Toshio Taniguchi

In his second feature film, Takeshi Kitano dives further into Japan’s underworld by way of a baseball player turned patsy in this carefully plotted road trip lined with vengeance. Boiling Point deepens Kitano’s analysis of male violence…while also featuring one of cinema’s greatest karaoke scenes.

After the long (26 film!) road of the Zatoichi series, which was later remade by Takeshi Kitano, it finally ended with this concluding entry directed by the blind swordsman himself: Shintarô Katsu. The dark shadows of regret, retribution, and redemption are cast over this tale of endings.