or "
Waga jinsei saiaku no toki."
Maiku Hama is a tough and gritty
P.I. in
Yokohama,
Japan. He comes to the aid of a
Taiwanese waiter in a
mah-jong parlour, only to find himself embroiled in a multi-ethnic gang war.
Hilarity ensues.
"The Most Terrible Time in My Life" is a
valentine to
noir that hits like a fist. Equal parts parody and sincere paean, the homages come fast and furious from
Rififi to
Tokyo Drifter, strung together with bits of humor and unnecessarily dark nighttime shots. Did I mention it was in
black and white?
Masatoshi Nagase ("
Mystery Train") stars as the
Spillane-esque (
Mike Hammer,
natch)
two-fisted dick
Hama putting his kid sister through college, only to lose his finger while defending a waiter. Said waiter is one of two brothers who are caught in a murderous triangle of
Hong Kong, Taiwanese and naturalized
Japanese gangsters (the latter calling themselves the "
New Japs"), who Hama starts tracking much to the chagrin of everyone else involved.
Along the way, Mike gets beaten up by the detective on the force covering the case, his detective mentor, and gets his finger lopped off and his leg shot by the waiter. It really is the most terrible time in his life.
References abound, from the mountain lane shot of
Du Rififi chez les Hommes, to a trainyard chase that I believe is from
Hitchcock's
Sabotuer, along with nods to
Breathless,
John Woo's
The Killers,
The Getaway, and a slew of Hong Kong detective flicks.
If you liked "
Pulp Fiction", you'll enjoy the mashup of "The Most Terrible Time of My Life."