Many years ago, when I watched "The City That Never Sleeps", I felt that it was a very textured movie, whether it was from the plot, or the shape, role, performance, and even the heroine Yamamoto's future, there was a strong impact. Watching the whole film, even if the emotional entanglement of Liu Kenichi and Natsumi Sato runs through the whole process, it is difficult for you to see it as a love movie, the problem is that there is such a cruel love.
The City That Never Sleeps
Takeshi Kanejo in The City That Never Sleeps
Yamamoto Mirai in The City That Never Sleeps
The film focuses on Kabukicho, Tokyo, Japan, and tells the story of Kenichi Liu, who earns a living by buying and selling stolen goods in a region where the characteristics of the multicultural intertwining of Japan are least obvious, and strives to find a sense of belonging. Because as a mixed-race child of Taiwanese and Japanese, he was not accepted by the local Japanese society and gangs, but also excluded by The Taiwanese society and gangs, and had to maneuver between other forces such as the Shanghai Gang and the Beijing Gang.
In the process of surviving in the cracks, Liu Kenichi meets Natsumi Sato, played by Yamamoto Mirai, and the relationship between them is integrated into the complex background, which becomes more and more confusing. As things get complicated, everything gets out of control............
Stills from The City That Never Sleeps
In some particular cases, love, which was originally seen as an eternal thing, is at best a spice in life, and the question is, who makes you serious. Kabukicho is like a microcosm of a jungle society, the only proposition for all people is survival, and in the story constructed by anyone, the whole story is capitalized human nature, who is serious, who ends the curtain.
There is an unspeakable love for "The City That Never Sleeps", not only because of the story, characters and photography, but also because of the film's faithful restoration of the living conditions of specific people in specific environments. Every frame of the film is full of anxiety, uneasiness, intrigue, deception, and despair. Everyone wants Kenichi and Natsumi to settle down, and everyone clearly sees their naivety when they walk out of the theater.
At the end of the story, constantly tempting, dodging, catharsis, restraint, hiding......... Finally ushered in the tragic end, even if there is really love in this, it is only a pawn in the survival game, but also to achieve a tough disguise to put on armor, in the world of survival, the ability to love is an absolute weakness.
Seeing someone say that "The City That Never Sleeps" is Jin Chengwu's best love movie, I had the urge to write this text. In any case, "old" movies like "The City That Never Sleeps" are absolutely sincere and distinctive. The real, concrete, and unapproachable parts of the film are exactly what movies lack today.