Retro Film Review: Crying Freeman (1995)
Lately, one of the most visible trends in Hollywood could be seen in many high-profile projects based on popular comic books. Practice of adapting comic books into motion pictures is not exactly new and is not limited to Hollywood either. Japanese mangas were also adapted into films, some of them reaching cult status. One of such examples
is Crying Freeman, which was adapted twice. The latter version was directed in 1995 by Christophe Gans.
Protagonist of the film is Yo (played by Marc Dacascos), Japanese potter who works as top assassin for 108 Dragons, Chinese secret society. That society is at war with yakuzas and Yo is their prime weapon. One of his deadly actions in Vancouver is witnessed by Canadian artist Emu O'Hara (played by Julie Condra). Yakuzas are determined to track down their arch-enemy and in doing so they are using services of corrupt Detective Netah (played by Tcheky Karyo). Yo has fallen in love with Emu and uses his skills in order to protect her both from yakuzas and his own employers.
Although made for Western audience, Crying Freeman is not a Hollywood film. This allowed Christophe Gans, obviously a great admirer of manga and Far East culture in general, to remain as faithful to the original as possible. Although the film was shot in Canada, large sections of dialogue are in Japanese and Chinese. Gans employs directing style usually associated with John Woo, which results in brilliantly choreographed action scenes that at times seem surreal. The casting is also very good - Marc Dacascos, face most recognisable because of his presence in many low budget action films, displays equal amount of skill in acrobatics, martial arts and acting and manages to convincingly portray complex character. Some may argue that Dacascos (who would later collaborate with Gans in Brotherhood of the Wolf) played his best role here. His partner Julie Condra is not only good-looking (and having striking resemblance to her manga counterpart), but also manages to radiate credible romantic chemistry between character of Emu and Yo (Dacascos and Condra would later become couple in real life). Just like in Brotherhood of the Wolf, action and atmosphere manage to overcome flaws of the script (including rather unnecessary and distracting narration), making Crying Freeman into viewing experience that would satisfy even those viewers who care little about manga or exotic Japanese subjects.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on April 5th 2003)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9501-crying-freeman
Critic: AA