Live-Action Anime: Crying Freeman

A Film brought to you by Canada, France, China and Japan!  This is Crying Freeman, the 1995 Live-Action Version that is.  It is the tale of an assassin who falls in love and battles against his Masters.  He's forced to do the job, you see, and his body shows his regret in a simple way- crying.  Just don't act like he doesn't fit your macho ideal of what a man is or else he's chop your head off!  The Production aspects of the Film are almost more interesting than the core concept here- sorry, core concept.  It is based on an Anime and Manga from Japan.  The Production was split between Japan and Canada.  It has Chinese Producers.  It has Brian Yuzna as a Producer.  It is Directed by Christophe Gans, who is decidedly not Chinese or Japanese.  It's Lead- Mark Dacascos- has a mix of Chinese, Spanish, Filipino and Japanese blood.  It features Japanese Actors, Chinese Actors, French Actors and American Actors.  It's an interesting gumbo of a production.  Is the actual Film still interesting?  To see how good this Film that we in America were never given (for some reason), read on...

The Film begins properly with some pretentious narration (re-dubbed, since the Actress wasn't deemed 'sensual enough' apparently) about how our Female Lead met an Assassin.

She does so in Canada (although they say it is San Francisco), seeing him as he kills some Japanese men in the Woods- as you do.

He doesn't kill her, choosing to leave instead.

The father of the main person killed (Mako!) works with the Canadian Government to find the woman, since she's a witness and a 'target.'

So yeah, he's obviously evil.

The Freeman- Dacascos- shows up and kills him, but our Lead recognizes him during his escape, drawing attention to her.

The Lead Detective (Tcheky Karyo) is working with the bad guys, but that's not his biggest crime...

For some reason, all of his dialog was re-dubbed in Post-Production by Ron Perlman!  Why cast the French guy if you don't want him to sound French?!?

The Assassin and the woman fall in love & he eventually reveals his backstory.  He was a Potter who was kidnapped, tattooed and forced to become an assassin for a Chinese Triad group.

For the Third Act, everything moves over to Japan and behind closed doors scheming goes on.

The mission goes on for Freeman as he takes out more villains, losing his Handler in the process.

It all leads to a big sword fight in the Woods.  Freeman and his lady cover their tracks until their further adventures in...oh right, this didn't become a Trilogy.  Never mind.  The End.

Some bloody action and style, but not a whole lot of substance.  The Story is simple and effective.  The Action is quite good.  Before Tom Cruise got all the attention for it, people like Dacascos were doing all of their own Stunts too.  The Film has a very good look to it.  If you've seen a Christophe Gans Film- like Brotherhood of the Wolf-, you'll know that he can shoot Action well.   If you want to see a Film with great Action, this is one for you.  The Story, unfortunately, doesn't play out nearly as well as the Action Scenes do.  Dacascos is not *that* charismatic in this Role and his minimal dialog doesn't help him that much.  The whole thing is all sorts of weird- the Triad kidnaps and creates Assassins rather than just training them- and is right out of Anime (which it is).  It's not the most engaging Story, simply getting the people from Point A to Point B.  The Film is rare for Americans to see- for no clear reason- so it does have that going for it.  All in all, Crying Freeman is a good Action Film, but will not be mistaken for a great Drama.  Here's one last international quirk for you: the Film features a handful of bits with the Chinese Actors speaking in their native tongue...and only gives you French subtitles!

Next time, more craziness from the random set of Films I need to watch.  You'll know when I know.  Stay tuned...