Eliminates the one virtue American action films can legitimately claim -- vitality -- and replaces it with fake- existential claptrap wrapped in an inept narrative.
– Mick LaSalle,
San Francisco Chronicle,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
Kitano's haunting elegy to the gangster way of life.
– Stephen Holden,
New York Times,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
It shows how violent gangster movies need not be filled with stupid dialogue, nonstop action and gratuitous gore.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
Gross and trite as the material is, Kitano shows again that he is an ingenious, purposeful filmmaker.