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百万円と苦虫女 (Hyakuman-en to nigamushi onna) or also known as One million yen and the nigamushi woman was released in 2008 in Japan. If you want to convert Yen to USD, the easiest conversion would be to assume 100 Yen to 1 USD. In other words, the title of this movie would be "Ten thousand USD and the nigamushi woman".
Why 1 million yen? You have to watch the movie to know, but it is of nothing special. This is a well done movie with nice scenery (including beach and rural mountain in Japan).
This is a story about a young lady who tries to escape her life by continuing to move on the road to new places where she is virtually unknown to the local people. If you have knowledge about the Japanese society, you will realize that criminal is stigmatized by the society. Even the family of the criminal bears the same responsibility. Neighbors will talk behind your back, avoid having any relationship with you, and even gang up and bully you.
The moral of the story is that you should not be coward and avoiding life. You should bravely face the consequences of your actions, and live life meaningfully.
I hope you will enjoy the movie!
IMDB link
Screenshots:
I recently watched the movie Shinjuku Incident (San Suk Si Gin) [imdb, wikipedia] casted by Jackie Chan. If you have never heard of this movie, you'll be surprise that this is not his usual action/kung fu movie. In fact, he did not show any of his superhuman fighting skills at all! However, I must say that I did enjoy the movie.
The plot as explained in wikipedia:
"In the early 1990s, a tractor mechanic from a northen countryside in China nicknamed Steelhead, portrayed by Jackie Chan, enters Japan illegally in search of his girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). Steelhead and his friend, Jie (Daniel Wu) meet in the busy Shinjuku district of Tokyo and take manual labor jobs to earn money. When Steelhead finds out that Xiu Xiu has married a Japanese yakuza leader named Mr. Eguchi (Masaya Kato), he decides to remain in Japan. When Eguchi was targeted to be murdered, Steelhead saves his life. To consolidate power, Eguchi forms an alliance with Steelhead to carry out his revenge. Soon, Steelhead has become embroiled so deeply in the ways of the yakuza that there is no turning back."
It showed the dark side of the Chinese illegal immigrants in Japan during the 90s. You are probably going to be disgusted by the actions portrayed in the movies (illegal acts). There is no doubt that some, if not all did happen back in those days. But I personally believe that the same apply to not just the Chinese illegal immigrants in Japan, but generally to any illegal immigrants throughout the world. They got to do what they have to do in order to survive in the harsh new environment.
The theme of the movie is that power corrupts. When you are powerless, everyone will stick together to support each other. When you are in power, it is often the survival of the strongest. Backstabbing among friends happen due to greed; be it power, money, women.
There is one ancient Chinese saying which loosely translate to mean "together we stand, separate we fall".
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This might be a spoiler, but here is some background information about the location etc
Yakuza- Japanese gangster, equivalent to triads of Hong Kong, or mafia.
Kabuki-cho, Tokyo- (歌舞伎町) Entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Hence the title of the film Shinjuku Incident. Kabukichō is the location of many hostess bars, host bars, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the "Sleepless Town" (眠らない街). The district's name comes from late-1940s plans to build a kabuki theater: although the theater was never built, the name stuck. (Spoiler: You can find many East European women (ex-Soviet states) working there as hostess. Hence you will see that Jackie Chan and Daneil Wu had xxx with blonde girls in one scene.)
Pachinko- Pachinko (パチンコ) is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and prizes. It is a cross between a pinball machine and a video slot machine. It is the machine where you earn silver balls as you win and exchange them for prizes. Pachinko parlor is very common in Japan!
Chinese gangster- Even though typical Westerners (American/European) might consider Chinese people as one single entity, it is wrong! In this movie, you can see that Jackie Chan's hangout buddies are called Hong-Kong-chai (香港仔-Hong Kong "Kids"). Daniel Wu's bad luck with the Pachinko's parlor boss is from southern part of Taiwan. Hence they are known as Tainan-bang (台南帮-South Taiwan Gang). As for those from China, they also have separate groups for people from different parts of China. Example: Shanghai group is known as (小白脸 - xiao bai lian, little white face) probably due to their fair complexion. Another group from China's Fujian province (福建) and Vietnamese.
Chestnut (Japanese: クリの実-kurinomi, Chinese: 栗子-li zi) - The food sold by Daniel Wu in the movie.
================================== IMDB link Screenshots:
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I hope you will enjoy the movie!
