Ley Lines | |
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Directed by | Takashi Miike |
Produced by | Toshiki Kimura |
Screenplay by | Ichiro Ryu |
Starring | |
Music by | Koji Endo |
Cinematography | Naosuke Imaizumi |
Edited by | Yasushi Shimamura |
Production
companies |
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Distributed by | Daiei |
Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Ley Lines (Nihon kuroshakai) is a 1999 Japanese film directed by Takashi Miike, and is the third film in his 'Triad Society' trilogy (also known as the Black Society Trilogy), following 1995's Shinjuku Triad Society and 1997's Rainy Dog. The story follows a trio of Japanese youths of Chinese descent who escape their semi-rural upbringing and relocate to Shinjuku, Tokyo, where they befriend a troubled Shanghai prostitute and fall foul of a local crime syndicate. Like many of Miike's works, the film examines the underbelly of respectable Japanese society and the problems of assimilation faced by non-ethnically Japanese people in Japan.
Ley Lines was released in theatres in Japan on May 22, 1999 in Japan.
Sight & Sound found the film to be the "most accomplished" of Miike's Triad Society Trilogy, where "Miike's stylistic flamboyance is balanced by narrative coherence." The review negatively pointed out that "There are moments of sexual horror that play awkwardly for laughs and the immigrant experience isn't explored in great depth, but this is a highly compelling work."Grady Hendrix (The New York Sun), referred to the film as "The most technically accomplished of the Black Society Trilogy".