Mottomo Kiken na Yuugi / The Most Dangerous Game (1978) - The First Tale of a Brutal Anti-Hero Who Takes No Prisoners - 7/10 (20/02/24)

Mottomo kiken na yuugi, internationally known as The Most Dangerous Game, is the first film in a trilogy about hitman Narumi Shouhei. This character is a rough anti-hero who is addicted to gambling, has debts of several million yen, is constantly drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes and often sleeps until the late afternoon. He gets hired by the chief executive officer of an important company that is starting to work on a national air defense project. One of the company's most important managers has been kidnapped and the chief executive officer believes that another company is responsible for the crime. Narumi Shouhei's task is to free the kidnapped manager and eliminate the leaders of the other company and their hired guns.

This movie might not sit well with contemporary conservative audiences. Narumi Shouhei is drunk half of the movie, smokes one cigarette after another, insults employers and villains alike, is only focused on monetary rewards and is particularly rough with his opponents as the body count rises rather drastically as the film progresses. In one scene, Narumi Shouhei tries to get the attention of a ruthless manager and decides to break into his apartment, interrogate and torture his girlfriend Sasaka Kyoko and then proceeds to rape her while the upset manager is listening on the phone. Interestingly enough, Sasaka Kyoko ends up feeling attached to the brutal rapist as she takes care of him and worries about his fate. Such script elements ask for much tolerance, suspension of disbelief and open-mindedness to put it mildly.

Another significant element that needs to be pointed out is the lighting technique used throughout the film. If you prefer a realistic movie, then you will have several shaky scenes filmed with handheld cameras as you won't see what's exactly going on in some scenes portraying nightly infiltrations and chaotic fighting sequences. If you are looking for an artistically appealing movie with calm and clear shots, that element will significantly decrease your enjoyment of that feature.

One must confess that the rude anti-hero stands out with his pitiless behaviour and won't leave any viewer neutral or bored. There is even a certain dark humour to some of his gestures that blends in refreshingly in an otherwise brutal film. Other positive elements include the short, precise and cool dialogues, the intriguing settings including an abandoned asylum and the brutal extended fighting scenes that still keep viewers on the edges of their seats in this day and age. Let's not forget about the moody jazz soundtrack that blends in surprisingly well, even for audiences who usually don't care about jazz music at all like myself.

At the end of the day, Mottomo kiken na yuugi or The Most Dangerous Game is certainly a product of its time that might not have aged very well for more conservative audiences but might appeal to cineasts intrigued by Japanese gangster movies of the seventies. On the movie's strong side, you will get a charismatic anti-hero, a healthy dose of black humour, cool dialogues, atmospheric locations, bloody fight scenes and a jazzy soundtrack. On the negative side, some scenes are extremely tough to digest, the shaky camera work might induce headaches and the lighting technique used throughout the film is below average to be generous. I have recently been watching this film with a good friend and we have both been greatly entertained but we also think that the other two entries in the trilogy offer an overall more elevated quality.