated, and only by systemically addressing the 'might is right' thinking which governs our social conflicts - be they gender, religion or caste based - can we truly aspire to be civilized.
Cruel Gun Story (CGS) was a pretty good heist caper in the veteran Nikkatsu Studio's crime filmography. Joe Shishido (he of puffed cheeks fame from Branded to Kill) heads the gang meant to carry out the heist. But Joe is not calling all the shots - a big fish gangster is bankrolling the caper and has assigned a motley of crew-mates to Joe, who may not all be trustworthy.
As South East Asian film expert Tony Rayns says in his video essay included on the blu-ray from Radiance Films, CGS shares a kinship with Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, in which also a gang plots to steal the receipts of a horse racing derby. In other film references, there is a chase through sewers a la Carol Reed's The Third Man.
As can be expected, the heist does not go as planned. The gang face unexpected stumbling blocks - including a guard that refuses to leave the bulletproof money van, and there are double and triple crosses galore. CGS is based on a story by Haruhiko Oyabu, who also wrote the sources behind several Seijun Suzuki movies. The overall mix is delirious, and while there are logical fallacies and contrivances of melodrama, it does not prevent the film from being entertaining.
Shishido as the tough-talking leader holds our attention (and his cheeks don't look as ridiculous as they did in Branded to Kill). I noticed that the environment around the characters had predominantly English signage; Rayns explains that the film is set in and around an American military base (Shishido's contact even obtains a sniper-scope rifle from a GI) and is indicative of the corruption culture prevalent in the period.
A few words on the Radiance blu-ray:
Video quality is solid but not spectacular. The master appears dated, with middling detail and limited contrast / grayscale; it might be the same that was sourced for The Criterion Collection's DVD release as part of their Eclipse box-set on Nikkatsu Noir). Initially, the audio seemed to have some distortion, but that feeling went away afterwards, and the brassy score punches hard. Extras include two video essays (one being the aforementioned Tony Rayns piece and one by Jackie Scanlon on the Nikkatsu Noir period), a commentary by expert Jasper Sharp and a short interview with an older Joe Shishido who looks a lot more handsome after having removed the cheek implants.
Dominik Graf's 1988 thriller The Cat begins with the visual of a man and woman having sex to the strains of Good Times by The Animals, then craftily segues to a couple of blokes in a car singing along with the radio. All these people will play a part in a planned heist. The woman is unhappily married to the bank manager and a willing accomplice in the plan. The two blokes are henchmen that will carry out a robbery and later hold the manager and employees hostage for a hefty ransom. The man - played by German star Gotz George - is the cold-blooded brains behind the operation.
What follows is a multi-layered scheme in which the man arranges for the henchmen to ask for the ransom to be carried by the manager's wife (Gudrun Landgrebe). From his hotel room window opposite the bank and access to police radio communications the man can clearly predict the police operations and accordingly issue counter instructions. Later in a thrilling interlude, he himself navigates fire escapes and narrow ledges, and even slinks under trucks to sabotage them (Gotz reportedly performed his own stunts). But his mistress complicates his scheme by demanding that he kill her husband in return for her cooperation.
As can be gleaned from the above summary, The Cat is a tense noir thriller, and brilliantly done at that. Because of the gray shades in all of the characters, the film is able to constantly play with audience sympathies. The calculative intensity of Gotz's character, the frustration that builds among the henchmen when events start to overwhelm, the tactical games with the police, these make for a boiling mix. This visual texture of the film reflects this element - it unfolds over the course of a sunny, humid day and the characters are frequently bathed in sweat. There is constant cross-cutting between the events inside the bank, Gotz's hotel suite and the police control room; the overall effect is of a constantly tightening grip.
I had not previously heard of the film, and was able to experience it thanks to Radiance Films' excellent blu-ray. A few words about it:
The high-definition transfer beautifully represents the evocative cinematography (Martin Schafer, who did camera duties for Wim Wenders on his Road Trilogy, Paris, Texas and The American Friend). The stereo track comes across strongly in the action scenes and in the soundtrack. There are a number of meaty extras, including a lengthy conversation with Graf (in which he details his early career, the Robert Aldrich influence, how this project began, the contributions of star Gotz George etc) and shorter ones with writer Christopher Fromm and producer Georg Feil. There is also the usual limited edition booklet.
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