Crying Freeman (1995)

I expected more but it's not too shabby. As live action films come they are either amazing (lone wolf and cub), terrible (devilman) or goes unrecognised (Ichi the killer) but the crying freeman was neither. While I have not seen the animated version or read the manga for that matter I'm guessing that this swayed a lot from the basic story or was largely condensed. my reason for thinking this is because the story was so basic. A killer falls in love with a woman who sees his face and decides to let her live and the movie is about the consequences of his actions. What we get is your basic 90s action movie with lots of slow motion death sequences to make up runtime. It isn't particularly violent and in my opinion, it suffers because of this it almost feels like it was made for TV. That being sad it wasn't particularly bad for any reason but I can not fully recommend to anyone.

Yo Hinomura (Mark Dacascos) is Freeman, an assassin for the Chinese order The Sons of the Dragons, sent to Canada to deal with the Yakuza who are causing trouble in their homeland. When beautiful artist Emu (Julie Condra) witnesses Yo at work, she becomes his next target, but when the killer comes a-calling, intending to bump off his witness, he winds up falling in love with her instead.There's more than a little of the John Woo about Christophe Gans' live-action manga Crying Freeman: assassins and gangsters with a code of honour, an innocent woman caught in the middle of a bitter feud, lots of juicy bullet squibs, and more ballistic action and swordplay than you can shake a katana at. Of course, that in itself doesn't guarantee a good film, and Crying Freeman does suffer a little from an overly-ponderous tone, not helped by an excess of slow motion (another Woo trademark). There's also a disappointing lack of martial arts from its talented star Mark Dacascos.The good news is, however, that the positives outweighs the negatives: Dacascos puts in a fine central performance as the regretful killer who sheds a tear with every mission, the cinematography is great, the violence is satisfyingly brutal (and suitably balletic), and Gans balances the action and the romance confidently. The result is a stylish film that, while no classic, should still be well worth the time for most action fans.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Probably Mark Dacascos finest hour in this highly stylised adaptation of a classic manga character and graphic novel. This is where I first saw and heard of Dacascos and I really dug the guys talents, he was lean, athletic and he could do both Karate and Kung Fu styles, its just a shame that since this excellent film he went very much down hill with low budget action films.As for this adaptation its really very good considering its one of the first major comicbook films along side 'The Crow' which went for a serious adult approach just like the original source. To clear things up this is not a balls out action fest with killing and guns galore, its quite a thought provoking slow building story which does have some fantastic sequences but its not chock full of blazin' violence.A lot is based around both the Japanese and Chinese underworld which for anyone interested in the East and its customs, such as myself, is always a pleasure, plus it always seem to look really good on film too. There is some gun porn here of course alongside some samurai sword fighting, martial arts, neat explosions with a few stunts and the now over used slow motion death sequences but it all looks very lush and sharp. Remember this was 1995 and the mid 90's was the era of John Woo and his slick slow motion tomfoolery, so you know what to expect visually.Odd mix of folk for casting it must be said, due to some changes from the source material a few characters are now Western instead of Eastern and being directed/produced by both French and Canadian sources you have a real worldly blend of ideas going on, sort of. I think everyone knows to expect changes from the original source material though, something we just gotta live with I'm afraid.I myself had long forgotten about this film and I'm glad I checked it out again as its well worth your time if you enjoy martial arts of course. These days it will seem totally clichéd and completely old hat but lets not forget it was one of the first serious comicbook adaptations. The film was never released in the US at first, unsure if its available now, so maybe many have missed this cracking assassin flick? if so go check it out.8/10

I've read the manga and seen the anime. I've now seen the live action film and like the earlier versions of the story I was entertained but not overly so.The plot of the movie has a girl witnessing the assassin known as the Crying Freeman killing several targets. (He's so named because he sheds a tear for each person he kills). She flees the scene of the crimes, and then waits for him to find and kill her. He does find her, but he does not kill her. They end up together. This turn of events along with a power void at he top of yakuza brings about a series of bloody clashes.A workman like production, this is a good little thriller that's not particularly special. It plays in many ways like a supped up TV movie, having the feel of a production that was made with an eye on every market in the world. Its a movie that will entertain you but won't stay with you very long after you've seen it.Honestly this version of the story made the least impression of all on me and I had to sit and think a while to try to remember, if indeed I really saw this movie or not.Certainly not a bad movie, its more middle of the pack. Its the type of thing that will entertain you while its on but won't really hang around in your head for very long after you've finished watching it. If you run across it on TV its worth trying.To be honest the worst thing that I can say about it is even though the actor playing our hero has no presence its still an enjoyable time waster.