Japanese Crime Pic, SHIELD OF STRAW Gets The English-Language Remake Treatment

There is not a lot of love lost for director Miike Takashi’s 2013 thriller, Shield Of Straw, based on author Kiuchi Kazuhiro’s 2004 Kodansha crime novel of the same name. Osawa Takao and Matsushima Nanako led the cast with actor Fujiwara Tatsuya central to the film’s premise about a team of Fukuoka detectives who come under fire from swarms of vigilantes when a vengeful billionaire puts a meaty contract out on a Tokyo-bound convoy transporting a murder suspect. Made long prior to Miike’s own professed promise of a return to formula with this year’s Yakuza Apocalypse, Shield Of Straw was nearly panned by critics and fell to a mixture of cheers and louder jeers upon its Cannes premiere. Needless to say, there’s always going to be some form of controversy when audiences bare certain expectations from directors, and though it’s been two years since then, none of this appears to […]

More