Crying Freeman (1996)

The bloody story of an assassin who silently weeps for his victims, Crying Freeman began as a 1986 manga by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami. In addition to this six-part OVA, the story has been filmed twice in live action. The leaders of the Chinese Mafia known as the 108 Dragons brainwash ceramicist Yoh Hinamura and transform him into the ultimate assassin. Virginal artist Emu Hino witnesses a killing by Yoh, but when he comes to murder her, she seduces him and wins his heart. Defying the syndicate, he refuses to give her up. Emu and Yoh subsequently become the bosses of the 108 Dragons. They run the organization--whose illegal activities are tactfully glossed over--on the principles of honor and absolute loyalty extolled in live-action Yakuza movies.

Like true love, the course of mob business seldom runs smoothly, and the body count for the entire series runs into the thousands. Hit men and women are dispatched with knives, throwing knives, swords, karate chops, pistols, machine guns, grenades, missiles, and electricity. As the plot grows more baroque, the animation grows more limited. After a certain point, the images of knives penetrating skulls, full-body tattoos, bare breasts, and awkwardly animated sexual encounters become monotonous, but Crying Freeman is definitely not for the squeamish or prudish. (Rated 17 and older, but more appropriate for 18 and older: graphic violence, violence against women, rape, torture, ethnic stereotypes, extensive nudity, explicit sexual situations) --Charles Solomon Amazon.com

when good beginings go wrong

Volume 1 of Crying Freeman had the absolute best begining of any Anime I've ever seen. I swore the employed a master mind to write the first half of thier first volume. Sadly the second half turns to crap quick with pointless turn of events.
I bought this second volume hoping it would return to the beauty in the begining of the first... Sadly I was very disappointed, its worse. Its like they hired the best story teller of all time to start the story, and after the first hour of script they gave it to a 13 year old boy in an institute to finish. There is pointless sex scenes, like a girl has to have sex with him so that the enemy can learn about him, then he has to have sex to get information, he gets a lot done in his pointless sex. I like how one moment he gets off a plane and for no reason with no explination he is running after the bad guys with this big chick with him, except... she is naked for some reason... I always jog naked through the dessert.... WTF?... This movie blew my mind... seriously it was degrated into a testosterone driven pornoish second rate action anime. They switch artist midway through this volume, and the new artist sucks (going broke maybe, needed someone cheeper?) the shading is horrible... really sad outcome... too bad I bought volume 3 at the same time, I may cry when that comes in the mail. July 10, 2008

Awesome...For me it's right up there with THE GUYVER

My first exposure to Anime was VAMPIRE HUNTER D and then I saw the live action Guyver with Mark Hamill and I thought it was great, then I discovered The Animated Guyver and was blown away (In a good way I mean, not in the way that where they shoot somebody in the head and brains fly all over the wall). Then i saw Crying Freeman in the VHS and thought "Hey, if I liked Vampire Hunter D and The Guyver I might as well check this out and was not disappointed. I love the whole flawed hero aspect as well as the fight scenes. A lot of people say it is important that in Hero sagas we need to see more of the Hero, I think "Less is more", if the hero is tragic they would be reclusive. That's what makes me feel for them. They are not going to pour their heart out to their friends and loved ones and no one wants to see someone p@#sing and moaning throughout the movie. You don't emathize with them, you want the villain to put them out of their misery so it doesn't want to make the audience commit Harry-Kari. This is why I "Hated" BATMAN BEGINS and loved Tim Burton's BATMAN. March 21, 2008

Nice

I remember seeing this years ago on VHS and loved the story. So I was very happy to get it on DVD.
If you like a good story and you are into Japanese Animation this is a very nice DVD.
January 9, 2008

Crying Freeman - - Live action film

I am a fan of the jap-animation of crying freeman and I have to say that the live action film did not disappoint me. the martial arts and gun fighting was awesome. It followed the animation and i thought the people playing the characters did a very good job - - especially Mark Dacascos who protrayed Yoh/Freeman. In case your wondering he played the bad guy in Cradle 2 the Grave with Jet Li - - and they have a really cool face off at the end of the movie.

I recommend Crying Freeman to people who are hardcore fans of the series. If you're just looking to see some kung fu - - and you will see it in this movie, but then you'd have to put up with the few in between slow parts as well - - for example, when Yoh does a flashback to explain how he became Crying Freeman.

I know that this film is not availbe in the U.S. but i think it's worth looking for. I tried to find it in video stores but couldn't. Therefore i turned to ebay to buy a copy. You can get a copy relatively cheap - - but make sure that it's in english audio and/or have english subtitles.

I hope this review was helpful and enjoy the movie!! March 27, 2007

Stylish, Fast and Furious... Christophe Gans's style !

I watched the feature film at a cinema twice and the action sequences had me stunned. The fight choreography is top notch with the slow motion shots. The opening title sequence is also artistically cool. What makes this movie stands out from the rest of the genre is Christophe Gans's (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) visually attractive directing during the fight scenes, which captures a comic style of story telling. The most evident of this is in the climax of the film, when the Freeman faces off dozens of his assailants single-handedly with a samurai.

The story involves a war between two rival Japanese Yakuzas. The Freeman,who is a hitman raised by one of the rival gangs, is assigned to wipe out the leader of the other gang. Problem arises when an innocent bystander- a beautiful woman- witnesses the killings. He does not kill her so the plot thickens... with a lot of samurai blood shed and flying bullets, wraps in stylish action !

Mark Dacascos has an athletic physique and is good looking. He can perform realistic fightings too. Having starred in such films as DOUBLE DRAGON, THE REDEMPTION, ONLY THE STRONG, and SABOTAGE, he has proved this to be one of his better efforts.


Unfortunately this movie is not available on dvd in the U.S. The theatrical release employs the DTS, DOLBY DIGITAL and SDDS mix and is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. I am really looking forward to adding this into my collection. This is one stylish action flick that allows repeated viewings. March 7, 2007

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